Evolutionary Lightsailing Missions for the 100-Year Starship
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
IBIS Journalofthe BritishInterplanetary Society V01.66No.7/8 JUTY/AUGUST2013 1:7, '' 'r,ff# Contents 100YEAR STARSHIP STUDY 2011: (0MMUNICATI0N 0t THEVl5l0N Sden(etidion andthe Big QuertionJ [r1ora 0'(eeffe InterstellarFlight,lmagination and Myth Creation ar an[ffedive Meansfor tndurinq Inspiration G.|1.Padov/ tr Interstellar(olonization and Multi'Generation Spa(erhips: Getting There ir HalftheFun ArlanAndfew55r. utilizingVideo Ga mes LukeBaize TheInterstellarVision: Prin(iDlesand Pradi(e PauA.G lster Compari5onof Histori( Exploration with (ontemporary 5pa(e Policy Suggettl a RetheorisationofSetting5 l.(okley,WRankln, PHe nrkh and l!4.lvldu iffe 100YEAR STARSHIP STUDY 2011: TIME DISTANCE S0tUTl0NS WarDField Me(hani(s 101 Harold"Sonny"White Projedl(aru5:A Review otthe Daedalu5Main Propullion system J.R.French tvolutionaryl-ightsailing Mi5rioni for the 100-YearStarship LouisFredman, Dafien Gafuerand Thomar Heinshe mer JBIS,t'o!.66. rp 252-259,2Al3 EVOLUTIONARY LIGHTSAILING MISSIONS FOR THE IOO-YEARSTARSHIP LOUIS FRIEDIIANI. DARREN GARBf,RIAND THONIASHIIINSHEIMf, R' 1.2660 Palo|1o St.,Pusa.letq, CA,9I107. US1. 2. NXTF-IC,800 S. PCH, Srte 3.247,Re.londa Bea.h, CA 90277,USA, 3. Calba gh & Hei sheinet ConsultingIn., 801Deep ta et Dfiw, Ro itis Hills Estute!,CA9t)274, USA Email: louis.friedman(.r,planclary.orgr lncremenlalmilc(ones towardsinterstellar flight can bc achie\ed in this century by building on first steps\Yith lighlsailing. the only kno$,ntcchnology lhat mighr somedaytakc us lo the slals.That this is norv possiblcis enabledby achielemcnlsof firsi solar sail ltighls. $e use ofmno{echnohgy lbr miniaturizationof spacecraft,adlanccs in information proccssingand the dccodnrgoforlr genones into transpoftablcfbnn. This paperquaniifies a seriesofrobolic stepsthrough and bcyond the $lar sy(em thal are practicaland would stnnulxtethe developmentofneu technologiesin guidance"navigalion. maierials. comnunicarion,sensors, information processing e1c. $hile exploringevef more dislant,exciting spaceobiccliles at distances inpractical tbr classicalrockerbased technologies. There robotic stepsmay bc consider€das precursoNto hunan interstellar llighr, bur they may alsobe considcredxs elolutionary stepsthatprovidcfor r dill-erenttuiure: One of!inurlhuman interstellaf l'lighrrhat Inay b]'passrhe idcasofthc past(bigrockets launchingheavy people) in favour ofthose ofrhe future nenvorking amongsirhe stars$ ith infomarion. and the physicaltransport ofdisital and biologicalgenomes K€rwords: Lishtsails. lnterstellarPrecursors. Solar sail 1. ARCHITECTURI FOR EVENTUAL IITERSTELLAR FLICHT The lision of intersteLlarflight is a crucial part of space pasl (big rockets launchinghcaly people) in favor ofthose of explora(ionand aerospacetechnology. Public l'ascinationand the flrture nenvorkingamongst the stan !r ith infbmalion, and linancialsupport. as wellas rhc parricipalionofthe space-faring the physicaltransporr ol digitr and biologicalgcnomes. technical and scientific teams xrc, in a large parl, motilated by the big questionsof thc cxlent md nature of life in thc lhe robotic srepsprovide