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Reaching out for the stars
AFTER decades of watching Star Trek, mankind is actually spreading its wings to “boldly go where no man has gone before.” Latest state-of-the-art technology along with many new innovative and futuristic spacecraft designs and tools are being perfected, today, to enable humans to explore the solar system and extend our reach beyond other galaxies out there.
Even though we know that there are many other stars out there and suspect that they might harbour planets, it not easy travel through these vast distances.
Far out
Mankind has already sent out its first interstellar probes to the stars. The Pioneer and Voyager spacecraft are fine examples of the endeavour. But they are not capable of the communication or power sources required for such a task as truly exploring the vastness of the cosmos. It is an accepted fact that the Universe is indeed a large region of space and time.
According to Steven Howe, who is co-founder and chief executive officer of Hbar Technologies, Voyager 1, sent out by Nasa in 1977, is mankind’s first foray into interstellar space. It is now approximately 90 astronomical units (8.4 billion miles from the Sun).
The Kuiper Belt is around 200 AU; the Oort Cloud at about 10,000 AU and interestingly, the first star outside the solar system is 260,000 AU! So how do we even think of reaching out to the stars?
As explained by Howe, “any technology current today will require a “miracle” of one sort or another to send a probe to the next star in a reasonable time. To send one pound of mass to the next star in 40 years means that the energy contained in a 100 million pounds (50 kilotons) of high explosive has to be expended to get the “pound” up to speed. Thus, the development of very small payloads and ultralight propulsion systems is essential”.
But here some of the technologies already being looked into will be essential, as Howe further explains, “the only on-board propulsion technologies that we know of that might have a chance of enabling interstellar flight are fusion and antimatter.
Fusion has remained an elusive animal. Antimatter technology is in its infancy, but it is rapidly growing”. He also forecasts that within the next fifty years, antimatter technology may have the same impact as the laser has had over the past fifty years.
At present Hbar Technologies is working of the Antimatter Driven Sail concept sponsored by NASA’s Institute for Advanced Concepts (NIAC). The goal of which is to visualize the technological problems that might be faced in launching a lightweight instrument package out towards other star systems.
In the process of discovering new energies, Howe outlines mankind’s technological know-how over the years. “The ages of human civilization can be defined very simply by observing the intensity of the energy sources they controlled: The Stone Age had wood fire; the Bronze Age had coal; the Industrial Age has gaseoline. We are at the threshold of the nuclear age…but only if we have the fortitude to take on the challenge. Otherwise we fall back,” he points out.
The first phase of the work is successfully sending a probe out to the Kuiper Belt in a decade. In Howe’s report to the NAIC, he noted that, “such a mission is still beyond the capability of NASA or any other agency using currently available technology”.
But the company is working on sending a small payload to 250 Astronomical Units or AU with the help of 30 milligrams of anti- hydrogen in 10 years. This amount, he says is within the product potential using the currently available accelerator technologies.
He predicts that, according to calculations a probe of this kind could be sent to the triple star system of Alpha Centauri with the use of antimatter, in the next 40 years. Also the use of Antimatter Driven Sail Technology will enable mankind to send probes out to other stars.
Road map and missions
Sending out probes to the stars without a proper road map would not be a very sensible idea as given the huge region of outer space, the spacecraft would be aimlessly roaming about wasting precious time and space. For this purpose, MapQuest, an interstellar version, is being chalked out. This is due to the technological advances in telescopic facilities such as the Hubble Space Telescope, the Space InfraRed Facility and with the assistance of ground based observations.
Along with these, a future array of space-based instruments will also help to map out and select more possible Earth-like planets. Some of these missions are: The Kepler Mission set for 2007, NASA’s Space Interferometry Mission or SIM, set for launch in 2009, the Terrestrial Planet Finder or TPF, hopefully to be launched during 2012-2015.
Aside from this, The European Space Agency is also working on Darwin, a mission for its Horizons 200 program, to be launched between 20014 to 20015.
The Kepler Mission will keep a lookout for any transits of Earth-like planets across any other star in a region of space spanning 100,000 stars. SIMS will have the job of accurately determining the position and distance of a star more than any other previous mission.
The Terrestrial Planet Finder or TPF will observe for five years, the atmospheric signatures of stars, which can be habitable or otherwise. The Darwin mission will use a flotilla of six space telescopes to look for telltale signs of life on planets which are Earth-like. In order to cross and travel great cosmic distances, Jordin Kare, who is a technological consultant regarding advanced space systems in Seattle Washington, feels that “Warp Drives” or Hyperspace Jumps’ are not needed.
Unlike the sci-fi star ships. He is of the opinion that antimatter could enable speedy interstellar travel. But at the moment, it is extremely expensive and the know-how of how to go about storing it or using it is not available.
“The basic problem is that getting to the stars in a reasonable time takes a very high velocity and therefore an enormous amount of energy, no matter how you do it,” he said. “If you’re willing to take a thousand years to go a few light years, ordinary nuclear fission power and ion thrusters will get you there. That’s the ‘generation ship’ approach that has appeared in science fiction many times. Given a good enough reason, such as finding out that the Sun will explode on Jan. 1, 2100, we could start building interstellar ships today,” he explained.
A design of an interstellar propulsion system by Kare uses a long trail of fusion fuel, which has been previously placed in the path to supply power to the spacecraft. Another interesting way suggested is to use the pressure of a laser beam or microwave beam to push a reflective sail to high speeds. “It’s still a huge project”, he said as launching a SailBeam would take several gigawatts of power for many years. “But it doesn’t take on any new physics and the technologies required are only modest extrapolations from what we can do now. My very rough guess is we could start building a SailBeam launcher in 20-30 years and be launching probes by 2050,” he stated.
With all the efforts being done to explore and perfect technologies to make interstellar travel a future possibility, mankind is almost ready to spread its wings and take off for the stars!
The writer
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