DOCSLIB.ORG

Of Lightsails, Ramjets, and Fusion Runways

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Of Lightsails, Ramjets, and Fusion Runways CHAPTER 6 OF LIGHTSAILS, RAMJETS, AND FUSION RUNWAYS Terminology is always treacherous-one field's jargon contra­ dicts another's unstated assumptions-but we must now make a distinction between solar sails and lightsails. The solar sail is pushed by photons from the Sun, while the lightsail is usually much larger and driven by man-made light, microwaves, or per­ haps some kind of particle beam. This distinction isn't exclusive, though, because even before we've launched the first free-flying solar sail, the mission planners for The Planetary Society's Cos­ mos 1 have plans to demonstrate both photon and microwave propulsion on the same sail. Nor is size an absolute criterion, for solar sails can be vast in their own right. The early solar sail designs NASA studied for the Halley's Comet rendezvous reached 64o,ooo square meters, fully a half-mile to the side. Better, then, to add these qualifiers: A lightsail is built in space and made of materials different from the plastic films being con­ sidered for near-term solar sail experiments. Not needing to be stowed for launch and later unfolded for use, lightsails can be built without the tough backing necessary to keep them from tearing on deployment, and can therefore be far lighter. "If you imagine a network of carbon-fiber strings, a spinning spiderweb kilometers across with gaps the size of football fields between the strands, you will be well on your way to imagining the structure of P. Gilster, Centauri Dreams 123 © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2004 CHAPTER 6 124 a lightsail," writes Eric Drexler, who has patented techniques for creating sails made of ultra-thin films. Drexler is a key figure in the development of nanotechnology and author of the seminal Engines of Creation. "Imagine the gaps bridged by reflecting panels built of aluminum foil thinner than a soap bubble, tied close together to make a vast, rippled mosaic of mirror. Now pic­ ture a load of cargo hanging from the web like a dangling para­ chutist, while centrifugal force holds the spinning, web-slung mirror taut and flat in the void." Thus one vision of a sail that could take us to the stars, a lightsail pushed by beams of energy. Although solar sails seem more at home in warmer, light-filled interplanetary environments, they can be adapted for interstellar purposes. In fact, physicists Gregory Matloff and Eugene Mallove explored interstellar missions for solar sails in a classic 1981 paper, later refining them in their book The Starflight Hand­ book. The two envisioned a sail that would approach the Sun for a gravity assist, with a close pass by the solar furnace using an asteroid as a heat shield. With the sail unfurled and hidden in the asteroid's shadow, the spacecraft and occulting asteroid would swing as close as 0.01 AU (930,000 miles) from the heart of the Sun, skimming a scant 430,000 miles over the solar surface. At the critical moment, the sail would emerge from behind the asteroid, unfurling as acceleration builds. In later studies, Matloff and Mallove would demonstrate solar sail designs that reach Alpha Centauri in approximately one thousand years. Depending on the sail materials developed by future technology and the velocity created by the solar pass, an automated mission might be possible whose transit time would be no more than several hundred years. Nor is the sail through when propulsion ends. Having achieved maximum acceleration, the starship could wrap the sail around its payload as a barrier to cosmic rays, perhaps deploying it again as a braking system upon arrival in the new planetary system. Matloff and Mallove's starship would experience huge accel­ erations, up to sixty times that of Earth's gravity (6o g) if fully unfurled at perihelion, the moment of closest approach to the Sun. That puts the burden on sail materials, one reason the two proposed using cables made of diamond to attach the payload to the sail. As for the sail itself, Eric Drexler has shown that a tech- OF LIGHTSAILS, RAMJETS, AND FUSION RUNWAYS 125 nique called vacuum deposition can be used to create sails far thinner than the Mylar films proposed for proof-of-concept mis­ sions like Cosmos 1. Using these methods, metallic foils only a few