DIY time travel: Part 2

Ok, so in part 1 we established that even the easiest type of time travel - travel forwards in time - could only be made to happen in a tiny, tiny way using our current technology.

So, as one of my teachers used to say: If in doubt, cheat.

We need a big honking space warp. One that we could actually get to - and the Sun is the biggest, heaviest thing within the reach of our spacecraft, full stop.

Now, if you look at the Sun during an eclipse you can tell that the Sun's gravity warps space....



....and because of Einstien we know that, if space is warped, time is warped.

According to my shakily done time dilation equation (which I then checked against Wikipedia - so sue me) a clock sitting on the surface of the Sun will run about a minute slow compared to a clock on Earth - so after a year sitting in the space-time warp from the Sun's gravity you'd be a minute further into the future than Earth.

 

I mean you'd also be very, very, very dead from the incredible heat, but.....

Ok. That's the best we can do with the technology and natural resources within reach of our fastest space probes. And even then, the idea of sitting on the surface of the Sun for a year isn't gonna sell a lot of tickets for our trip one minute into the future.

So from here on out things are going to get kinda speculative. The word 'quantum' is probably going to occur. no cats will be trapped in boxes but black holes will definitely be involved.....

To be continued....