Future of Space Travel —Insights from a Revolutionary Rocket Scientist
Costa Rican-American physicist/rocket scientist and former NASA astronaut has some interesting insights on the kind of power and propulsion will need in order to truly colonize space. By his calculations, a trip to could take as little as 39 days, and, with the development of nuclear powered travel, people could visit anywhere in the solar system within a few weeks. Franklin Chang-Diaz believes that these kinds of developments aren’t too far away.
“I think lots of people are going to be moving into space. I think we will be populating the moon, building enclaves of research and even money-making ventures there. Just last month, Ad Astra signed an agreement with Excalibur Exploration Ltd., a British company, to mine asteroids [when the time is right]. I believe there will be a huge demand for resources, particularly water, from asteroids and comets, because taking water from the earth is going to be very expensive. We're probably going to supply the moon and the habitat on the moon with water from comets.”
But in order for this future to come to full fruition, Chang-Diaz believes we have to let go of our current, archaic notions of how to travel through space.
“In order for us to conduct a serious space-exploration program, we need to develop two things: power and propulsion. Power in space is still severely limited. Mainly, we use solar power. This is fine as long as we stay near the sun, but the issue remains that for and beyond, we will need to develop nuclear electric power. If we don't, we might as well quit. We're not going to get anywhere without it.”
Chang-Diaz is president and CEO of Ad Astra Rocket Company. He is currently working on such a propulsion system that could vastly shorten travel time in space and greatly improve fuel efficiency. Chang-Diaz will participate in the Emerging Technologies Conference later this week. In January, his company will test the VX-200, a full-scale ground prototype of the variable specific impulse magnetoplasma rocket (VASIMIR), first conceived by him back in 1979.
The rocket will use hot plasma, heated by radio waves and controlled by a magnetic field, for propulsion. Chang-Diaz believes that the system will allow rockets to travel through space at higher speeds, with greater fuel efficiency—something that he says is vital to meaningful space travel.
“Trips to are prohibitively long and would expose the travelers to very high levels of radiation. I came to realize after my [NASA] flights that space is a tough place to be…and you're going to discover what loneliness is all about. I think that pretty much sums it up: space is a vast void, and you're really going to have to travel fast if you're going to have any chance of surviving. I also would not want to send people to on a fragile and power-limited ship. If you send people that far, you have to give them a fighting chance to survive, and the only way you can do that is if you have ample supplies of power. Power is life in space.”
If the prototype demonstrates sufficient efficiency, thrust, and specific impulse on the ground, the next step will be the VF-200, a flight version of the rocket. Ad Astra plans to fly the VF-200 to the International Space Station, where it would help maintain the space station's orbit. If all this goes according to plan, Chang-Diaz hopes to eventually build VASIMIRs that will travel to and beyond.
According to Chang-Diaz, “Someday, the earth will be a place humanity will come back to, sort of like our national park. I don't mean to get rid of the earth like an old shoe. We need to protect it so that we can always come back to it.”
But critics of space explorations wonder why we’re investing so much in space travel, when we have so many problems “at home” that need addressing. But Chang-Diaz says that space travel isn’t just for fun—it’s a necessity.
“We're investing in our survival…we are a species with no redundancy. If something ever happens to our planet, it could be the end of our civilization. Investing a few dollars to ensure the survival of the human species--I don't think that's too much.”
But like many others in the private space sector—he’s lost his faith in relying on government programs to get us to that point.
“For NASA and the government programs, the motive is not really exploration. It's mainly national prestige. The process of going on missions is very slow. I just don't think that model is going to get us too far very fast. I think that the dynamic nature of the private sector is what's really going to kindle the fire. I think if you want to go to the moon, you might as well start thinking about packing your bags, because it's going to happen very soon.”
Posted by Rebecca Sato
Related Galaxy Posts:
Space Odyssey 2: Plasma-based Space Travel a Reality -A Galaxy Insight
Space Colonization -Our Future or Fantasy?
"The Overview Effect": Is Space Travel Next Step in Human Evolution?
The "Hawking Solution": Will Saving Humanity Require Leaving Earth Behind?
Links:
http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/19427/?a=f
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/support/researching/aspl/vasimr.html
I think the cost would seperate a person from the dream.
Posted by: M Martin | March 09, 2008 at 09:54 AM
Diaz right about one thing, man needs to go into space and colonize, other than that his propulsion technology is pretty lame.
The Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) is an electro-thermal thruster for spacecraft propulsion. It uses radio waves to ionize a propellant and magnetic fields to accelerate the resulting plasma to generate thrust.
Current VASIMR designs should be capable of producing specific impulses ranging from 3,000 to 30,000 seconds (jet velocities 30 to 300 km/s).
The technology does NOT use abundant energy in space for increased energy and as a renewable source of energy to approach light speed velocities.
Its ideas like this that will kill any hope for man to explore the solar system and beyond !
Posted by: mthomas | April 12, 2008 at 06:30 PM