RINCIPIUM PThe Newsletter of the Initiative for Interstellar Studies ™ Issue 11 | November 2015
n STOP PRESS: Starship Engineer course n Guest Introduction: Photometric SETI n News: Project Dragonfly, i4is at SDSO, Axiom, Starship Congress n Project Dragonfly Competition n Interstellar implications of the New Horizons probe n Starship Congress 2015 n TVIW 2014: i4is SF design workshop n TVIW 2014: Field Report
R O n What we did at Eastercon F E V I
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n Film Review: The Martian A
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S T U D I E S Scientia ad sidera www.I4IS.org Knowledge to the Stars STOP PRESS!
Starship Engineer course at BIS London, 24-25 November 2015
The first running of our Starship Engineer course is happening at the British Interplanetary Society in London, November, 24-25 November 2015, 09.15 through 17.00 hrs.
More details in the advertisement towards the end of this issue.
Not much time to sign up for this eye-opening opportunity!
Principium | Issue 11 | November 2015 Page 2 Editorial
n In this edition we start with a access to his recent thinking on this and And for the back cover we have the Stop Press announcing the first Rob Swinney has written a report for this Globular Cluster Omega Centauri (NGC running of our Starship Engineer issue, Pluto and Beyond: Next Steps to the 5139) as imaged by the European couIrse at the British Interplanetary Stars after Voyagers and New Horizons. Southern Observatory (details at Society in London, 24-25 November 2015. http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0844a/ ). As always, we maintain our strong links More details in the advertisement towards At about 16,000 light years distance, it's a with the dreamers of Science Fiction. the end of this issue. This issue of tough target for any of our relatively near We were at this year’s UK national Principium arrives as Rob Swinney and term starships. But what impressed us, Eastercon. Some of our doings there are Kelvin Long are polishing their course apart from the sheer beauty of the image, captured in an account by John Davies and material. Sign up now! is that there is some suspicion that one of Rob Swinney. our nearest neighbours, Kapteyn's Star, Our guest introduction is by Robert G There have been a number of may have originated in NGC 5139. Kennedy III, PE. Robert is best known in relatively technically realistic films set in Kapteyn's Star is about 12 light years away the interstellar community as co-founder space in recent years and the latest is and has at least two exoplanets. and organiser of the Tennessee Valley The Martian, directed by Ridley Scott Interstellar Workshops. Here he applies As always, give us your views on both and based on Andy Weir's novel. Not his wide understanding of the relevant form and content. interstellar but another inspiration to physics and engineering to suggest a novel our species to get out there! We have a John I Davies, Editor Principium approach to the search for extraterrestrial review by John Davies. intelligence (SETI). In this issue we also [email protected] present Robert's report of the i4is SF We have to disappoint readers who design workshop from the 2014 Tennessee were expecting a meditation on the Valley Interstellar Workshop (TVIW). interstellar implications of the Rosetta Robert also contributes a trip report about comet probe and its Philae lander. TVIW 2014 overall - capturing the We'll do our best to bring it to you in the combination of serious thinking and New Year. convivial enthusiasm of these events. You may notice that our layout has Our News this time includes details made a great leap forward to last year - of our Project Dragonfly video, a recent having welcomed back Adrian Mann in meeting of the core team of i4is and this role. He's a massively talented artist the announcement of a new i4is and practitioner of digital visual media. publication, Axiom. Not least he is responsible for many of Reaction Engines videos; take a look at We have a detailed account of the their website. If, like me, you are thrilled Project Dragonfly competition and at the idea of a take-off and ascent to orbit workshop by Dan Fries with an addendum of their Skylon spaceplane then you will on the way forward for the project by appreciate what Adrian can do. Martin Langer. We will be covering Project Dragonfly in yet more detail in Our front cover feature is the Daedalus later editions. starship of the British Interplanetary Society (BIS) as imagined by Adrian Our friends Icarus Interstellar held Mann. His imagining is based on the their big Starship Congress and detailed design developed in the 1970s by "Hackathon" in Philadelphia last month the team led by Alan Bond and Tony and one of the TVIW team, Ken Roy, was Martin. Daedalus remains the most there and gives us a personal view in his detailed design yet produced for a piece "Surviving the Interstellar starship. It is the starting point for the Hackathon in the City of Brotherly Love". Icarus project of Icarus Interstellar and It sounds like he had a great time! the BIS, a new starship design based on One of the keynotes at the Congress fusion principles. We might appropriately was delivered by Dr Ralph McNutt and he have featured Daedalus on the cover of talked about the New Horizons probe to our first issue but it is so well known that Pluto and the Kuiper Belt - and how we we have left it to this, our eleventh issue. might build interstellar precursor We hope to feature a detailed Icarus missions. Dr McNutt has kindly given us design well before our 20th issue!
Principium | Issue 11 | November 2015 Page 3 Guest Introduction: A Modest Proposal for Photometric SETI Robert G Kennedy III, PE
Background 1 : For good historical to spot a civilization like ours (spacefaring conclusion that interpretation of an and technological reasons, the SETI terrestrial tool-users 5) at interstellar extraterrestrial signal would be a hopeless (Search for Extraterrestrial ranges using optical astronomy? If we task without interacting in realtime with Intelligence) community's roots are limit ourselves to basic photometry the particular somatic embodiment of the in radio astronomy (RA). without new-fangled SP techniques, then intelligence that created the signal. (This we are measuring two simple physical also was the conclusion of a SETI After all, the Big Bang was discovered phenomena that can be adequately conference taking place at the same time at radio frequencies (RF, but technically resolved at interstellar range: optical on the other side of the North American microwaves (MW)), and people began power, i.e. luminosity, and time. continent, unbeknownst to the organizers constructing radios not too long after they 6 of TVIW. ) While the mere detection of built telegraphs and telephone networks. Dr Sara Seager's “Search for Earth 2.0” an unambiguously artificial signal would Also, one of the very first applications of keynote address be a major world-historical event by itself, computers was to perform what we would (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOvB understanding means crewed interstellar now call signal processing (SP) on RF 71mHyNA ) at the last Tennessee Valley 2 missions, a very tall order that is at least signals during WW2 . Interstellar Workshop (TVIW) in Oak 7 centuries off . Ridge, Tennessee in November 2014 Thanks to numerous RF transmission presented the progress in finding There are two broad classes of windows in the atmosphere, it is far easier 8 extrasolar planets, and one new approach candidate stars to look for. to build and use ground-based detectors to (direct observation using diffractive observe the sky at RF, than it is at say, The first class would host societies that sunshades). The technical progress in just ultraviolet (UV), optical, or infrared (IR) have mastered space-based solar power the last generation is remarkable. frequencies. So there has been some path (SBSP), perhaps for geoengineering Virtually all of these methods are indirect dependence in the SETI field. However, purposes, on up through Kardashev Type I and optical, including: as a greater fraction of humanity's (defined as using all the available power of exponentially increasing data traffic goes • radial velocimetry (Doppler wobbles in their home world). On Earth, about the by optical fiber or by low-power short- spectra pioneered by Queloz/Mayor/ same amount of sunlight falls on the lit range encrypted wireless comms almost Marcy/Butler in the late 1980s); face in one hour (~600 exajoules) as the indistinguishable from noise, the world is entire human race uses in one year (8766 • photometry (variations in brightness by “going black” from a SETI perspective. hours), a 4-order-of-magnitude ratio. In a eclipses and transits a la Kepler, plus Furthermore, teasing out extraterrestrial 2006 paper, Sandia Labs showed that solar subtler techniques); RF signals from RF noise appears to be a power has by far the most headroom for black hole for spare computing power. So • astrometry (direct measurement of growth of any energy resource that we Terra's unusual brightness at RF may turn stellar motions); know about 9. A fission economy based on out to be a very-short lived “blip” on a breeding plutonium from 238 U, or 233 U • gravitational microlensing; historical timescale, not to mention from thorium is the only other existing geologic and cosmologic timescales. How • direct spectral detection during stellar energy solution of that scale, yet it is still a then to find evidence that “ We Are Not transits of non-equilibrium gases like distant second. Per unit area, solar power Alone? ” Rather than exclusively focusing oxygen and methane as proxies for is 3-4 orders of magnitude greater than on RF, what other signatures could we biological activity. the third potential source, geothermal look for? Well, as the late Rod Serling 3 power. Presently the primary power of the (Direct imaging, i.e. spatially used to say, “ presented here for your human race (all sources, oil, coal, gas, resolving extrasolar planets directly, consideration ” is a proposal to take a nuclear hydro, wind, sun, waves, even is beyond our terrestrial capabilities now, photometric approach to SETI. (nihil sub burning poop) is equivalent to ~20 but see Seager's talk for what the future sole novum: this is not an original idea. thermal terawatts (TW), of which 2 TW is may hold.) Approximately two centuries ago, the round-the-clock electric generating mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss Every year, the lower mass limit of capacity. Therefore, our energy speculated about using giant mirrors and detectability goes down. It seems that if consumption could grow 4 orders of what we would today call terrestrial an Earth-like world exists within a magnitude, to 160,000 TW, before we geoengineering to send optical signals at reasonable range, then we should find it exhausted all the solar power available to interplanetary range. 4). If we decide to do within the next generation, say 30 years. us terrestrially. this, what technical capability would we Later on at TVIW 2014, the “C-for- The second class is a solar-system-wide need? At what time could we first expect Commo” working track came to the civilization evolving toward a Kardashev
