If we're ever going to get off this planet and become a true space-faring (and colonizing) civilization, we're going to have develop some more speedy and economic means of travel. Current solid fuel rockets are incredibly heavy, bulky, and expensive for any kind of long range mission. The result is that any craft needing to get to, say, Europa will have to be very big to house all the fuel needed to get there and back in a reasonable time frame, with more fuel added simply to get the craft off the ground with all that extra weight from all that extra fuel. All that adds up to one costly launch. We don't need to settle for this though or give up on reaching the outer solar system.
Scientists from all over, in the private sector and under government dollar, are developing ways to reach the heavens faster and more efficiently. For example, a project called VASIMR (Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket) is being developed by former astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz and his team at Ad Astra. Guided by powerful electromagnets, streams of ionized and superheated (to plasma states) are thrust out creating a huge amount of force. How much force? It could theoretically take a crew from Earth to Mars in 40 days. Compare that to the 200 days it would take a conventional rocket to reach Mars and you begin to see the potential.
There are many hurdles to overcome before this project becomes a reality (which I will discuss in a later entry), but it's one of the brightest potential solutions for long-range space travel.
No comments:
Post a Comment