Time Dilation
The fascinating thing about traveling at close to the speed of light is time dilation-the experiencing of time at a slower rate for those on board than for those remaining back on Earth.
For example let’s consider the ratio of Earth time to ship time if we travel at 99% light speed.
At that rate it has been estimated that each day on our ship would equal a year on Earth. So a trip to our closest star system, the Alpha Centaury, which is approx four light-years distant, would be experienced as merely four days on our ship but as four years back on Earth.
Of course this isn’t factoring in the acceleration and deceleration times that such a trip would require in order to gradually build up momentum. So the crew would not experience such a drastic time dilation effect uniformly throughout the voyage. Only as the acceleration increases would the time discrepancy become more severe and the time dilation or stretching on our ship become enormous.
In any case, lets say that in our trip to the Alpha Centari system our ship takes a day for accelerate and another to gradually decelerate. That still leaves us with two ship days of time dilation at 99% speed of light on our trip to the alpha centaury system. That means that while the crew experiences two days Earth experiences two years during that same period of time. Which is neat for the crew since it significantly reduces the severe psychological stress that long duration space travel entails.
A farther destination:
For farther destinations things get a bit more creepy. For example, if the destination is 365 light years distant, then at the rate of a ship day for each Earth a year, we would reach the place in one ship year. Unfortunately, that would amount to approx 365 years on Earth.
Upon arrival, perhaps a regular year might be spent exploring the region. But with an additional ship year added in the return trip, it would increase the total round trip to approx 730 Earth years. That is similar to a person from the year 1287, 205 years before Columbus traveled to the Americas, suddenly being transported to our present time of 2017 after traveling for two years..
Other Consequences:
Of course such a phenomenon would increase the human ability to reach distant places in the cosmos via the lifespan extension. People back on Earth would be born and would die over and over as we calmly would remain untouched. Traveling at 99% the speed of light and aging only a day for every earth yea would have us age only a year for the 365 years back on earth.
But it does have a certain rather bitter downside. It requires the crew to be willing to sacrifice all relationships and the hopes of returning to the familiar Earth they left behind since many a drastic unpleasant thing can happen politically and environmentally during 730 years.
One Religious Perspective:
One sci fi film, starring Charlton Heston had the Earth overrun with apes upon their return.
Of course believers in the biblical promises would never expect such an eventuality. What they would expect would be to find Earth transformed into a global paradise instead as Bible prophecies indicate.
No one moves anywhere near that speed nor could they. Why engage in wild speculation?
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