Principium | Issue 11 | November 2015 Page 4 Type II status, defined as using all the the sort that the Kepler mission looks for, luminosity on a temporal axis is good available power of their home star. Sol there would be no corresponding enough. Since the Copernican Principle System's Type II would be ~2 billion times occultation a half-period later (ie the (which amounts to “everywhere is, pretty as powerful as the Terra's Type I. By secondary eclipse) visible from the outside much, like everywhere else!” ) cuts both ways, definition, a civilization like this could be since the L1 point is always interior to the this is the sort of optical signal to look for. detected at the same range as Sol itself. Earth. The absence of that dimming (Or even greater, depending on the rarity might itself be considered notable. Independent Confirmation of 300K IR objects 2 AU in diameter.) However, since Freeman Dyson dealt with Geoengineering, Geology, at MW/RF. this subject well enough 55 years ago 10 , we Science knows of natural masers. The need not explore it further here. and Time. brightest one in our galaxy is the 6.7 GHz Luna, queen of the skies, is actually a (45 mm wavelength) methanol maser in Geoengineering and Luminosity. rather dull object, with an albedo of only W49. Sol itself emits essentially no In a recent paper in JBIS 11 , we proposed 0.07. (Charcoal is 0.04.) At full, it only radiation longer than 1000 microns. using a school of radiation-levitated looks so bright because its face is fully Therefore a regular pulse of sunshades in non-Keplerian orbits inside illuminated by the Sun against the deep monochromatic 60 GHz µwave radiation the Sun-Earth L1 point to counteract black of space. With clouds, icecaps, light (5 mm wavelength), also perfectly climate change while generating clean deserts and the glint of sun off the world synchronized to that 1-year period of the power from space to pay for the scheme. ocean, Terra is quite a bit brighter, with an optical fluctuation, but exactly 180 Being roughly the size of Texas in albedo of ~0.3. However, three times in degrees out of phase, should stand out aggregate area (1 million km 2), the school the past billion years our planet's albedo brightly. Thus the leakage or side-lobes of sails would stop one-quarter of 1% of has approached 0.9 when the world froze from the multi-deka-terawatt maser beam sunlight falling on Earth, enough to offset over, most recently 650 megayears. The from solar sails at L1 could provide global warming with artificial cooling. magnitude of this change in optical power independent confirmation of intelligent Think of it as a Mirrored Maunder was on the order of 100,000 TW in all activity to that extraterrestrial observer. Minimum like the one five centuries ago. directions, but these “Snowball Earths” Putting a photovoltaic layer on the sunny took millions of years to happen, persisted Luminosity, Time, and SBSP side would generate a useful by-product: for 10s of millions, and took more for Sol System. 10 TW of electric power, beamed to the megayears to unhappen. Once techniques for SBSP have been global grid via a 2-link maser (microwave Though hominids have walked the worked out, perhaps to solve an urgent lasers emitting coherent MW radiation), Earth for several million years, and crisis of climate change with enough to satisfy total planetary demand urbanized civilization has existed for 6,000 geoengineering, space-based industry will for electricity by 2050. Most of the 400 or so, virtually all of the gross physical, have been given its needful kick in the TW of sunlight hitting the sunny side of chemical and ecological changes on the pants. After this, we see no reason that the sail would be reflected off it. Assume surface of our world due to Homo sapiens enterprising Earthlings would discontinue for example that the reflected light-cone happened in the last two centuries, and building these useful devices, which can be subtends a degree of arc. Since Sol's disk much of that in just the last couple of used for propulsion or power. The next is only half a degree wide from the sail's billion seconds. Hence the neologism 3 logical places to put large numbers of sails point of view at L1, then most ( /4) of the “Anthropocene” popularized by Paul would be the Earth-Moon L4 and L5 reflected photons go past Sol’s limb into Crutzen in climate science 13 . points, followed by the Sun-Earth L4 and deep space—in essence, a lighthouse So compared to geologic transitions, these L5 points. Mirrors at Luna's L4/L5 points beacon that rotates exactly in synch with anthropogenic changes in albedo are will have the same basic annual the forever hidden Earth. The intrinsic lightning fast. luminosity of the reflected image is 400 periodicity as Earth's orbit round the Sun, TW absolute. The duration of the light Thus, instead of random isotropic with a monthly cycle superposed on that pulse would be directly proportional to the changes in albedo every few hundred basic rhythm. The maximum spatial cone’s angle; the amplitude would vary as megayears, this brief 400 TW flash from separation of mirrors at Luna's L4 and L5 the inverse square of the cone’s angle; the sail school at L1 would occur exactly points, ~800,000 km, is about that of Sol's particular numbers for both would depend once every year, concentrated in the diameter itself, which would make them on the specific geometry. In this case, a 1- ecliptic and as regular in amplitude and much more visible, perhaps enough to be degree searchlight would sweep through frequency as a metronome. Over a long resolvable spatially with micro-arcsecond its own width in a day, since there are enough observing campaign, say several instruments just coming online. dozen observations in a billion seconds, about the same number of degrees in a Shiny objects at the Sun-Earth L4/L5 this anisotropic optical pulsar could be circle as days in a year (Earth’s orbital points would by definition be separated construed as a signal of artificial origin. If period). The apparent brightening at the from each other 400 times as much, or 1 the traffic analyst was (fantastically) lucky Sun-Earth L3 point on the far side of the astronomical unit (AU), but still enough to be watching at the right time, Sun in this case would be about +20%, or permanently in synch with the home -2 this artefact would emerge from +300 W/m . Any extrasolar observer, far world. One AU separation is enough to be background noise in about a century. away but at a fixed location also aligned resolved spatially at interstellar ranges with the ecliptic plane, would glimpse We are not presently able to spatially with milli-arcsecond instruments. some increase in Sol's apparent separate such a source from its host star, 12 As society back home grows wealthy luminosity . Unlike a planetary transit of but we don’t have to; the variation of due to the value created by their
Principium | Issue 11 | November 2015 Page 5 machines, the sheer optical power In order to optically detect a civilization mission (“Planet Hunters” network) manipulated and reflected by their sails that has fully arrived at Type I status, we already do. Though it won’t be as also grows. If present trends continue would only need instruments with perhaps perfectly synchronized as in the beginning uninterrupted , and given that humanity's part-per-thousand precision, staring at for geoengineering, still there will be recent appetite for electricity doubles targets long enough to capture events of anomalies, patterns, rhythm, and approximately every generation, or an varying duration but with periods on the structure in the data to be teased out by order of magnitude about every century, order of a million seconds, over observing those observers who didn’t get the subtler then people should achieve Type I status campaigns of less than a billion seconds. message the first time. in less than a millennium. Not only would Because the latter is so much easier to About the author: Robert Kennedy PE is a this be 3-5 orders of magnitude faster spot than the former, and we already Senior Systems Engineer VI who does than albedo changes of geologic origin, the possess the necessary resolution, we might green energy (mostly solar and anisotropic light reflected into space by a be able to find the fingerprints of a Type I geothermal) at what he laughingly calls Type I civilization would be of somewhat civilization simply by data mining the his “day job”. He is the co-author (with greater magnitude than any naturally- archives from missions such as Kepler and Ken Roy) of many papers about “Dyson occurring isotropic albedo fluctuation on its successors, using crowdsourcing like Dots” and “Shell Worlds”, and is also one Earth. If this power level as measured at that pioneered by SETI@home in the RF of the co-founders of the Tennessee Valley the point-of-use were ultimately and region, or, in the visible region, like that Interstellar Workshop. entirely generated by space-based solar which IOTA (International Occultation sails mostly in the ecliptic, then we can Timing Association) and the Kepler predict that something on the order of a million terawatts of optical power in the by-then numerous searchlights sweeping the universe. This would be on the order of parts-per-thousand of Sol’s apparent luminosity in the ecliptic, a precision that has been available to optical science for decades now 14 , and radio science for a century. So, in sum, in order for us to optically detect a civilization just embarking on its path to Type I status, we would need instruments possibly of part-per-billion precision, staring at targets long enough to capture events of 10s of kiloseconds duration repeating at 10s of megasecond Local Example of Simultaneous Stellar Transits by Natural and Artificial Objects. Venus intervals, over observing campaigns of transiting Sol (left). Passenger jet from Salt Lake City (SLC) transiting Sol and Venus perhaps a billion seconds. Because of the (right). Image acquired in Salt Lake City at 0430 UTC 06 June 2012. Shot bagged long stares and long campaigns, we'd need 2030 Mountain Time 05 Jun 2012 @ Salt Lake City Museum by Bruce Hugo per loud a lot of assets in space. That would take tipoff by Robert Kennedy & Eric Hughes. decades and cost a lot of money.
