The Last Space Shuttle Mission
July 8, 2011
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Video: NASA Where Are We Going?
• Low-Earth Orbit • Interplanetary Travel • Interstellar Travel
Image: NASA Where Are We Going?
• Low-Earth Orbit • Interplanetary Travel • Interstellar Travel
Image: NASA Low-Earth Orbit
Current Low-Earth Orbit capabilities: • International Space Station • Russian Soyuz • Chinese Shenzhou
Images: NASA; Wikimedia (AAxanderr) NASA Partnerships
Instead of building low-earth orbit spacecraft, NASA is partnering with private companies. NASA Partnerships Low-Earth Orbit capabilities in the works:
Dragon Cygnus CST-100 (SpaceX, 2011) (Orbital, 2012?) (Boeing, 2015?)
Images: SpaceX (used with permission); Orbital (via NASA); The Boeing Company (via NASA) Dragon
• First launch and recovery December 8, 2010
• Demo mission to ISS planned for November 30, 2011
Image: SpaceX (used with permission) Low-Earth Orbit
Outlook:
• We’re already there!
Image: NASA Low-Earth Orbit
Outlook:
• We’re already there!
• Low-earth orbit travel will become cheaper and more accessible over the next decade.
Image: NASA Where Are We Going?
• Low-Earth Orbit • Interplanetary Travel • Interstellar Travel
Image: NASA Interplanetary Travel
Obama’s Projected Timeline:
• 2010s: development of low- Earth orbit vehicles
Image: NASA Interplanetary Travel
Obama’s Projected Timeline:
• 2010s: development of low- Earth orbit vehicles
• 2025: crewed missions into deep space
Image: NASA Interplanetary Travel
Obama’s Projected Timeline:
• 2010s: development of low- Earth orbit vehicles
• 2025: crewed missions into deep space
• 2030s: crewed missions to Mars and back
Image: NASA In the News: Space Launch System NASA has announced designs for a new heavy-lift rocket to reach beyond low-earth orbit.
Image: NASA In the News: Space Launch System • Horsepower equivalent of 160,000 Corvette engines
• Weighs 5.5 million pounds, or the equivalent of 24 fully loaded 747s
• Payload of 77 tons, or the equivalent of 12 full-grown elephants
Image: NASA Challenges
• Propulsion
• Radiation exposure Challenges
• Propulsion
• Radiation exposure Limitations of Chemical Propellants Remember from Part I:
2 H2 + O2 → 2 H2O(g) + Energy Limitations of Chemical Propellants Remember from Part I:
2 H2 + O2 → 2 H2O(g) + Energy
How much energy?
1 lb H2 7.5 days
Image: Wikimedia (Inductiveload) Limitations of Chemical Propellants Remember from Part I:
2 H2 + O2 → 2 H2O(g) + Energy
Space Shuttle external tank carried over 200,000 pounds! Limitations of Chemical Propellants Remember from Part I:
Moon 384,403km 1x 8.5 hr
Mars 74,799,000km 195x 6 mo
Jupiter 893,000,000km 2,323x 13 mo
Solar System 4,338,342,000km 11,286x 8 yr
Proxima Centauri 42,000,000,000,000km 109,260,000x 78,000yr Limitations of Chemical Propellants
“About two-thirds of the mass on an Earth- to-Mars-to-Earth mission would be propellant” - Review of Human Spaceflight Plans Committee Final Report, October 2009 Alternatives to Chemical Propellants Chemical reactions: same atoms, new molecules
2 H2 + O2 → 2 H2O(g) + Energy + → + Alternatives to Chemical Propellants Chemical reactions: same atoms, new molecules
2 H2 + O2 → 2 H2O(g) + Energy + → +
Nuclear reactions: new atoms
2 H2 → He + Energy → + Alternatives to Chemical Propellants Chemical reactions: same atoms, new molecules
2 H2 + O2 → 2 H2O(g) + Energy + → +
Nuclear reactions: new atoms
2 H2 → He + Energy → + 400,000 x more energy Alternatives to Chemical Propellants Chemical reactions: same atoms, new molecules
1 lb H2 7.5 days
Image: Wikimedia (Inductiveload) Alternatives to Chemical Propellants Chemical reactions: same atoms, new molecules
1 lb H2 7.5 days
Nuclear reactions: new atoms
1 lb H2 2,900 years!
Image: Wikimedia (Inductiveload) Propulsion
“If we ever really want to explore the solar system, it’s going to have to be nuclear” - John Grunsfeld, PhD, former astronaut
Quote: AAAS “NASA at a Turning Point” http://membercentral.aaas.org Challenges
• Propulsion
• Radiation exposure Radiation Exposure
On Earth we are protected by: • Earth’s magnetic field
Image: NASA Radiation Exposure
On Earth we are protected by: • Earth’s magnetic field • The atmosphere
Images: NASA; NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab Radiation Exposure
Space station crew receives the equivalent of about 1 chest X-ray every 1-2 days.
Images: NASA; Wikimedia (Nevit Dilmen) Radiation Exposure
Interplanetary astronauts will be outside the Earth’s magnetic field and need protection from radiation.
But radiation shields are heavy!
Images NASA Interplanetary Travel
Outlook:
The technological hurdles are probably surmountable…
Image: NASA Interplanetary Travel
Outlook:
The technological hurdles are probably surmountable… … but will require long-term investment and research.
Image: NASA Where Are We Going?
• Low-Earth Orbit • Interplanetary Travel • Interstellar Travel
Image: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team; A. Riess (STScI) In the News: 100 Year Starship
A DARPA program to develop a research and investment model that may one day allow us to build a starship
Image: NASA In the News: 100 Year Starship
NOT a program to build a starship!
Image: NASA In the News: 100 Year Starship
On 11/11/11, DARPA will award $500,000 to study what it will take to launch a starship 100 years from now.
Image: NASA Interstellar Travel
100 years isn’t so crazy: Jules Verne published “From the Earth to the Moon” in 1865, 104 years before the Apollo landings.
Images: Wikimedia; NASA Interstellar Travel
Outlook:
If it happens, it is unlikely to be in our lifetimes…
Image: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team; A. Riess (STScI) Interstellar Travel
Outlook:
If it happens, it is unlikely to be in our lifetimes…
… but clever people are starting to think about it!
Image: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team; A. Riess (STScI) Where Are We Going?
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We are ready at last to set sail for the stars. ~ Carl Sagan
Video: NASA Toward the Final Frontier of Manned Space Flight Part I: How we got here: Background and challenges (Ryann)
Part II: Why boldly go? Why not? (Luke)
Part III: Where are we going? (Emily) Thank you! SITN would like to acknowledge the following organizations for their generous support.
Harvard Medical School Office of Communications and External Relations Division of Medical Sciences The Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS)
The Harvard Biomedical Graduate Students Organization (BGSO)
The Harvard/MIT COOP
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