# Who has travelled the most overall distance **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 16, 2011, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-travelled-the-most-overall-distance/603142 "2011-11-16T17:39:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-travelled-the-most-overall-distance/603142/1 "2011-11-16T17:39:27Z")
…in their lifetime? Taxi drivers? Long-haul truckers? A commercial airline pilot/crew? They log hundreds of miles every single day for potentially many decades. Astronauts? Those who travelled to the moon got a half million miles in one shot. Valeri Polyakov was on Mir for almost 2 years (total, over 2 spans) and travelled about 300 million miles while orbiting the Earth. I probably answered my own question right there but is there anyone you think who could top that? ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-travelled-the-most-overall-distance/603142/2 "2011-11-16T18:09:16Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > … is there anyone you think who could top that? Not likely. An airline pilot might conceivably log 40,000 hours in a career. If we assume average speed is 500 mph, that would be 20 million miles - not a large fraction of what’s possible in space. If we consider a truck driver, the situation is worse: Assume a career of 50 years driving 2000 hours a year at an average of 60 mph - that adds up to just 6 million miles. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-travelled-the-most-overall-distance/603142/3 "2011-11-16T20:14:52Z")
The current record is Valeri Polyakov who traveled 300,765,000 km aboard the space station Mir. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_spaceflight\_records#Ten\_longest\_human\_space\_flights](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight_records#Ten_longest_human_space_flights) I think flight attendents have less restrictions on their flying hours than pilots. Here is a story about a flight attendent that has racked up 26 million miles. That is over 41 million kilometers and 63,000 hours. [http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/12/28/eveningnews/main7192655.shtml](http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/12/28/eveningnews/main7192655.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![hammos1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ba8739/32.png) [@hammos1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hammos1)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-travelled-the-most-overall-distance/603142/4 "2011-11-16T20:59:01Z")
Extending the definition of ‘travelled’… By comparing the Doppler shift of the cosmic background radiation in different directions we can determine that we and everyone else in the Milky Way are travelling through space at approximately 1.3 million miles per hour. The longest living human was Jeanne Calment who lived to 122 years and 164 days. During her lifetime, she must have travelled just short of 1.4 trillion miles. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-travelled-the-most-overall-distance/603142/5 "2011-11-16T21:13:40Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > I probably answered my own question right there but is there anyone you think who could top that? Who has travelled the most overall distance. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2011, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-travelled-the-most-overall-distance/603142/6 "2011-11-16T21:16:15Z")
> [@hammos1](#): > > Extending the definition of ‘travelled’… > > By comparing the Doppler shift of the cosmic background radiation in different directions we can determine that we and everyone else in the Milky Way are travelling through space at approximately 1.3 million miles per hour. > > The longest living human was Jeanne Calment who lived to 122 years and 164 days. During her lifetime, she must have travelled just short of 1.4 trillion miles. So, what you’re saying is: The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see Are moving at a million miles a day In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour, Of the galaxy we call the ‘Milky Way’. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2011, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-travelled-the-most-overall-distance/603142/7 "2011-11-17T00:41:44Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > Who has travelled the most overall distance. 😃 Yes, that was his question. ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2011, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-travelled-the-most-overall-distance/603142/8 "2011-11-17T04:00:39Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > Who has traveled the most overall distance. 😃 That would assume the OP restricted travel only to living people. Someone who’s remains are intact that lived thousands of years ago would have traveled much further than the oldest recorded human lifespan. 😃 Nevermind…:“lifetime” was a precondition. ---
**Author:** ![JustinC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justinc/32/8083_2.png) [@JustinC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JustinC)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2011, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-travelled-the-most-overall-distance/603142/9 "2011-11-17T16:13:14Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > The current record is Valeri Polyakov who traveled 300,765,000 km aboard the space station Mir. > > [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_spaceflight\_records#Ten\_longest\_human\_space\_flights](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight_records#Ten_longest_human_space_flights) \ The Wiki page you linked to (interesting read, there) also says “Sergei Krikalev has spent 803 days, 9 hours and 39 minutes, or 2.2 years in space over the span of six spaceflights on Soyuz, the Space Shuttle, Mir, and International Space Station.” but doesn’t say how far he’s traveled. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2011, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-travelled-the-most-overall-distance/603142/10 "2011-11-17T16:17:31Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > The current record is Valeri Polyakov who traveled 300,765,000 km aboard the space station Mir. Does it count as travel if you’re just going around in circles? ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2011, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-travelled-the-most-overall-distance/603142/11 "2011-11-17T16:29:10Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Does it count as travel if you’re just going around in circles? If it doesn’t , then we can’t count any commuting mileage either for flying or driving. For that matter, I had a friend that went to Indonesia over the Atlantic and came back over the Pacific. ---
**Author:** ![EKDS5k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c5a1d2/32.png) [@EKDS5k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EKDS5k)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2011, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-travelled-the-most-overall-distance/603142/12 "2011-11-18T03:38:20Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > The current record is Valeri Polyakov who traveled 300,765,000 km aboard the space station Mir. > > [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_spaceflight\_records#Ten\_longest\_human\_space\_flights](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight_records#Ten_longest_human_space_flights) But he was in orbit, right? That’s basically just falling and missing the ground. I think he should be disqualified. I think to be “traveling” you need to be in the process of going towards a destination, it can’t just be “movement relative to the Earth’s surface.” How far around the Earth did the moon move while the astronauts were on it? Does that count?