1. I allude to the cracking of the German 5. Being pedantic, one could say there's a 9. Even a billionth (-90 dB) should be Enigma system (ULTRA) by the third class, the Kardashev III detectable, if not now, soon. If that British at Bletchley Park, and the civilization defined as using all the sounds tiny to the reader, be advised Japanese JN-25 naval codes by available power of the galaxy, which is that the human race is getting very American cryptanalysts (MAGIC). another twelve orders of magnitude good at measuring very small beyond the Type II. But Type III is so proportions. Modern atomic 2. Host of an early Space far beyond our humble selves, that I timekeeping (the heart of satnav), Race-era American television show, doubt we would even recognize it if it laser measurement, analytical The Twilight Zone . existed. chemistry, and certain forms of radio 3. While I personally think that life science all operate at -90 dB precision 6. Jeff Tsao, et al, " Solar FAQs " Working or better. evolved from the inside out, starting Draft Version, Sandia National with chemosynthesis, and that ice Laboratories, 20 Apr 2006, 10. W. Steffen, P. Crutzen, J.R. McNeill, worlds are a great place to look for http://www.sandia.gov/~jytsao/Solar% “The Anthropocene: Are Humans other life, I think that is another 20FAQs.pdf , accessed 19 Sep 2015. Now Overwhelming the Great Forces subject for another day. of Nature? ”, Ambio 36, no.8, pp.614- 7. F.J. Dyson, “ Search for Artificial Stellar 621, 2007 4. “Communicating Across the Cosmos: Sources of Infrared Radiation ”, Science, Summary of a Workshop on Interstellar 131 (3414), pp.1667–1668, 3 June 1960 11. The Kepler spacecraft measures Message Design” , photic fluctuations of less than 1% on a http://www.seti.org/weeky- 8. R.G. Kennedy, K.I. Roy, E. Hughes, baseline of ~100 million seconds. lecture/communicating-across-cosmos- and D.E. Fields, “ Dyson Dots & summary-workshop-interstellar- geoengineering: the Killer App Ad Astra ”, message-design , accessed 11 Oct JBIS, vol.66, no.10-11, Oct-Nov' 13. 2015.
Principium | Issue 11 | November 2015 Page 6 News from the Institute i4is in Cheltenham The weekend of 2-4 October 2015 saw the first formal Annual General Meeting (AGM) of i4is and one of our regular Progress and Planning meetings. Kelvin Long and Rob Swinney are the directors of our UK-registered not-for profit company but our own board is a little larger and appointed 5 new members at the AGM (Jeremy Clark, Robert Kennedy III, Andreas Hein, Richard Osborne and Professor Rachel Armstrong). Several of our most active members are simply that, ordinary members. So five of us in person, Kelvin, Rob, Gill Norman, Terry Regan and John Davies were at Gill's place in Vulcan at the Jet Age Museum Cheltenham for the weekend and Andreas Hein joined us by Skype from Paris. We plotted our direction for the next few months but then took a very pleasant Project Dragonfly - The Movie! i4is at the SDSO evening off over dinner. Terry brought his Daedalus model along - he tells me it's The first cut of our video from the Project Rob Swinney and Terry Regan were at nearly finished but I can't see anything Dragonfly symposium is at - the Scottish Dark Sky Observatory missing - judge for yourself! (SDSO) in August representing both i4is https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6B and the British Interplanetary Society. s4IMTm6V4b0AMmINUy6eHwAYhMAYS4 Rob told a packed meeting about the As you will see from the YouTube playlist, prospects of real interstellar flight in the it's in five parts. Here they are - near future and Terry talked about his spacecraft models. He builds 'from • Part 1: Welcome address: Andreas Hein, scratch', no kits, to create some of the Chair | WARR ISF, Technical University historical explorers such as Pioneer, of Munich Presentation & Q&A Voyager and Cassini and his own model • Part 2: University of California, Santa creation of Daedalus, the BIS starship Barbara Presentation & Q&A design. The attendees were amazed at his models and enjoyed hearing some of the • Part 3: Cairo University Presentation trials and tribulations of building them & Q&A from scratch using various household and • Part 4: CranSEDS (Cranfield other everyday items (from wine glasses University, Skolkovo Institute to Christmas decorations). of Science & Technology, Paul Sabatier University) Presentation & Q&A | Final Review Panel retires / Informal discussions • Part 5: Prize ceremony | The Future Terry Regan's Daedalus of Project Dragonfly: Andreas Hein
Some of us stayed up till the small Our good friend Rick Garcia captured hours and others enjoyed a walk up the the event in quality video and sound. local hill on Sunday. We said farewell after He'll be adding more to a later cut but a visit to the local aviation museum, the the whole show is there now. Take a look! Jet Age museum. If you are in the Cheltenham / Gloucester area don't miss We have a full account of the event in the brilliant exhibits (sitting in the Vulcan this issue, “ The i4is Project Dragonfly cockpit was my high point!). Competition ”, by Dan Fries. And Martin Langer adds a summary of the way forward for this project, “ Project Dragonfly – The road goes on… ”. Expect Dragonfly to continue to feature strongly in Principiums (or is that Principia ?) to come.
Principium | Issue 11 | November 2015 Page 7 Axiom 2016 i4is Calendar A Record Monolith?
The Initiative for Interstellar Studies began on 12th September 2012 and we have therefore passed our third anniversary. To celebrate this we have recently released an i4is 2016 calendar containing images from our various activities. All profits raised go directly towards our not- for-profit organisation and help fund our his new publication of the continued efforts. You can purchase a copy Initiative for Interstellar Studies is here: a technical academic educational http://www.lulu.com/shop/kelvin- Tjournal. It will be published three times long/my-calendar/calendar/product-22353 per year and will explore ideas, 949.html assumptions and paradigms of existing knowledge including papers which explain A perfect seasonal gift for your The Monolith our current understanding of topics in interstellar-struck friends and relations! interstellar studies or offer new insights For the 2014 Worldcon (Loncon3) in or new ways of looking at a problem or London we built a 4m tall monolith. Our known solutions. Not new ideas or new London Review of Books builders, Terry Regan and Paul Campbell, technologies (there are other journals for built it to the exact 1:4:9 dimensions of this including the Journal of the British "Lets all go to Mars" the object in 2001: A Space Odyssey and it Interplanetary Society). Of you would like I note that John Lanchester, author of was a quite an attraction at the con. It has to submit a paper to this new journal can “Whoops! Why Everyone Owes Everyone recently been suggested that it may be the do so by emailing us at our regular and No One Can Pay” and several novels largest in existence. contact address [email protected] . Axiom is a has been discussing Elon Musk's print journal, obtainable via - So do we have a world record? If you think ambitions in the London Review of Books. so or you know of another contender then http://www.lulu.com/shop/kelvin- Here's a quote - please me know [email protected] . long/axiom1/paperback/product-22353814 .html As for human spaceflight, I think All profits raised go directly towards it’s an inherently progressive activity, the activities of our organisation. The first not so much in its practical issue contains three papers - consequences but in the way it changes “our species' frame of reference. • The ‘Invention’ of the Starship and The modern ecology movement was in Revisiting Tsiolkovsky effect created by the image of the whole - Kelvin F. Long earth, vulnerable and isolated • Two-Stage vs. Single-Stage: and full of life, sent back by A Performance Comparison Apollo 8. - Adam Crowl Principium back issues Good to see the London literary This is the 11th edition of • Exponential Growth for Another intelligentsia getting on board! Principium. If you missed any of our Thousand Years ” issues 1-10 or have recently joined our - Stephen Ashworth mailing list, you can catch up on the back issues at i4is.org/publications .