hundred atoms thick have been created. Matloff and Mallove propose that a boron sail, with melting point of 2,6oo degrees Kelvin, might be an ideal candidate for a mission this close to the Sun. An interstellar transit of several hundred years, or even a thou­ sand, would be an immense leap beyond what current technolo­ gies can achieve: the 4o,ooo years it will take Voyager 1 to drift within 1.6 light years of a star known as AC+79 3888 in the con­ stellation of Camelopardalis, or the 296,ooo years it will take Voy­ ager 2 to reach the neighborhood of Sirius. Yet the idea that we could reduce transit times even more continued to push interstel­ lar research through the latter half of the twentieth century. The breakthrough insight, moving well beyond currently available engineering but staying within the known laws of physics, was provided by Robert Forward in 1962. Working with the principle that the most feasible starship is the one that leaves its fuel behind, Forward began to think about pushing spacecraft with lasers. If the Sun couldn't continue to accelerate a sail much past the orbit ofJupiter, and if even the strongest gravity assist couldn't give you more than a few hundred kilometers per second, then finding a way to stream power directly to the spacecraft, pushing its sail with a high-intensity beam oflight, might be the solution. Forward had been working part time at the Hughes Aircraft Company, attending first UClA on a Hughes fellowship in pur­ suit of a masters degree in engineering, and then the University of Maryland to work on a PhD in physics. At UClA, he had begun compiling a bibliography on interstellar travel and com­ munication, corresponding with authors and offering his own tips about ways to improve their work. At Maryland in 1961, he had set up the Interstellar Research Foundation, circulating ideas among fifty fellow interstellar enthusiasts, and calling for propos­ als to achieve flight to another star that did not use rockets. While the response was tepid, Forward in the meantime had made his CHAPTER 6 126 own intellectual breakthrough, one drawing on the work of Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories, who had shown how to make a functional laser in 1960. In the unfinished autobiographical essay he wrote near the end of his life, Forward recalled reading about the laser in a Maryland newspaper and thinking he had just found a way to send people to the stars. "I knew a lot about solar sails," Forward wrote, "and how, if you shine sunlight on them, the sunlight will push on the sail and make it go faster. Normal sunlight spreads out with distance, so after the solar sail has reached Jupiter, the sunlight is too weak to push well anymore. But if you can turn the sunlight into laser light, the laser beam will not spread. You can send on the laser light, and ride the laser beam all the way to the stars!" His enthusiasm growing, Forward wrote the concept up as an internal memo sent to the laboratory director at Hughes in May 1961. His first public statement of the notion came in a 1962 arti­ cle in Missiles and Rockets called "Pluto, Gateway to the Stars" that was reprinted in Science Digest and Galaxy Science Fiction. The latter reprint is worth noting, given Forward's growing inter­ est in science fiction and the strong connection between it and his scientific work. In fact, the most significant scientific article he wrote on laser-driven lightsails came two years after his novel Rocheworld, in which he laid out the essential elements that would guide his later research. Rocheworld tells the story of man's first expedition to another star, in this case, Barnard's Star, which has been chosen because earlier unmanned probes indicated the presence of planets, including the bizarre Rocheworld, a twin planet system held in the most delicate of gravitational dances. The title is drawn from nineteenth-century French astronomer Edouard Roche, whose work with gravitational forces on moons and planets led to the "Roche limit," the closest distance a moon can approach its planet without being destroyed. Forward's novel is stuffed with concepts notable not only for their ingenuity but their strict adherence to the laws of physics. The starship of Rocheworld is driven by a sail fully 300 kilome­ ters (186 miles) in diameter, with a 3.5oo-ton payload supporting some twenty crewmembers. How the