interplanetary travel
Between worlds journeying
Interplanetary travel is movement between planets within a solar system.
The term applies to both actual spacecraft missions—probes to Mars, flybys of Jupiter—and to the speculative or fictional journeys of science fiction: The novel imagined interplanetary travel as routine by 2150.
Distinguished from interstellar travel, which crosses the vastly greater distances between star systems.
- final frontierLast unexplored territory
- space raceContest for orbital superiority
- nuclear propulsionMovement powered by reactors
- rocket propulsionThrust from expelled gases
- orbital mechanicsScience of celestial motion
space habitats · escape velocity · life support systems · Mars colonization · space elevators · radiation shielding · cosmic radiation · terraforming · psychological resilience · Hohmann transfer · launch window · cryo sleep · spacecraft design · food sustainability · warp drives · delta-v · artificial gravity · exoplanets
- space explorationrockets, Saturn V, satellites, mission, Falcon Heavy
- MarsMars surface, Martian soil, Martian atmosphere, Olympus Mons, polar caps
- PanspermiaFrancis Crick, cosmic origins
- Solar Sailssolar sail, light sail, light pressure, square sail, reflectivity
interplanetary travelintergalactic travel
Movement between star systems
interstellar travel · ground transportation · overland journey · walking distance · domestic travel