Principium | Issue 11 | November 2015 Page 8 Pluto and Beyond: Next Steps to the Stars after Voyagers and New Horizons
Presented by Ralph L McNutt, Jr our own i4is, Dr McNutt started by making it clear that his talk would not be (The John Hopkins University about actual interstellar travel. Or, indeed, another popular dream, colonisation. Applied Physics Laboratory, USA) But it would be about ‘The New Frontier’ in deep space exploration: the interstellar medium (ISM) itself. This would be Reported by Rob Swinney beyond the interaction zone between the ISM and the Sun’s heliosphere far exceeding the orbit of Pluto. Keynote speech at the He illustrates that the out-flowing solar plasma contained within the Starship Congress 2015 heliosphere encounters the ISM at some Interstellar Hackathon, point in the direction of the Sun's travel first and forms a shock transition and a 4th of September, 2015 broader boundary shell around our star, similar to that now observed around distant stars. This had been debated as or those not able to attend this early as the 1970s and even in 1971 it year’s Interstellar Hackathon at was known that the final Pioneer probes At the workshops, some 32 participants Drexel University Bossone would leave the solar system and be able discussed the science drivers and enabling FResearch Centre in Philadelphia, to obtain data from the interaction technologies for the exploration of the YouTube came to the rescue and we were region (if they survived that long). ISM which were led by the three team able to watch many of the presentations leaders, Edward C Stone, Leon Alkalai live via a web cam. Unfortunately for a Within a few years there were specific and Lou Friedman. The goal of the couple of the key speaker’s presentations proposals for a mission beyond the planets workshops was to consider the capability the technological gremlins prevented the driven by science and later still many push, such as being able to reach the ISM live broadcast and we wait with bated more detailed proposals followed from in 10 to 15 years rather than 36 as in the breath for the official edited version NASA studies and US National Academy case of Voyager 1 and 2, and the science taken by the main TV camera to appear. Studies to explore these remote regions. pull of identifying the compelling science This happened to Dr Ralph McNutt's Speaking of events more recent, Dr goals for exploring the ISM between 100 presentation but for this report he very McNutt described two workshops at and 300 AU (and other interesting stuff kindly forwarded the presentation and Caltech, known as the Keck Institute of along the way). his related paper submitted for the Space Studies (KISS) workshops, which International Astronautical Congress. The questions were many and varied culminated in a final report in July 2015. Hopefully here we will be able to give a but the key result of the two KISS fair interpretation of the presentation for the reader. Without actually having seen it! Dr Ralph McNutt is one of the co- investigators at the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory working on the famous New Horizons mission to Pluto and beyond. This year we were treated to this actual encounter on 14 July, the first to a new planet (okay, ice dwarf planet) for many decades and fortunately, with the fly past on automatic, there were no gremlins on this occasion. During his talk he would give the latest on the fly past but it is what may lie beyond Pluto and New Horizons, and finding out, which provided the main content. Unlike the devotees of interstellar travel research organisations, like Icarus New Horizons journey from the Earth to Pluto, and beyond. Interstellar who hosted the hackathon and
Principium | Issue 11 | November 2015 Page 9 NASA Studies National Academy Studies
Outlook for Space, 1976 Physics through the 1990's - Panel on Gravitation, Cosmology, and Cosmic Rays (D. T. Wilkinson, chair), 1986 NRC report
An implementation plan for solar system space physics, S. M. Solar and Space Physics Task Group Report (F. Scarf, Krimigis, chair, 1985 chair),1988 NRC study Space Science in the 21st Century - Im - peratives for the Decade 1995-2015 Space Physics Strategy-Implementation Study: The NASA Astronomy and Astrophysics Task Group Report (B. Burke, Space Physics Program for 1995-2010 chair), 1988 NRC study Space Science in the 21st Century - Imperatives for the Decade 1995-2015
Sun-Earth Connection Technology Roadmap, 1997 The Decade of Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics (John N. Bahcall, chair)
Space Science Strategic Plan, The Space Science Enterprise, The Committee on Cosmic Ray Physics of the NRC Board on 2000 Physics and Astronomy (T. K. Gaisser, chair), 1995 report Op - portunities in Cosmic Ray Physics Sun-Earth Connection Roadmaps, 1997, 2000, 2003 A Science Strategy for Space Physics, Space Studies Board, NRC, National Academy Press, 1995 (M. Negebauer, chair) NASA 2003 Strategic Plan The Sun to the Earth - and Beyond: A Decadal Research Strat - egy in Solar and Space Physics, 2003
The New Science of the Sun - Solar System: Recommended Exploration of the Outer Heliosphere and the Local Interstellar Roadmap for Science and Technology 2005 - 2035, 2006 Medium, 2004
Heliophysics: THE SOLAR AND SPACE PHYSICS OF A NEW Priorities in Space Science Enabled by Nuclear Power and ERA; Recommended Roadmap for Science and Technology Propulsion, 2006 2009–2030, May 2009 workshops was that there was compelling beyond 200 AU; the interstellar magnetic It would have been at this point that Dr science on the way to the ISM, at the ISM field, cosmic ray science, interstellar McNutt must have reflected on the fact and from the ISM. winds, primordial black holes, WIMPS, that the New Horizons programme in organics and dust composition. Even reality had ‘just begun’ by illustrating There were five major goals presented further at greater than 550 AU there was some of the latest images received from on the way; Zodiacal/Cosmic background more radio science, the solar lens focus the space probe flypast of Pluto. From the science, solar wind science, parallax and exoplanets and KBO detection. flypast the downlink phase would take 16 science, radio science and astrometry. Finally there was the KBO science itself months to download all of the data from Within 50 AU the science of the between about 30 to 50 AU with fast flybys the event including the data giving ever termination shock, heliopause, bow shock, or impactors to the largest trans- increasing resolution. The journey was bow wave, organics and dust composition. Neptunian objects. not over for New Horizons as it was now There was the science of the pristine ISM targeted for an additional flyby of a small
Principium | Issue 11 | November 2015 Page 10 KBO in January 2019. It was also possible These potential approaches were It is clear that much effort has been put to reflect on how it all looked just easy - turned into a one reference mission with into this work and study similar to the after New Horizons had phoned home! goals (for a spacecraft that would fit on an efforts that were expended in the 70s, 80s, SLS Block 1B launch): and 90s to give us the Pioneers, Voyagers At this point in the presentation there and New Horizons. The input from many was a switch to considering what was 1) Reaching approximately 200 AU in others is recognised by Dr McNutt titled The Interstellar Probe (although, approximately 20 years from launch although there were too many to mention. keep calm, recall that this title describes a 2) Travelling at high solar system escape probe to go to the nearest ISM not Alpha In presenting 'Pluto and Beyond: Next velocity approximately 13 AU/year. Centauri). It illustrates a series of Steps to the Stars after Voyagers and Further than 500 AU in 50 years potential instrument payloads, resources New Horizons' Dr Ralph McNutt kindly (option 4 above). (Compare to and different science goals for such a inspired and enthused a new generation Voyager 1 at approximately 3.5 potential probe. of students, professionals and AU/year and New Horizons at enthusiasts alike at the Starship Consideration was then given to approximately 2.5 AU/year.) Congress Interstellar Hackathon. physical limits starting with the distance 3) Survivability: design for 20 years; good achievable and minimising transit times I4is would like to thank him for to last for 50 years by maximising speeds. It is clear that his contribution and also Icarus there is significant history in this field by 4) Cost approximately $1 billion or Interstellar and Drexel University for looking at previous missions that might be less excluding launch vehicle and creating the opportunity. considered prototypes, e.g. Pioneer 10 and phase E cost New Horizons. Whichever choice you might make for Interstellar Probe, The remainder of the presentation was whether ballistic or assisted, a key factor is given over to a Mission Design overview the initial kick, the launch energy that can About the author: Rob Swinney is and an investigation of the various options be given to your space probe. Deputy Director of i4is. to achieve the mission. Although solar A notional model of an Interstellar sails and nuclear electric propulsion About the presenter: Dr Ralph L Probe shows a high gain antenna for offered advantages, the required McNutt Jr, is the chief scientist in the communications, radio isotope power developments to achieve these Space Department at the Johns Hopkins supplies for electrical power, a boom for technologies remained problematic. University Applied Physics Laboratory, magnetometer and antennas clearly Whereas using the SLS option with a which he joined in 1992. In addition to demonstrating earlier heritage. single solid rocket motor 'perihelion kick other major roles Dr McNutt is a co- Nevertheless earlier proposed missions stage' and another bi-propellant 'deep investigator on NASA's New Horizons that never got off the drawing board had space manoeuvre' for extra Delta V prior mission. He has been involved in a range considered Nuclear Electric Propulsion to the perihelion burn would permit a of space physics research projects and such as the Thousand Astronomical Unit lower launch energy for a reasonable mission studies, including studies of the (TAU) mission by Nock in 1987 which probe mass. Although there were still interstellar probe missions for the future. would have been an order of magnitude some issues, this particular design only bigger in mass. Other alternatives required limited technological suggested a return back to smaller designs development in various enabling such as the NASA Interstellar Probe technologies (thermal protection, Science and Technology Definition Team instruments and power for example). which stood up in 1999 and suggested a Some of these developments would solar sail for propulsion including a near prove to be enablers for many other Sun encounter. This option suggested 200 architectures such as high energy stage AU would be achievable in 15 years with a affordable launch vehicles, with low payload requirement similar to that of specific mass power supply, reliable and Pioneer 10. These and other alternative sensitive deep space communications and in-space propulsion approaches continue other mission operations and data analysis to need significant development. performance. With the development proposed for the Nevertheless, in comparing the options Space Launch System (SLS), which falls it would still be challenging to meet the back into the more traditional approach, initial goal of 15 years to 200 AU with the Block 1B version could be enabling. these notional versions of the SLS. With increasing difficulty coupled to But within the achievable science our increasing performance, four notional heliosphere is still the key to 'The Bigger approaches were considered: Picture' of the Sun and Earth's place in 1) High energy launch (known as high the universe. C3 launch) In the presentation it is clear that the 2) Add Jupiter gravity assist Interstellar Probe is a high scientific priority which can be achieved. 2026 is a 3) Add powered Jupiter gravity assist technically implementable launch date. 4) Use a Jupiter (and other gravity As a finale there is a confident comment, assists) to enable an Oberth “We can do this; it is just a question of how manoeuvre close to the Sun and when.”
