Robert Zubrin: the importance of space for mankind.

Post Reply New Topic

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ5sWfhkpE0[/youtube]

Don't expect to get anywhere near light speed this way. The mass increases with the velocity of the vehicle. mass-relativistic = mass-rest/sqrt( 1 -v^2/c^2) where v is the velocity of the rocket.

Accelerating more mass requires more energy. Where will it come from?

ruveyn

When traveling interplanetary space one does not need to go anywhere near light speed, but in atomic rockets proposed for interstellar travel the energy is derived from the nucleus of the atom rather than merely the valance.

Most of us know the difference between nuclear energy (in fission and fusion, mass is converted according to Einstein's equation). Still the question arise: where will that energy come from to propel ever increasing relativistic mass and accelerate it to higher speeds?

If the fastest speed we can do is c/10 then it will take about 40 years to get to the nearest star. That is a long, long time.

ruveyn

I wonder how the tax payers are going to respond when they find out that they have to finance Zubrin's interstellar space research? Are they going to think that this project is a boondoggle?

If I had the opportunity to be in interstellar space for 40 years, traveling to another star system, that would just plain be awesome. Even if I didn't make it to the destination, it would still be cool.



Zubrin's goal is Mars. The NSWR is a patent.

With the invention of the nuclear salt water rocket Zubrin has already achieved his Mar's goal at least theoretically. Mark my words any money that Zubrin receives will be used to perfect his more advanced NSWR design which will be capable of interstellar travel. So the question remains is will the taxpayers support this boondoggle?

Anyway interstellar capability may be a good thing. If we have the technology to send a small payload into deep space that technology would come in handy for sending big payloads to Mar's .

It would also be nice if all atomic jet aircraft used for passenger travel her on Earth would have lunar flight capability for built in nuclear waste disposal.

mars is a far cry from interstellar travel but in that scope a nuclear thermal rocket of any kind would be desirable to purely chemical rockets,
that or ion engines but the true issue will always be liftoff from earth, when in space very little is required.

Putting 1 man into interstellar space would be no more technologically challenging than putting a thousand men on Mars.

no but now you are comparing a proof of concept to a full scale industrial enterprise,

the gains they give are vastly different and that skews the risk vs reward equation.

All I am saying is that taxpayers cannot expect technology to be held back. Tax payers may approve money for the task at hand which is Mars but that will not prevent tax payer paid engineers from dreaming about interstellar travel. NASA managers may attempt to fire these engineers but doing this would stifle creativity and leave us with nothing but a robotic space program.

true,

hopefully people will keep dreaming,

two danish engineers are planning a manned launch by 2015, all privately funded by them and what donations they recevie through the web.
the project itself is open source and their first major test fire went allright, they had attitude problems but then again the actual control stage was not implemented yet.


copenhagen suborbitals

in essence i dont think any of the major space agencies are needed anymore.

So nuclear materials are going to be given to private individuals?

they already are,

radioactive materials are handled by everyone from medical proffesionals to companies making smoke detectors and watches.

for something as controlled as a space launch i dont see why that should be a problem.

Chemical rockets are proven technology though, and having a six month one way travel time for a conjunction class interplanetary transfer is not too long a time for transit. Having nuclear thermal rockets, as per Asimov's The Martian Way may indeed sound cool, but why not stick to what works when we're first starting out, and then develop yet more later - especially on Mars and away from the smothering bureaucracies of Earth.