(Something a little different to amaze and amuse.)

We are familiar with the term the tyranny of distance. Although these days, it applies mainly to the long walk from the deplaning area to the customs and immigration counters and the queues awaiting.

In 1874, Jules Verne wrote a play, Eighty Days Around the Earth.

Today, a low earth orbit satellite (LEO) can achieve the same feat in 89 minutes.

Average speed attained by Jules Verne’s characters? 12 miles per hour.

Average speed attained by a LEO satellite? 16,786 miles per hour.

Increase in effective speed capability over the last hundred years? 1294 times.

Let us imagine that future discoveries will allow us to increase the technology at the same growth rate.

Therefore if we then multiply the current LEO orbiting speed by 1294 times (the next century) we arrive at 21,728,165 miles per hour, (6035 miles per second) which of course still doesn’t get us to light speed, but add another thirty years and voila; 186,000 miles per second.

Therefore in about 130 years time we are likely to be able to investigate some of the farther reaches of space and some of the following might become somewhat clearer and closer.

The Known Universe.