ship-and the laser array that propelled it from an orbital station near Mercury-came to be designed is itself an interesting tale. Following his 1962 article OF LIGHTSAILS, RAMJETS, AND FUSION RUNWAYS 127 (and in the aftermath of a subsequent examination of the laser­ driven sail concept by George Marx in Nature in 1966), Forward had been in correspondence with science fiction writers Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. He invited them to meet him at Hughes Research Laboratories for a chat about physics. By 1973, when he met with the two writers, Forward still had found no way to stop his laser-pushed lightsail. Any interstellar flight using it would of necessity be a flyby. Niven and Pournelle nonetheless took away from the meeting the germ of their novel The Mote in God's Eye.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Theory of Space Magnetic Sail Some Common Mistakes and Electrostatic Magsail
    1 Article MagSail after Cath for J 10 1 6 06 AIAA -2006 -8148 Theory of Space Magnetic Sail Some Common Mistakes and Electrostatic MagSail * Alexander Bolonkin C&R, 1310 Avenue R, #F -6, Brooklyn, NY 11229, USA T/F 718 -339 -4563, [email protected], http://Bolonki n.narod.ru Abstract The first reports on the “Space Magnetic Sail” concept appeared more 30 years ago. During the period since some hundreds of research and scientific works have been published, including hundreds of research report by professors at major famous universities. The author herein shows that all these works related to Space Magnetic Sail concept are technically incorrect because their authors did not take into consideration that solar wind impinging a MagSail magnetic field creates a particle m agnetic field opposed to the MagSail field. In the incorrect works, the particle magnetic field is hundreds times stronger than a MagSail magnetic field. That means all the laborious and costly computations in revealed in such technology discussions are us eless: the impractical findings on sail thrust (drag), time of flight within the Solar System and speed of interstellar trips are essentially worthless working data! The author reveals the correct equations for any estimated performance of a Magnetic Sail as well as a new type of Magnetic Sail (without a matter ring). Key words: magnetic sail, theory of MagSail, space magnetic sail, Electrostatic MagSail *Presented to 14th AIAA/AHI Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems and Technologies Conference , 6 - 9 Nov 2006 National Convention Centre, Canberra, Australia. Introduction The idea of utilizing the magnetic field to aggregate matter in space, harnessing a drag from solar wind or receiving a thrust from an Earth - charged particle beam is old.
    [Show full text]
  • 9.0 BACKGROUND “What Do I Do First?” You Need to Research a Card (Thruster Or 9.1 DESIGNER’S NOTES Robonaut) with a Low Fuel Consumption
    9.2 TIPS FOR INEXPERIENCED ROCKET CADETS 9.0 BACKGROUND “What do I do first?” You need to research a card (thruster or 9.1 DESIGNER’S NOTES robonaut) with a low fuel consumption. A “1” is great, a “4” The original concept for this game was a “Lords of the Sierra Madre” in is marginal. The PRC player*** can consider an dash to space. With mines, ranches, smelters, and rail lines all purchased and claim Hellas Basin on Mars, using just his crew card. He controlled by different players, who have to negotiate between them- needs 19 fuel steps (6 WT) along the red route to do this. selves to expand. But space does not work this way. “What does my rocket need?” Your rocket needs 4 things: Suppose you have a smelter on one main-belt asteroid, powered by a • A card with a thruster triangle (2.4D) to act as a thruster. • A card with an ISRU rating, if its mission is to prospect. beam-station on another asteroid, and you discover platinum on a third • A refinery, if its mission is to build a factory. nearby asteroid. Unfortunately for long-term operations, next year these • Enough fuel to get to the destination. asteroids will be separated by 2 to 6 AUs.* Furthermore, main belt Decide between a small rocket able to make multiple claims, Hohmann transfers are about 2 years long, with optimal transfer opportu- or a big rocket including a refinery and robonaut able to nities about 7 years apart. Jerry Pournelle in his book “A Step Farther industrialize the first successful claim.