Principium | Issue 11 | November 2015 Page 11 Surviving the Interstellar Hackathon in the City of Brotherly Love Kenneth I Roy, PE ot only did I survive the “Icarus Hackathon” (more properly called, the Icarus Starship Congress of N2015) held on 4-5 September 2015 (“Labor Day” holiday weekend in the USA) on the Drexel University campus in Philadelphia, I actually had a good time. The event hotel was 4-5 blocks from the event auditorium but the weather was nice so that wasn't a problem. The organizers held a reception the evening before in a small conference room on the Drexel Campus (it was hard to find!). They had several trays of sandwiches and a few bottles of Coke. There were about 20 people there and about half of them were Drexel students. Icarus has a chapter on the university, thus the connection. I met some interesting people and enjoyed the conversations and I got enough food to call it dinner. The "why do we want to go" group, Ken is on the left at the back On Friday, 4 September, the Congress formally convened. It was somewhat one active-duty US Air Force major Kickstarter program and pulled in lots of disorganized with about 50 people in general. The people who go to these money and attention. There were a attendance, 10 to 15 of them being things are fairly passionate about the number of good papers, several less so, students. Coffee was from Starbucks in subject and the resulting conversation was and several that were advertised but not those little coffee containers. The event good. The group from our table plans to delivered - without explanation. write this up and submit somewhere. I'm was held in a large lecture hall with fixed That evening I found a great BBQ not sure what the other groups were doing seating and small tables. No food was place (of course) and went out with a lot of or plan to do. provided so lunch was “on your own” but the event people and had a great time. I the university had a lot of food trucks and I met a lot of interesting people and enjoyed myself immensely and hope to nice restaurants around. had a number of stimulating stay in contact with some interesting Dr Rachel Armstrong gave a good talk conversations. The mix of attendees people. Our group continues to work via on Prototyping Starships. Rachel is a varied from college students to senior email after the event and everyone seems dynamic and fun speaker. John Bucknell retired engineers and scientists. The excited about it. event was small enough that it was gave a nice talk on Nuclear Thermo Turbo PS. By the way, flying is no fun anymore. Rockets that offers a 20% payload fraction possible to talk to just about everybody. to LEO with a 1000-MW(t) reactor. If the Finding dinner companions was easy and About the author: Ken Roy PE, is a professional reactor power goes up to 5000-MW(t), the many people I talked to seemed delighted engineer, the inventor of the Shell World and mass fraction goes up to 35%. The to have a chance to share their ideas with Dyson Dot concepts, and one of the founders and concept looks interesting but may have a other folks who shared a common interest. directors of the Tennessee Valley Interstellar few problems with contamination in the I don't know that anybody was there Workshop, Inc and serves on the Board of TVIW. atmosphere. John is a good speaker. because their company paid for the [email protected] conference. Everybody I talked to was About 3:00 pm, the event moved there on their own dime because they upstairs to a large room with many round wanted to be there. Several students, a tables. That was the "Hackathon" part. A few professionals, and one writer from the number of topics were proposed and west coast had flown out to this event. several people proposed additional topics, one per table. Folks were allowed to self- The second day was much like the first select which table they wanted to go to. with some disorganization and late coffee, They were allowed to continue as long as some good papers, many not so good, a they liked but most (or all) broke up few not given and a 3:00 Hackathon that before 7:00 pm. It was actually fun. I actually started at 4:00 but was still fun. chose a table whose topic was “why do we There was no formal summation, closing want to go into space and why do we want ceremony, or send-off. to go interstellar?” This table included A couple of final comments - Mike four students, a couple of older folks and Mongo did an amazing job with the
Principium | Issue 11 | November 2015 Page 12 What we did at Eastercon
John I Davies
he i4is team always enjoy meeting science fiction (SF) people, both enthusiasts and practitioners - and Tthere is a powerful overlap between these two in the SF world. The imagination in SF gives our big brother, the British Interplanetary Society (BIS), its motto "from imagination to reality", most of us are readers of SF and a few of us have written some SF ourselves. Last year we were at the massive Worldcon, Loncon3, which took over a large part of the Excel centre in London's Docklands. This Easter we were at the more modest annual UK national convention the 2015 Eastercon, titled Dysprosium. Again we were alongside BIS in the exhibits space. Sadly we didn't have the headroom for our 2001 monolith. Four metres is a "big ask" for a hotel lobby and we would have to have had it lurking at the back of one of the big presentations - so it remained in storage. We gave two presentations; the first was by John Davies explaining the Kelvin points the way to the Sombrero Galaxy Tsiolkovsky rocket equation and how it is possible to use a simple spreadsheet to seems to have worked - given the tough discussing specific SF starships, such as deliver the same result from Newton's questions received from the audience! Clarke’s Quantum Drive in ‘Songs of Second Law (F=MA). John developed this Given the day and hour, 10 on a Sunday Distant Earth’ and the Sail Ship in Niven’s as part of the i4is educational programme morning, the audience were strikingly ‘The Mote in God’s Eye’ . A packed audience for UK schools. By avoiding using calculus numerous and very wide awake. on the last evening of the Con and a we can reach almost all secondary school great reception. The second was by i4is directors Kelvin students. At the Eastercon, John extended F Long and Rob Swinney and gave a Thanks to Alistair Scott and Steve this concept to help a largely adult presentation on Reverse Imagineering Salmon of BIS for their support audience gain a greater understanding of some SF starships. Rob discussed alongside at the BIS table and to John's the requirements of rocket propulsion, requirements and some formal studies “other half”, Lindsay Wakeman, for her both for themselves and for schools. This and Kelvin brought the ideas together, help on our own table. We'll be there for the annual Novacon in November 2015 in the UK city of Nottingham so if you are at the Con look out for our table and Kelvin's presentation.
Lindsay talks to Gerry Webb of BIS and CST ( www.commercialspace.co.uk )
Principium | Issue 11 | November 2015 Page 13 Sailing to unknown shores: The i4is Project Dragonfly Competition
Dan Fries
Building spacecraft specifically to leave our solar system and reach out to other stars is a feat yet to be accomplished.
here are many ideas, some of which include the construction of massive generation ships carrying tens of Figure 2: Graphical depiction of the Dragonfly design competition requirements Tthousands of human beings. Such endeavours would require unprecedented propulsion system to arrive at an 5. The mission shall maximise co-operation between individuals, interstellar probe concept realizable encounter time at the destination. organizations and nations as well as access within the next few decades. to resources on a scale that seems almost 6. The laser beam power shall not absurd when looking at the pure numbers. To collect ideas, develop a feasible exceed 100 gigawatts Another approach is to use current technology roadmap and spread the idea advances in technologies aiming at of such spacecraft the i4is decided to 7. The laser infrastructure shall be minimizing the size of devices. While this organize a student design competition and based on existing concepts for solar is not suitable for a manned mission, it in August 2014, international university power satellites would enable robotic pre-cursor missions teams were invited to participate in this in interstellar exploration. Another issue competition. To prepare the student The 100 GW beam power from a human perspective is travel time. teams, they were given an initial set of requirement constrains the design space The star system closest to us is Alpha specific problems, regarding interstellar considerably. For example, it constrains Centauri at 4.3 light years. Using exploration and laser sail spacecraft, to the mass of the spacecraft to tens of tons conventional technologies like chemical or prepare them for the independent design and is very challenging to generate, but electrical propulsion, it would take more of an entire mission and provide them not impossible. The 100 year time than a human lifetime to reach this with the framework of a proper systems constraint sets a minimum average destination. However, there is a concept engineering approach. The teams who speed of 4.3% of the speed of light. derived from solar sails that would allow were able to complete this initial task Thus, the spacecraft mass, its sail us to achieve velocities of several percent were then confronted with the mission parameters and the duration of of the speed of light with near-term requirements. These are depicted in acceleration/deceleration are left as technologies; simply termed a laser sail. Figure 2 in a graphical fashion and were variables. It was the teams’ Project Dragonfly aims at combining given as – responsibility to navigate within the miniaturized spacecraft with a laser sail given design space and make meaningful 1. Design an unmanned interstellar decisions through trade-offs and careful mission that is capable of delivering analysis. Two intermediate deliverables useful scientific data about the Alpha ensured that we could keep track of the Centauri System, associated teams’ progress and give feedback and planetary bodies, solar environment assistance when needed. We hoped that and the ISM. the staged process would maximize the students’ learning experience. 2. The spacecraft will use current or Moreover, it was our desire to increase near-future technology. public attention to the students’ hard 3. The Alpha Centauri system shall be work, an interstellar exploration topic and reached within a century of its launch. reward the participating teams which lead to the organisation of a Kickstarter 4. The spacecraft propulsion for campaign, aimed at financing the Figure 1: Dragonfly style probe with sail student’s travel expenses and bolstering attached, as illustrated by Seth Prichard acceleration must be mainly light sail-based. the awards. After some initial research we
Principium | Issue 11 | November 2015 Page 14 within our solar system. This adds the risk of high velocity impacts with dust and even smaller particles leading to abrasion of the probe/sail material and eventual failure. Once the probe arrives at the target star, how is it going to have enough time to make meaningful measurements flying at around 5% of the speed of light? Remember that requirement to maximise encounter time at the destination the probe must be decelerated. Conventional chemical or electrical propulsion systems would require huge amounts of extra mass and there is no experience with storing any type of fuel over such a long period of time. Commanding the probe is Figure 3: Technology trade-offs are a vital tool in determining optimal solutions for a even less feasible than current long range certain problem. This particular one regards the laser sail material and was conducted probes like New Horizons at Pluto. The by the CranSEDS team. command loop delay at arrival is 8.6 years. Thus, command of the probe from Earth decided to go with a 30 day campaign and The reports were reviewed by a panel is completely impractical. And how is the a funding goal of $10,000. Through the of external and internal experts and on 3 probe going to find Earth and send a relentless efforts of the Dragonfly team July 2015 the teams were invited to powerful enough signal in the right and the entire i4is network we managed present their design at the final workshop direction at this distance? In addition, to exceed that goal, not only enabling us in London at the BIS headquarters. The there have been problems sustaining to support the student teams but also main purpose of the workshop was to mission support over 10 or 20 years. What proving that i4is has the capabilities to mimic a typical design review in the space is the project management and financing obtain funding for their technology sector. Thus, the teams had to give a for an endeavour like this going to look programmes from unconventional sources presentation covering all vital aspects of like? Are there innovative mission designs such as crowdfunding, allowing us to move their design and then answer questions to make this more feasible? And the 100 forward more quickly. from the audience and review panel. Gigawatt laser that has to be stationed Out of the initial six, four international Of course, the Dragonfly mission somewhere in the vicinity of Earth with a teams were able to surmount all hurdles, includes all typical challenges particular direct line of sight to the probe. The submit a final design report and attend to space mission architectures. That is, student teams faced all of these extremely the Dragonfly workshop in London: restricted payload mass, reliable power difficult questions and many more in supply, lifetime of the mission, coming up with ideas to turn Project • Technical University of Munich communication and controls. However, Dragonfly into a reality. This is Science • University of Cairo due to the unique propulsion concept and Fiction made into reality by this new mission goal, there were some twists. A generation’s bright and adventurous • University of California Santa Barbara 100 year lifetime, for example, is unusual minds. • CranSEDS, consisting of students of in the space sector, especially without any To give you a brief impression of the Cranfield University, UK, the Skolkovo direct maintenance. Moreover, velocities amount of thought and diligence that Institute of Science and Technology, of a few percent of the speed of light lead went into solving these problems, here are Russia, and the Université Paul to a new problem, even in interstellar a few examples of what the teams came Sabatier, France space, and especially in dust clouds or
Figure 4: A Magsail as shown in the left two illustrations consists of a superconducting hoop through which a current is flowing. This current will induce a strong magnetic field which results in an opposing force when exposed to a stream of charged particles coming from, eg, a star ahead. On the right, a more sophisticated/optimized Magsail design by the Cairo University team is shown.