interestingmisstun achievements universe.l-orallofhuman hislorr tlis hasbeenatheorcrical or thai can susrainpublic interestas well as lcchnical milestones phiiosophicalctuestbn. bul no$ \,r'ithdiscoveries in our solar that slstaiD thc lision of interstellarflighL. They slso prov'dc systemand ofplanc$ in olh€r soiar systemsit rs a qucstronol spccific itnd nrore immediatelechnological benetits that scnc scienlific expkrfationand discovery spacc programs.Public engagemcnlwill also be enablcd bl relining the vision of intersrellarfligh1 with the advanccsrn Incrcmcntal milesronesto\rards interstellar fiighr can be kclrnology and the achievements()1 fligh1 further in distance a.hicvcd tu fiis centuryby building on ihe first slepswith the and time inlo the unknown. only known technologyihatnight somedaytakc us lo fte stars lightsailing,a solar sajl that usesphotons as proplrlsion.Thai 2. FIRST SI'EPS ON TIIE PATH lbrs is no$ possible is enabledby achievcncnls of first solar sail flights, the use of nano tcchnology ibr miniaturiTation Lightsailing projects.shown in Figs. l-5 havebecn undedaken of spacecraft,advances in inlbrmation processiDgand the by NASA. Japan and The Pla etary Society. The lirst solar decodingofour genomcsinlo lransportablefbrm. sail fiight $,as succcsstully achieved by Japan's ll:AROS (lnterllanetaryKile-cratiAccelerated by RadjalionOf the Sun) This p.ipcr quanlinesa seriesofrobotic stepsthrough and spacecraft(Fig. l). Ii $as launchedMay 20,2010 and flcw beyond thc sohr sls|em that are practicaLand will slimulate succcssfullylo*ards Venus.hitchnrg a ride on the Japancse the delcbpmcnr ofnew technologiesin guidancc.navigaion, Vcnus mission,Akatsuki lll. A phob. taken from a deployed m:rrerirl..J''n nunr(:rrrun.\e r50rr.Inrbrr,dr:nn | '\ L.-ilp erL. camerain spaceof ll:-AROS with i|s deployed sail is shown while €xpkr ng ever-moredislant. exciting spaccobjeclives at nrFis. 2. distanccsinpractical for classicalrocket btscd lechnologies. Thcrc robolic steps may be considered as precunors 1o NASA launched its NanosailD spacecraftpiggy btcking human intelstellar flight, but they ma) also be consideredas on the FASTSAT spacecruli in No\'.2010. After dcla),s and clolulionary stepsthat provide inr a dilicrent lxture one of uncertaintyabout its sepafarion.ilhas noN beenconllnned drat liltual humaninterstellarllighr that nray blpass the ideasofthe NanosailD (rig. 3) did scparatetiom rAS ISAT and deployed its sail [2]. h did not lly 3s a solar sail. buL in the Earth s properlies sail. Thispaper was preseltcd at thc I 00Ycar stdshipr\1 Stld,v S,lmposnrn. atmospheretesting drag ofthe 30 SelleDbcr 2 October2011. Orlando. Ilorida. USA. lt wa\ prcse ed h tic TimeDisLance Sohnons lechdcaltrack. The Planetary Societys Cosmos I solxr sail spacecfaft 252 EralutiondrtLithxdiling lllistiohs tk nA YEARSta hip Ia, t1 = lig.3 NASA lianosail-D. (NAS,\) .I IKAROS. @ Fie.4 r'PS Lightsail@-lflight modclud sparcin srorige. 