    [Show full text]
  • Magnetoshell Aerocapture: Advances Toward Concept Feasibility
    Magnetoshell Aerocapture: Advances Toward Concept Feasibility Charles L. Kelly A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Aeronautics & Astronautics University of Washington 2018 Committee: Uri Shumlak, Chair Justin Little Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Aeronautics & Astronautics c Copyright 2018 Charles L. Kelly University of Washington Abstract Magnetoshell Aerocapture: Advances Toward Concept Feasibility Charles L. Kelly Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Uri Shumlak Aeronautics & Astronautics Magnetoshell Aerocapture (MAC) is a novel technology that proposes to use drag on a dipole plasma in planetary atmospheres as an orbit insertion technique. It aims to augment the benefits of traditional aerocapture by trapping particles over a much larger area than physical structures can reach. This enables aerocapture at higher altitudes, greatly reducing the heat load and dynamic pressure on spacecraft surfaces. The technology is in its early stages of development, and has yet to demonstrate feasibility in an orbit-representative envi- ronment. The lack of a proof-of-concept stems mainly from the unavailability of large-scale, high-velocity test facilities that can accurately simulate the aerocapture environment. In this thesis, several avenues are identified that can bring MAC closer to a successful demonstration of concept feasibility. A custom orbit code that dynamically couples magnetoshell physics with trajectory prop- agation is developed and benchmarked. The code is used to simulate MAC maneuvers for a 60 ton payload at Mars and a 1 ton payload at Neptune, both proposed NASA mis- sions that are not possible with modern flight-ready technology. In both simulations, MAC successfully completes the maneuver and is shown to produce low dynamic pressures and continuously-variable drag characteristics.
    [Show full text]
  • Deuterium – Tritium Pulse Propulsion with Hydrogen As Propellant and the Entire Space-Craft As a Gigavolt Capacitor for Ignition
    Deuterium – Tritium pulse propulsion with hydrogen as propellant and the entire space-craft as a gigavolt capacitor for ignition. By F. Winterberg University of Nevada, Reno Abstract A deuterium-tritium (DT) nuclear pulse propulsion concept for fast interplanetary transport is proposed utilizing almost all the energy for thrust and without the need for a large radiator: 1. By letting the thermonuclear micro-explosion take place in the center of a liquid hydrogen sphere with the radius of the sphere large enough to slow down and absorb the neutrons of the DT fusion reaction, heating the hydrogen to a fully ionized plasma at a temperature of ~ 105 K. 2. By using the entire spacecraft as a magnetically insulated gigavolt capacitor, igniting the DT micro-explosion with an intense GeV ion beam discharging the gigavolt capacitor, possible if the space craft has the topology of a torus. 1. Introduction The idea to use the 80% of the neutron energy released in the DT fusion reaction for nuclear micro-bomb rocket propulsion, by surrounding the micro-explosion with a thick layer of liquid hydrogen heated up to 105 K thereby becoming part of the exhaust, was first proposed by the author in 1971 [1]. Unlike the Orion pusher plate concept, the fire ball of the fully ionized hydrogen plasma can here be reflected by a magnetic mirror. The 80% of the energy released into 14MeV neutrons cannot be reflected by a magnetic mirror for thermonuclear micro-bomb propulsion. This was the reason why for the Project Daedalus interstellar probe study of the British Interplanetary Society [2], the neutron poor deuterium-helium 3 (DHe3) reaction was chosen.
    [Show full text]
  • Future Space Transportation Technology: Prospects and Priorities
    Future Space Transportation Technology: Prospects and Priorities David Harris Projects Integration Manager Matt Bille and Lisa Reed In-Space Propulsion Technology Projects Office Booz Allen Hamilton Marshall Space Flight Center 12 1 S. Tejon, Suite 900 MSFC, AL 35812 Colorado Springs, CO 80903 [email protected] [email protected] / [email protected] ABSTRACT. The Transportation Working Group (TWG) was chartered by the NASA Exploration Team (NEXT) to conceptualize, define, and advocate within NASA the space transportation architectures and technologies required to enable the human and robotic exploration and development of‘ space envisioned by the NEXT. In 2002, the NEXT tasked the TWG to assess exploration space transportation requirements versus current and prospective Earth-to-Orbit (ETO) and in-space transportation systems, technologies, and rcsearch, in order to identify investment gaps and recommend priorities. The result was a study nom’ being incorporatcd into future planning by the NASA Space Architect and supporting organizations. This papcr documents the process used to identify exploration space transportation investment gaps ;IS well as tlie group’s recommendations for closing these gaps and prioritizing areas of future investment for NASA work on advanced propulsion systems. Introduction investments needed to close gaps before the point of flight demonstration or test. The NASA Exploration Team (NEXT) was chartered to: Achieving robotic, and eventually, human presence beyond low Earth orbit (LEO) will Create and maintain a long-term require an agency-wide commitment of NASA strategic vision lor science-driven centers working together as “one NASA.” humanhobotic exploration Propulsion technology advancements are vital if NASA is to extend a human presence beyond the Conduct advanced concepts analym Earth’s neighhorhood.
