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The Adventures of the Rocketeer: Accelerated Motion Under the Influence of Expanding Space*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2013

Juliana Kwan ,
Geraint F. Lewis  and
J. Berian James
Juliana Kwan*
Affiliation:
Sydney Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics, A28, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006
Geraint F. Lewis
Affiliation:
Sydney Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics, A28, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006
J. Berian James
Affiliation:
Institute for Astronomy, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
*
DCorresponding author. Email: jkwan@physics.usyd.edu.au
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Abstract

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It is well known that interstellar travel is bounded by the finite speed of light, but on very large scales any rocketeer would also need to consider the influence of cosmological expansion on their journey. This paper examines accelerated journeys within the framework of Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker universes, illustrating how the duration of a fixed acceleration sharply divides exploration over interstellar and intergalactic distances. Furthermore, we show how the universal expansion increases the difficulty of intergalactic navigation, with small uncertainties in cosmological parameters resulting in significantly large deviations. This paper also shows that, contrary to simplistic ideas, the motion of any rocketeer is indistinguishable from Newtonian gravity if the acceleration is kept small.

Keywords

cosmology: theory
Type
Research Article
Information
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , 2010 , pp. 15 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 2010

Footnotes

*

Research undertaken as part of the Commonwealth Cosmology Initiative (CCI: www.thecci.org), an international collaboration supported by the Australian Research Council.

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