2 IK,{ROSphotographedin spaceby deploycdcamerd. i launchedon July 20.200,1,bur did not.each orbit $,hcn Russian Volna rocket first stage iailcd [3]. The Socidy 'elopeda nano-spacecrift.Lightsailt!1. basedon NAS ,S rosail but fuuy instrumcniedand controll.rble(Fjgs. .l and Ihe .oJ.1.crunqd. conrt r.r(oand DL.In .r,rd!e. a\r rrg rcondart launch opportuniryout ofrhe Earlh's atnrosphere ) a minrnum altitudeof825 km [1]. ln the neantime NASA rated Sunjammer,a larg€r solar sail built by thc L'carde ?oration i1 is scheduledlbr a launch into inteelanetary cc in 2014. rig. 5 TPS t,ightsrilo,l nighl nodel sp&ecrsft during fhus. after years of paper studies.{e now can cany otrt rtsailing nissions |o acceleratespacccraft withoxt thc use )ropcllanr,and thus uke the first stepson ihe p3rh ro rhc sendthe lirsGcverdirected lilc liom Earlh on an interylanctary s. Thc deleLopmenrol technologi€salong ihe way witl ni*i.n $ rh J li\i,; InreplanLuD fl rhr e\perincnr ,,r vide nearte|m be efns to the aerospacecommuniq. The the Russran Phobos sanple return mission in 2011 [5]. omplishmentsof missnrn objecrives alons the way $itl Unfotunately thal mission fbiled bcfbre leaving Earth orbir. vide neartcm interest and engagemenrlbf the public Thc cxperinent canicd microbes.Fulurc travelersmight atso lainingthe goalsof long-lermspace explorarion and seeking be more inteliigentmicrobes oa as Craig Vcntnerand Freenan Lnderstandhumankind's place nr ihe universe. Dysrr have suggestcd.encoded ones ro rc create life at rbe destDarior planet and transmitinfonnadon back to us. Furure :uture interstcllarpayloads evcn 1ir human expkraiion robolic md human spacccnft migh! be 1 sram paytoadson r be genetic or cellular. The Plxnctary Society phnncd ro 1000x 1000nreter sails. Loui.t llried an, Ddrkn Gutb.tantlThoh^ H.tnsheinter 3. I,IGHTSAILING & NA\OSATS INTf, RSTELLAR FLICHT TECHNOLOGIES Thc single disdnguishi g characteristicrhat makcslighNailrng thc inlcrslellarflight technologyjs that it carriesno propellant. Unlike any other known technology lighisails will not have 1()cairy a large massthat will be consumcdh order to reach interstellarflight speeds.lnterstellar llight spcedis built from the continuousfbrce of light prcssurctranslening momentum to the spacecraft. The pressureffom liglrl derivesfron the energyofphontls. and thus a largc flca Ibr collecting photonsis a key spacecrall requirement.Since the monentum impaded to ihe spxcecrall is proporlional 1(] the area divided by mass. thc other ke-v spacccraftrequirernent is lo\\ mass. The accclcration01 the sclcml already developed solar sail spacccrali is sho\ln in Fig.6. We use the terin Lighrsailto dcnotc |he genenl ciass {{ld\ \ni r 0 ofsFcecrali \lhose propulsionis liom photon pressure;solar fig.6 Chr.icterisli. .cccloation (at IAU) in nicro-9. $iling is the case\,!hen the sourceofpholons js the Sun. True intelsrellarsajls will requirelascr lighl locusedoler inreNiellaf distancesfor lheir sourceofphotons. present.Technology devebpmcnr is discussedrn thc scchon alier next we first proposc mission milestonesto pace the Keepingthe sail weighlas smali as possible is enablcdby developmentof interstcllarllighl. ultra-thin films. Maxnniring the momentum exchangc lionr light prcssurc is achieved by making those films highLy 4. MISSION MILtrSTO\trS reflcctivc. Thus sails are manufactured by a rhin deposit of rlumiDulnor silver ions on a plasticsubstratc. Ir is notJust Lightsailing lclocides make missions ro rhe ouler planets. thc sail weight that nust