    [Show full text]
  • Title Study on Propulsive Characteristics of Magnetic Sail And
    Study on Propulsive Characteristics of Magnetic Sail and Title Magneto Plasma Sail by Plasma Particle Simulations( Dissertation_全文 ) Author(s) Ashida, Yasumasa Citation 京都大学 Issue Date 2014-01-23 URL https://doi.org/10.14989/doctor.k17984 Right Type Thesis or Dissertation Textversion ETD Kyoto University Acknowledgment I would like to acknowledge many people supporting my doctorate study. My supervisor, Professor Hiroshi Yamakawa of Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere (RISH) of Kyoto University, supported my research throughout my master’s and doctor’s course. His valuable suggestions and advises indicated the guideline of my study, and especially, I learned the attitude toward researches. In addition, his work as the member of Strategic Headquarters for Space Policy has aroused my enthusiasm about the further evolution of the space exploration industry and a desire to contribute to it. I am deeply grateful for him. I am most grateful to Associate Professor Ikkoh Funaki of The Institute of Space and Astro- nautical Science (ISAS) of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for his advice. I am thankful for giving me a chance to start the study on the propulsion system making use of the solar wind. He had helped me since the beginning of my study. I would like to express my deep gratitude to him. I want to thank Associate Professor Hirotsugu Kojima of RISH/Kyoto University. He taught me various knowledge about plasma physics, the experimental studies and so on. I greatly appreciate Professor Tetsuji Matsuo of Kyoto University for our fruitful discussions and for reviewing this thesis. I also sincerely thank him for his many helpful comments and astute suggestions.
    [Show full text]
  • Interstellar Travel and the Fermi Paradox
    Interstellar Travel If aliens haven’t visited us, could we go to them? In this lecture we will have some fun speculating about future interstellar travel by humans. Please keep in mind that, as we discussed earlier, this cannot be considered a solution for the problems that we have on Earth, for the simple reason that the expense per person is utterly prohibitive and will remain so in any conceivable future scenario. Nonetheless, given enough time it could be that we have the capacity to move out into the galaxy. Incidentally, we will leave discussions of really far-out concepts such as wormholes to a future class. Interstellar distances The major barrier to interstellar travel is the staggering distance between stars. The closest one to the Sun is Proxima Centauri, which is 4.3 light years away but not a likely host to planets. There are, however, a few possibilities within roughly 10 light years, so that is a good target. How far is 10 light years? By definition it is how far light travels in 10 years, but let’s put this into a more familiar context. A moderately brisk walking pace is 5 km/hr, and since one light year is about 10 trillion kilometers, you would need about 20 trillion hours, or about 2.3 billion years, to walk that distance. The fastest cars sold commercially go about 400 km/hr, so you would need about three billion hours or a bit less than thirty million years. The speed of the Earth in its orbit, which is comparable to the speed of the fastest spacecraft we have constructed (all unmanned, of course), is about 30 km/s and even at that rate it would take about a hundred thousand years to travel ten light years.