Principium | Issue 11 | November 2015 Page 15 Figure 5: A spaced based solar power infrastructure as illustrated on the left could be used to power Gigawatt lasers in space as well as to supply Earth with energy. To achieve the required output the UCSB team envisage an array structure as on the right. up with. The Technical University of laser array” (DE-STAR) 15 concept also 3. UCSB Munich would accelerate their spacecraft developed by the same student group, 4. Cairo University up to a distance of 2.2 light years from utilizing many lasers working parallel Earth at a final velocity of 9% of the speed rather than a single gigantic laser. All teams presented excellently of light and place the laser infrastructure researched and well thought out ideas, The Cairo University Team developed a on the Moon to compensate for the which was reflected in the small point-wise spacecraft that separates into two sub- reactive forces of the powerful laser beam differences between the four places. The probes upon arrival in the target star (we have to remember here that photons first prize, which went to the team of the system. One probe will collect data from carry momentum and thus a laser is Technical University of Munich, includes Proxima Centauri, the other data from subjected to Newton’s third law). one of the Alpha Centauri Prizes which the Alpha Centauri A and B system. Deceleration is enabled by a staged i4is awards to contributions advancing the Moreover, the team presented an magnetic/electric sail. A magnetic sail is field of interstellar travel. All of the teams innovative approach for attitude control very efficient at high velocities but gets are currently in the process of polishing during the acceleration phase by changing increasingly inefficient at lower velocities. the work they have done so far and aim to the shape of the sail. On the other hand an electric sail is publish it at conferences and in scientific capable of decelerating at lower velocities. The CranSEDS Team suggested an journals, increasing the return for Their overall spacecraft design is a interesting way to reduce the overall cost themselves and the interstellar monolithic approach, resulting in a 14 t and difficulty of keeping a 100 year space community. spacecraft. programme running: a total of three Without a doubt, it can be said the spacecraft are launched at 33 year That a single, heavy spacecraft is not Dragonfly project has already been a great intervals. Thus, each subsequent the only way was shown by the team from learning experience for i4is, thanks to the spacecraft acts as a communication relay the University of California Santa student teams and every single supporter station for its predecessors and Barbara. They designed a "wafer-based" of the Kickstarter campaign who made technological advances that have occurred design. The spacecraft is imprinted onto a this possible. Currently, the Dragonfly in the meantime can be exploited. chip with all spacecraft subsystems technology roadmap and strategic integrated into it which allows not only partnerships are being developed. We will miniaturization but also the launch of Results of the Competition keep you up to date. Together, we will go several 100 or 1,000 small spacecraft to The review panel ranked the teams to the stars and expand humanities final increase the chance that at least one of based on the reports, the presentations frontier. them succeeds. The sail would consist of a and the Q&A sessions. The final ranking dielectric material with an extremely high thus became: References: reflectivity, in order to withstand the 1. Technical University of Munich http://www.centauri- enormous power density of the Gigawatt dreams.org/?p=33615 laser. The latter is based on a “phased 2. CranSEDS About the author: Dan Fries is currently pursuing a PhD in Aerospace Engineering, dealing with supersonic combustion and turbulence, at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He is interested in advanced forms of propulsion, space utilization/exploration and systems engineering.
15. Lubin, P, Hughes, G B J, Bible, J, Johansson Hummelgård, I, “Directed Energy for Planetary Defense and exploRation - Applications to Relativistic Propulsion and Interstellar Communications” edited by Gerald Cleaver - Journal of the Figure 6: The laser sail spacecraft as imagined by the team from the Technical University of Munich British Interplanetary Society (JBIS) (in press 2015)
Principium | Issue 11 | November 2015 Page 16 Project Dragonfly – The road goes on…. A note on the way forward by Martin Langer.Although the success of our Kickstarter campaign and the workshop in London still amazes and inspires us, the time has come to move on and continue work on Dragonfly. The momentum, the spirit and the creativity is still high and the students involved are The Cairo Team The Cranseds Team still pushing the limits. In the Starship Congress 2015 held 4-5 Sept 2015 at Drexel University, Lukas Schrenk of Team Munich presented their winning design of the laser sail propelled probe. Such presentations, combined with discussion and feedback is a crucial part for our ambitious mission, since we are constantly at the edge of technical feasibility. Therefore, as a planned phase of the student competition, the student teams are now summarizing and condensing their designs into papers with help from the Dragonfly Technical The UCSB Team The TUM Team Committee. It is intended to submit these reports to peer reviewed journals towards our long time goal of sending a in the beginning - looking for partners or conferences later this year. The laser propelled spacecraft to a nearby to co-operate and experts to comment Kickstarter Campaign is still ongoing, star. In our first trade-offs a “minimal on our ideas. But we see the future since all the pledgers around the world ISM” appeared as the best candidate for rising and we feel there is a real chance (thank you by the way!) more than a starting point. Many things need to to launch a minimum ISM in the deserve their rewards in time and done for such a mission – and a lot of upcoming decade. regular updates have to be maintained. research carried out. But there are Furthermore, a "lessons learned" About the author: Martin Langer is currently pieces of the puzzle already out there: document was created out of the pursuing a PhD at the Institute of miniaturized technology available from campaign, which will help future Astronautics at the Technical University of space applications (ie CubeSats and projects within i4is. Munich (TUM). His research interests cover SmallSats), research on high power laser the reliability of Small Satellites and the Now, how do we continue the systems and widely available influence of high energy radiation on satellite technological development of a project commercial-of-the shelf electronic components. He is the current project manager like Dragonfly? To tackle this question solutions for space; Rideshares into of MOVE-II, a single unit CubeSat, due to be the technical committee created a space are carried out on a regular basis launched in 2017 and was also member of preliminary technical roadmap, sorting and ongoing research on low-energy First-MOVE, the first satellite of TUM, out different technologies and goals, trajectories may offer opportunities for launched in 2013. with respect to near-term and future us to go out there, to reach the edge of feasibility. Even the near term options our solar system. Right now we are just offer many opportunities to advance
Starship Congress at Drexel University
Principium | Issue 11 | November 2015 Page 17 TVIW 2014: i4is SF design workshop
A report from i4is’s “D-for- Design” track at the Third Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, on 09-12 November 2014.
hen TVIW’s Program Committee settled on an interdisciplinary suite of Wworkshop tracks (see next article) covering interstellar communication, Andreas Hein (L on dais) and Rob Swinney (R on dais) running the “D-for-Design” track exploration, and travel, these tracks were: at TVIW-2104. “A-for-Aero/Astro” to identify opportunities in the physical sciences, “B- Starship: History and Engineering • Archeron nuclear-electric drive from for-Bio” in the life sciences, Appraisal”, JBIS, 65, pp 185-199, 2012, A Clarke’s ‘Earthlight’. “C-for-Commo” in the social sciences, Crowl, K F Long, R Obousy.) So, after the while “D-for-Design” as a pure • Sunjammer Solar photon sail from participants in the “D” track were briefed engineering romp, we knew just who to Clarke’s ‘The Wind from the Sun’. by Rob Swinney and Andreas Hein on ask to run that last one. certain classic ships of science fiction, • Antimatter drive from Ben Bova’ We were aware of i4is’s plans to launch building on prior reading, they were split ‘Queen of Angels’. The Journal of Spacecraft Archaeology. into small teams (one per ship) and tasked • Rama from Clarke’s ‘Rendezvous “Spacecraft archaeology” means reverse- to work out the physics and an with Rama’. engineering the conceptual starships engineering description of their operation. imagined by classic science fiction authors A half-dozen examples were considered Participants also had to come up with into as-credible-as-possible pre-concept (list was compiled by Kelvin Long): the mission profile, a performance table design solutions, using known physics and with focus on the propulsion, vehicle • Laser sail system in Larry Niven’s engineering. (This process had previously configuration and layout, and a sketch if ‘The Mote in Gods Eye’. been demonstrated by reverse-engineering they had time. The philosophy was to the Enzmann Starship, which was • Bussard ramjet from Poul Anderson’s remain as close to the intention of the published in JBIS: “The Enzmann ‘Tau Zero’. author’s ideas as possible. When the fictional elements clearly conflicted with reality or at least plausibility, then the participants had to make a design decision. Summary results of this friendly design competition were then reported out to the full audience at TVIW. It is clear that this process can be repeated and many Starship ideas from the Science Fiction literature could be bought to life. “From imagination to reality”, indeed. About the author: Robert Kennedy PE is a Senior Systems Engineer VI who does green energy (mostly solar and geothermal) at what he laughingly calls his “day job”. He is the co- author (with Ken Roy) of many papers about “Dyson Dots” and “Shell Worlds”, and is also one People from Icarus Interstellar who were at TVIW-2014: L to R: Andy Presby, Lucas Schrenk, Michel Lamontagne, Jim Benford, Rob Swinney, Andreas Hein, Robert of the co-founders of the Tennessee Valley Freeland, Buck Field Interstellar Workshop and a director of i4is.
