C ommunication is key. That’s true on Earth and it’s true in space. But in space, you need to contend with a crucial fact of life. The speed of light is finite and distances between worlds are pretty big; between star systems, they are enormous. An analysis envisions what it would be like to communicate with a spacecraft traveling close to the speed of light. And it is certainly not good news. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

Researchers David Messerschmitt, Ian Morrison, Thomas Mozdzen, and Philip Lubin envision two scenarios with a spaceship traveling close to the speed of light. This vehicle doesn’t exist (yet) but nothing in physics denies that it might be possible to build. It’s a vehicle that never goes out of th

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