    [Show full text]
  • Interstellar Travel Or Even 1.3 Mlbs at Launch
    Terraforming Mars: By Aliens? Astronomy 330 •! Sometime movies are full of errors. •! But what can you do? Music: Rocket Man– Elton John Online ICES Question •! ICES forms are available online, so far 39/100 Are you going to fill out an ICES form before the students have completed it. deadline? •! I appreciate you filling them out! •! Please make sure to leave written comments. I a)! Yes, I did it already. find these comments the most useful, and typically b)! Yes, sometime today that’s where I make the most changes to the c)! Yes, this weekend course. d)! Yes, I promise to do it before the deadline of May6th! e)! No, I am way too lazy to spend 5 mins to help you or future students out. Final Final •! In this classroom, Fri, May 7th, 0800-1100. •! A normal-sized sheet of paper with notes on both •! Will consist of sides is allowed. –! 15 question on Exam 1 material. •! Exam 1and 2 and last year’s final are posted on –! 15 question on Exam 2 material. class website (not Compass). –! 30 questions from new material (Lect 20+). –! +4 extra credit questions •! I will post a review sheet Friday. •! A total of 105 points, i.e. 5 points of extra credit. •! Final Exam grade is based on all three sections. •! If Section 1/2 grade is higher than Exam 1/2 grade, then it will replace your Exam 1/2 grade. Final Papers Outline •! Final papers due at BEGINNING of discussion •! Rockets: how to get the most bang for the buck.
    [Show full text]
  • Space Propulsion.Pdf
    Deep Space Propulsion K.F. Long Deep Space Propulsion A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight K.F. Long Bsc, Msc, CPhys Vice President (Europe), Icarus Interstellar Fellow British Interplanetary Society Berkshire, UK ISBN 978-1-4614-0606-8 e-ISBN 978-1-4614-0607-5 DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-0607-5 Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London Library of Congress Control Number: 2011937235 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) This book is dedicated to three people who have had the biggest influence on my life. My wife Gemma Long for your continued love and companionship; my mentor Jonathan Brooks for your guidance and wisdom; my hero Sir Arthur C. Clarke for your inspirational vision – for Rama, 2001, and the books you leave behind. Foreword We live in a time of troubles.
    [Show full text]
  • A New Vision for Fusion Energy Research: Fusion Rocket Engines for Planetary Defense Abstract We Argue That It Is Essential Fo
    LA-UR-15-23198 A New Vision for Fusion Energy Research: Fusion Rocket Engines for Planetary Defense G. A. Wurden1, T. E. Weber1, P. J. Turchi2, P. B. Parks3, T. E. Evans3, S. A. Cohen4, J. T. Cassibry5, E. M. Campbell6 1Los Alamos National Laboratory 2Santa Fe, NM 3General Atomics 4Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory 5University of Alabama, Huntsville 6Sandia National Laboratory Abstract We argue that it is essential for the fusion energy program to identify an imagination- capturing critical mission by developing a unique product which could command the marketplace. We lay out the logic that this product is a fusion rocket engine, to enable a rapid response capable of deflecting an incoming comet, to prevent its impact on the planet Earth, in defense of our population, infrastructure, and civilization. As a side benefit, deep space solar system exploration, with greater speed and orders-of-magnitude greater payload mass would also be possible. The US Department of Energy’s magnetic fusion research program, based in its Office of Science, focuses on plasma and fusion science1 to support the long term goal of environmentally friendly, socially acceptable, and economically viable electricity production from fusion reactors.2 For several decades the US magnetic fusion program has had to deal with a lack of urgency towards and inconsistent funding for this ambitious goal. In many American circles, fusion isn’t even at the table3 when it comes to discussing future energy production. Is there another, more urgent, unique, and even more important application for fusion? Fusion’s unique application As an on-board power source and thruster for fast propulsion in space,4 a fusion reactor would provide unparalleled performance (high specific impulse and high specific power) for a spacecraft.
