CRA PERSPECTIVE • SOLAR SYSTEM SCIENCE Travel Time Within Our Solar System How Long to Reach Each Planet From Earth? THE MOON • VENUS • MARS • JUPITER • SATURN • AND BEYOND An educational exploration of distances, speeds and travel times across our cosmic neighbourhood. Our Solar System — Closer Than the Stars, Farther Than You Think The nearest star system, Alpha Centauri, is 4.24 light-years away. But our own solar system is vastly closer — and yet still staggeringly large. The Moon is just 3 days away. Mars takes 7–9 months . Jupiter requires 2–3 years . And Neptune, the farthest planet, could take over a decade. This framework breaks down the journey to each major destination in our solar system — using current rocket technology. “The solar system is our backyard. But it is a very, very large backyard.” The Four Pillars of Solar System Travel 📏 DISTANCE From 384,400 km (Moon) to 4.5 billion km (Neptune). ...
CRA PERSPECTIVE • INTERSTELLAR SCIENCE Travel Time to Proxima Centauri b How Long to Reach the Nearest Exoplanet? 4.24 LIGHT-YEARS • 40 TRILLION KM • ONE DESTINATION An educational exploration of distance, speed, propulsion and the reality of interstellar travel. The Nearest Exoplanet Is Closer Than You Think — And Farther Than You Can Imagine Proxima Centauri b is the closest known exoplanet to Earth. It orbits a small red dwarf star in the Alpha Centauri system, just 4.24 light-years away. That sounds close in cosmic terms. But 4.24 light-years is roughly 40 trillion kilometres — a distance so vast that our fastest spacecraft would take thousands of years to cover it. This framework breaks down the journey by speed, from current technology to theoretical propulsion, and asks the central question: “How long would it actually take to get there?” The Four Pillars of Interstellar Travel 📏 DISTANCE 4.24 light-years ≈ ...