Special & General Relativity Questions and Answers
If there is so little friction in space, why can't we reach the speed of light with a big rocket?
Because this limitation is built-into space-time itself, which is a property of the gravitational field of the universe. Nature seems to be locked-in to this velocity limit, and there is nothing that we can do to the matter and energy within space-time that can exceed this limit. We can no more exceed the speed of light than we can alter any of the other constants in Nature.
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All answers are provided by Dr. Sten Odenwald (Raytheon STX) for the NASA Astronomy Cafe, part of the NASA Education and Public Outreach program.