Principium | Issue 11 | November 2015 Page 18 Field report from TVIW 2014
The ancient Greeks defined authors of “Dyson Dots” (see JBIS, vol.66, no 10-11, Oct-Nov 2013) finally got to “symposium” as a “drinking meet J T Early who first came up with the idea of sunshades at L1, also 25 years party” during which events before, in the pages of JBIS? It is also were celebrated, literary and interesting that Dr Early retired just over the mountains in Kitty Hawk, North philosophical works recited, or Carolina, where powered flight was first demonstrated by the Wright Brothers in ideas discussed. 1903. Present as well was Dr Michael he Roman equivalent was Minovitch, the American mathematician convivium. As quite a few and the discoverer of the first numerical members of i4is who have enjoyed solution (aka "gravity-assist trajectory") to TVIW’s “Southern hospitality” already the famous unsolved Three-Body Problem know, our symposia have elements of both: in celestial mechanics, the discovery that they are certainly convivial, and they do made possible all of NASA’s high energy involve some drinking. (Search, for deep-space multiplanetary missions, such The pioneering generation was there example, the text string “Alpha Centauri as the Voyagers and the Pioneers. Over 70 to inspire the new generations. Sunrise”.) We believe monkey sociability other scientists, engineers, space Left, Michael Minovitch, the discoverer is essential for quality collaboration, so the enthusiasts, artists, writers, editors, of gravity-assist trajectories. Sunday Night Reception has become one publishers, and academics gathered for Right, Santosha Havercamp, child of of the hallmarks of the TVIW. The third this symposium, which was again held in one of this TVIW 2014’s essay winners, symposium which returned to its roots in the Double Tree Hotel in Oak Ridge as it Noah Havercamp. Oak Ridge, Tennessee, on 09-12 was in 2011. Mostly they came from the November 2014 was no different. American Southeast, in keeping with the engineering for world ships, life sciences, (Early on in the planning, we delayed the Workshop’s name, but there was talent SETI & communications, and design opening from the first week of November from the private-, public-, and military- concepts for interstellar travel. Why does to the second, in order to synchronize sectors from as far away as Germany, the TVIW have these funny “workshop TVIW 2104 with the premiere of the United Kingdom, and California. One tracks”? Because TVIW serves as both a movie Interstellar.) thing all these participants had in colloquium to present papers of interest to common was thirst, because a number of colleagues, and as a workshop to get As in 2011, the Reception took place in them had spent all day in two paid things done. Interstellar is no small Barbara Jackson’s and Robert Kennedy’s Seminars put on by the Workshop, on subject we are dealing with; so what can living room. It was co-sponsored by Toni Terraforming and Space Propulsion we practically contribute? People say Weisskopf’s Baen Books ( www.baen.com ) respectively. (Despite the fine traditions creativity can’t be forced, but the and Robert’s Russian-American trading we are creating, we also innovate. This conditions to foster creativity certainly can company, Ultimax Group Inc year the paid Seminars were one such. be—so our explicit intention was to (www.ultimax.com ). The date is What we now call “Working Tracks” was engineer the conditions to nurture those historically noteworthy, for it was 25 years another, a fuller expression by Eric things that need doing and promote almost on the dot after the Fall of the Wall Hughes of the Hackers-Conference- progress in our field. In regard to at 2245 Central European Time (1645 inspired “Birds of a Feather sessions” from interstellar studies in general and SETI in Eastern) on 09 November 1989. It was TVIW 2013.) particular, there have been three truly also in Robert’s living room that all the seminal conferences in history, all of them It has been observed by many that “one highly interdisciplinary: the 1961 meeting thing you don’t get a lot of at TVIW and that’s at Green Bank organized by Frank Drake free time” . It’s true. We try to design a himself, the 1971 “CETI” conference at reasonable schedule every year, and every Byurakan Observatory in old Soviet year we fail. Sigh. Armenia jointly organized by the The basic two-day program consisted of American and Soviet Academies of a single-track of 19 plenary sessions, all of Science, and 1983’s “Interstellar which were taped by our president and Migration” workshop at Los Alamos. The talented videographer John Preston: latter two generated quite remarkable (https://www.tviw.us/tviw-2014-videos ). proceedings, one edited by Carl Sagan On Monday morning, we kicked off (Communication with Extraterrestrial with an inspiring keynote lecture by Intelligence, 1973), the other by Finney & Dr Sara Seager of MIT on “The Search for Jones (Interstellar Migration and the Earth 2.0”. Human Experience, 1985). One salient quote from decades ago has been Interleaved with that were four parallel inspirational to us at the TVIW: “the form Dr. Sara Seager, MIT “The Search for workshop tracks that provided “quality of the discussions was… an initial presentation Earth 2.0” time” for participants to dive into systems of a subtopic by a discussion leader and then an
Principium | Issue 11 | November 2015 Page 19 Participants and organizers of TVIW 2014 often lively and vigorous range of comments, Formal programming concluded closed the TVIW at what’s called “the criticism, and free association” (Sagan, 1973). Tuesday night with a panel of science Dead Dog Session” (not a “session” at all) This gave us the rationale for our fiction writers giving a discussion for our in the “Consuite” (another thing we’ve workshop-track approach to interstellar Public Outreach (another signature borrowed from local science-fiction- communication, exploration, and travel. event), in conjunction with a space/science conventions), at which those hardy souls “A-for-Aero/Astro” was to identify book sale (including tomes penned by who had survived so far consumed all the opportunities in the physical sciences, “B- some of our participants) orchestrated by remaining beverages and victuals. Then for-Bio” in the life sciences, one of our sponsors, Barnes & Noble. we toddled off to do major face plants, “C-for-Commo” in the social sciences, That night, our fellow participant Jim because this is why TVIW is a sesquiennial while “D-for-Design” was just a pure Beall got his very first commercial writing affair: more frequent than that would kill engineering romp (see Robert's report gig with Baen Books at TVIW-2014 (as the volunteers. above in this issue). well as a first-time JBIS contributor!), as a Remember the admissions process for direct result of being there. Jim had A buffet dinner, provided by one of our TVIW-2016 has now opened: written detailed notes during Track “A”, sponsors, Digital Oilfield Solutions, was https://www.tviw.us/event/tviw- but then took them in a completely held on Monday night around the pool of 2016/participate . Don’t forget to keep unexpected direction. While discussing the Doubletree Hotel. After another day checking our website: www.tviw.us for the potential of this approach with Les of plenaries and parallel tracks on news, and hope to see all y’all in Johnson at the close of the Tuesday Night Tuesday, the respective leaders from each Chattanooga in 2016. Public Outreach Event, Toni Weisskopf of the four tracks enthusiastically reported leaned around the microphone and hired About the author: Robert Kennedy PE is a Senior out their results to a rather boisterous Jim on the spot. This is what she Systems Engineer VI who does green energy audience. Track A’s 4-by-8-foot illustration published: (mostly solar and geothermal) at what he panel had so many colored strings on it www.baen.com/our_worldship_broke.asp . laughingly calls his “day job”. He is the co- that Andy Presby quipped, “one more author (with Ken Roy) of many papers about thread and that thing will achieve We began Wednesday with what has “Dyson Dots” and “Shell Worlds”, and is also one sentience”. (Track A became a story on become yet another hallmark of the of the co-founders of the Tennessee Valley the Baen website, Track B’s and Track C’s TVIW, the Big Techno Tour. This year, we Interstellar Workshop and a director of i4is. intellectual products ended up getting were conducted all over the Oak Ridge published by JBIS, and Track D—which National Laboratory was Kelvin Long’s brainchild to begin (www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZUE030yM with—will be a whole day workshop by Vk ), including the Manhattan-Project-era itself put on by BIS this coming Graphite Reactor and its 1940s control November.) The formal program wrapped room (old Big Science), the Spallation up with a bang: a talk by Les Johnson Neutron Source (multi-billion-dollar new describing his proposed small solar sail Big Science), and the Supercomputing mission that could slingshot around the facility, wherein supernovae are Sun and be flung out of the Solar System modelled, among other things. The entirely, getting to 94 AU out in just a few Public Relations Committee felt years. This is a completely credible validated when the tour guide came concept to Go Interstellar with modest down the front stairs of the SNS and funds in short order. Though exhausted said, “Are you from that meeting we’ve been by this point, this reporter/organizer can hearing about on national public radio?” only describe the mood at this point as Wednesday afternoon followed with a joyous. (We may add “ending with a group viewing of the film "Interstellar" . bang” as yet another signature event of The mood after this stunning film can best the TVIW.) be described as cathartic. Afterward, we
Principium | Issue 11 | November 2015 Page 20 XIOM AThe Journal of the Initiative for Interstellar Studies™
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Axiom is a print journal, obtainable via - http://www.lulu.com/shop/kelvin-long/axiom1/paperback/product-22353814.html All profits raised go directly towards the activities of our organisation. The first issue contains three papers - • The ‘Invention’ of the Starship and Revisiting Tsiolkovsky - Kelvin F. Long • Two-Stage vs. Single-Stage: A Performance Comparison - Adam Crowl • Exponential Growth for Another Thousand Years - Stephen Ashworth
Principium | Issue 11 | November 2015 Page 21 Film Review: The Martian