    [Show full text]
  • 9Th Annual & Final Report 2006 2007
    NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts 9th Annual & 2006 Final Report 2007 Performance Period July 12, 2006 - August 31, 2007 NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts 75 5th Street NW, Suite 318 Atlanta, GA 30308 404-347-9633 www.niac.usra.edu USRA is a non-profit corpora- ANSER is a not-for-profit pub- tion under the auspices of the lic service research corpora- National Academy of Sciences, tion, serving the national inter- with an institutional membership est since 1958.To learn more of 100. For more information about ANSER, see its website about USRA, see its website at at www.ANSER.org. www.usra.edu. NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts 9 t h A N N U A L & F I N A L R E P O R T Performance Period July 12, 2006 - August 31, 2007 T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S 7 7 MESSAGE FROM THE DIRECTOR 8 NIAC STAFF 9 NIAC EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 10 THE LEGACY OF NIAC 14 ACCOMPLISHMENTS 14 Summary 14 Call for Proposals CP 05-02 (Phase II) 15 Call for Proposals CP 06-01 (Phase I) 17 Call for Proposals CP 06-02 (Phase II) 18 Call for Proposals CP 07-01 (Phase I) 18 Call for Proposals CP 07-02 (Phase II) 18 Financial Performance 18 NIAC Student Fellows Prize Call for Proposals 2006-2007 19 NIAC Student Fellows Prize Call for Proposals 2007-2008 20 Release and Publicity of Calls for Proposals 20 Peer Reviewer Recruitment 21 NIAC Eighth Annual Meeting 22 NIAC Fellows Meeting 24 NIAC Science Council Meetings 24 Coordination With NASA 27 Publicity, Inspiration and Outreach 29 Survey of Technologies to Enable NIAC Concepts 32 DESCRIPTION OF THE NIAC 32 NIAC Mission 33 Organization 34 Facilities 35 Virtual Institute 36 The NIAC Process 37 Grand Visions 37 Solicitation 38 NIAC Calls for Proposals 39 Peer Review 40 NASA Concurrence 40 Awards 40 Management of Awards 41 Infusion of Advanced Concepts 4 T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S 7 LIST OF TABLES 14 Table 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Hyperspace  NASA BPP Program  Books 8
    Advanced Space Propulsion Concepts for Interstellar Travel Gregory V. Meholic [email protected] Planets HR 8799 140 LY 11/14/08 Updated 9/25/2019 1 Presentation Objectives and Caveats ▪ Provide a high-level, “evolutionary”, information-only overview of various propulsion technology concepts that, with sufficient development (i.e. $), may lead mankind to the stars. ▪ Only candidate concepts for a vehicle’s primary interstellar propulsion system will be discussed. No attitude control No earth-to-orbit launch No traditional electric systems No sail-based systems No beamed energy ▪ None of the following will be given, assumed or implied: Recommendations on specific mission designs Developmental timelines or cost estimates ▪ Not all propulsion options will be discussed – that would be impossible! 2 Chapters 1. The Ultimate Space Mission 2. The Solar System and Beyond 3. Challenges of Human Star Flight 4. “Rocket Science” Basics 5. Conventional Mass Ejection Propulsion Systems State-of-the-Art Possible Improvements 6. Alternative Mass Ejection Systems Nuclear Fission Nuclear Fusion Matter/Antimatter Other Concepts 7. Physics-Based Concepts Definitions and Things to Remember Space-Time Warp Drives Fundamental Force Coupling Alternate Dimension / Hyperspace NASA BPP Program Books 8. Closing Information 3 Chapter 1: The Ultimate Space Mission 4 The Ultimate Space Mission For humans to travel to the stars and return to Earth within a “reasonable fraction” (around 15 years) of a human lifetime. ▪ Why venture beyond our Solar System? Because we have to - humans love to explore!!! Visit the Kuiper Belt and the Oort Cloud – Theoretical home to long-period comets Investigate the nature of the interstellar medium and its influence on the solar system (and vice versa) – Magnetic fields, low-energy galactic cosmic rays, composition, etc.
    [Show full text]