After the distant thrills of The premise blown over is essentially zero (and the dust storms are talcum powder!). This is a plot "Interstellar" we review a film Matt Damon, as engineer and botanist hole in the book and its author freely astronaut Mark Watney, is stranded on admits that he needed a dramatic way to with its feet very much on the Mars. How can he survive? Can he get strand his astronaut on Mars and bent the ground. In this case the back? But this is no "Robinsonade". This facts to achieve this. So we suspend our is an adventure displaying the Right Stuff, engineering judgement if we like the story intrinsically hostile but in the as exemplified by Yeager, Glenn (and the - which I do! rest of the Mercury Seven), Armstrong - end, surprisingly benign oh, and an obscure fellow named Gagarin. The cast surface of the only planet Alternatively, this is the fairy tale story More good news, the casting is near of how an unpublished author, using perfect. Damon can play the everyman which some of us may reach technology invented very recently, self- adventurer better than any current star within the lifetime of your, published his carefully researched tale and (just look at the Bourne films). Jessica got Hollywood (and perhaps its greatest Chastain can play just about anyone and is admittedly elderly, reviewer. SF director) to make it into the film just right for a mid-21st century mission released this year. commander. Chiwetel Ejiofor is another actor who can play virtually any part and Director: Ridley Scott Is it right? does just the right combination of gung ho I'm not going to attempt to evaluate and gravitas I imagine for a mission Script: Drew Goddard, based on the novel by director. Again, my more knowledgeable Andy Weir the plausibility of the story from the astronautical engineering point of view. colleagues may correct me here but it works for the story. The lesser parts are Running time: 141 minutes I'm not an astronautical engineer any more, the issues aren't in the area I used all top professionals playing professionals Starring: Matt Damon (stranded astronaut to know and the web will be alive with in the space business very well. I'll come Watney), Jessica Chastain (commander astronaut opinions, well-founded to wonky, for to a couple of quibbles later. Lewis), Kristen Wiig (NASA PR Montrose), Jeff months, if not years to come. Several of Daniels (NASA Director Sanders), Michael Peña my i4is colleagues will have their much Does it work? (pilot astronaut Martinez), Kate Mara more authoritative opinions too! The overall tone of the film is almost (SysAdmin astronaut Johanssen), Sean Bean light-hearted despite the perils. This But let's get that storm on Mars out of (Flight Director Henderson), Sebastian Stan works because the bantering style is how the way. Mars does have storms with high (Medic astronaut Beck), Aksel Hennie (German humans can handle persistent peril wind-speeds and lots of dust flying around chemist astronaut Vogel), Chiwetel Ejiofor without losing sanity - and the 12A but the atmospheric pressure is so low (Mission Director Kapoor) certificate widens the audience. Watney's that the chance of the ascent vehicle being survival on potatoes grown using his own
Principium | Issue 11 | November 2015 Page 22 (and his crewmates) excrement is both It's a hymn to engineering, both plausible and bizarre. The light and shade planned and "seat-of the pants". The of tension and humour have carried over Hermes craft is a beautiful descendant of very successfully from book to film. the Jupiter ship in 2001 and Watney is the engineer as hero in its best form since There are moments however, Apollo 13. particularly for the central character, where deeper despair would have been We now know there is running water more realistic. The skin-of-the-teeth occasionally on Mars, so maybe Andy Weir solutions he had to come up with were wouldn't need that too-strong wind to often glossed over - a judgment about how menace the ascent vehicle - a briny flood scary you want to make it. And it's would do. Which is intriguing given the difficult to see how to show the scientific rumour that NASA may have held back and technical detail without it becoming a the news about the running water until physics and chemistry lesson (a possible the film was released. problem with the book?). About the author: John I Davies is a Senior Researcher with i4is and editor of Principium. Now some quibbles – He is a retired software engineer and telecoms I mentioned the jokes. They are one of consultant. He started in the space business but the best features of both book and film. was distracted by computer communications. They contrast lightness to peril and add humanity to technology. Sadly, one of the best in the book should perhaps have been left out of the film, given the casting. Mission Director Kapoor is asked, at a particularly tense moment, "Do you believe in God?" "Yes, lots of them, I'm a Hindu". Making the mission director an ethnic African with an Indian parent allows him to retain his name, Kapoor, and religious background but deflates the jokes. Asked "Do you believe in God?" he has to respond with an explanation of his mixed ancestry instead of that instant witty response. In the last major action sequence, the crew on the Hermes carry out their EVA without so much as a safety line or a carabiner in sight. NASA apparently gave the film a lot of support but this looked like rashness bordering on "roller skating in a buffalo herd"! And in the same sequence, would Watney really have climbed up to the Mars Ascent Vehicle nosecone and hung out there waving about like Tiny Clanger? I was almost expecting to hear a swanee whistle conversation. OK, enough quibbles, but that last kids TV alien reminds me of some UK TV Martians who really did live on potatoes. What’s in Principium 12 Instant mash in this case. Have a look on In the next issue of Principium our YouTube for the Smash Martians! Guest Introduction will be from our i4is colleague, Gillian Norman. Gill See it! will give us her personal perspective on It's the best space adventure since the why and the how of Interstellar Gravity - and it looks a lot more plausible Studies. to me. But it is not Ridley Scott's best by We will feature some musings from some distance. You don't walk out of the John Davies on "Transcendence going cinema in a visual and emotional haze. Interstellar", a recent Centauri But will he ever surpass Blade Runner, Dreams paper by Andreas Hein, and Alien and Gladiator? And who else can do we aim to give you an account of the this better? Ridley Scott's second best is other keynote from the recent Starship still better than most others greatest Congress, “Prototyping Starships” by work. Professor Rachel Armstrong.
Principium | Issue 11 | November 2015 Page 23 Get your copy via Lulu.com
Principium | Issue 11 | November 2015 Page 24 STARSHIP ENGINEER
The Initiative for Interstellar Studies (I4IS), in collaboration with the British Interplanetary Society, Tuesday 24th and Wednesday 25th November, 2015. To be held in the conference room at the Join us and BIS HQ, London SW8 1SZ you too can This new and innovative educational product is being launched by the Initiative for Interstel- become a lar Studies (a not-for-profit organisation incorporated in the UK) in collaboration with the Starship British Interplanetary Society (a registered Charity). We aim to help raise the educational levels of participants so that they can use some of the Engineer tools to start assessing deep space exploration concepts and even designing interstellar vessels. Two one day courses have been arranged, and you can either attend one or both, each will be different and important in their own way.
Tuesday 24 th November: Starship Engineer This course aims to give you a basic grounding in interstellar studies. We go from considering the essential requirements to giving you an overview of different spacecraft systems. We then take you on a journey through several actual starship design studies, and show you how to cal- culate and evolve an interstellar machine. We will give a broad set of examples from the litera- ture, but focus on two specific case studies, that of fusion propulsion and laser-sail propulsion, as plausible ways by which we may someday reach the distant stars. Wednesday 25 th November: Science Fiction Starships The works of science fiction literature have produced many fascinating starship concepts, but how realistic are they? In this one day course we will examine texts such as laser-sails in “The Mote in God’s Eye” (Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle), Torch Ships in “Time for the Stars” (Robert Hein- lein), Quantum Ramjets in “The Songs of Distant Earth” (Arthur C Clarke) and other inspirational examples of interstellar vessels. This course will teach you how to evaluate these ideas from the imagination and how to perform a physics and engineering assessment of their feasibility. Education Requirements: The courses are open to everyone and anyone is welcome to attend, but to participate in the design workshops it is recommended that you have some familiarity with basic mathematics and algebra. Principal Lecturers: Kelvin F. Long is a physicist and aerospace engineer, Chief Editor Journal of the British Inter- R O planetary Society, author of the book “Deep Space Propulsion: A Roadmap to the Stars” and is F E the Executive Director i4is. V I
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I Director of i4is. He, and Long, have both been involved in the creation and running of the only two modern starship design projects, Project Icarus (fusion) and Project Dragonfly (laser-sails). S T U D I E S Pricing: Normal rate: £59 per day or £99 for the two days. “Starships in Discounted rate: £49 per day or £79 for the two days; our Lifetime” includes students and senior citizens. Lunch and coffee will be provided on the day for all attendees. To join any of the events contact the booking team at: [email protected] or visit www.i4is.org www.i4is.org for more details.
Principium | Issue 11 | November 2015 Page 25 Mission Statement Vision Statement Values Statement The mission of the Initiative for We aspire towards an optimistic To demonstrate inspiring leadership Interstellar Studies is to foster and future for humans on Earth and in and ethical governance, to initiate promote education, knowledge and space. Our bold vision is to be an visionary and bold programmes co- technical capabilities which lead to organisation that is central to operating with partners inclusively, to designs, technologies or enterprise catalysing the conditions in society be objective in our assessments yet that will enable the construction and over the next century to enable keeping an open mind to alternative launch of interstellar spacecraft. robotic and human exploration of the solutions, acting with honesty, frontier beyond our Solar System and integrity and scientific rigour. to other stars, as part of a long-term enduring strategy and towards a sustainable space-based economy.
Front cover: “Daedalus Staging”, art by We'd love to hear from you, our readers, Adrian Mann www.bisbos.com . about your thoughts on Principium, the Initiative or interstellar flight in general. R O F Back cover: The Globular Cluster Omega Come along to Facebook, E V Twitter(@I4Interstellar) or LinkedIn to join in I Centauri NGC 5139 - European Southern T
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w ww.eso.org/public/images/eso0844a/ N Editor: John I Davies I Deputy Editor : Kelvin F Long Layout: Adrian Mann S T U D I E S The Initiative For Interstellar Studies is a pending institute, incorporated in the UK May www.I4IS.org 2014 as a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee (number:09062458)