Posted on 07/31/2004 5:57:01 PM PDT by KevinDavis
NASA officials hope the door to a solution for a cheap round-trip ticket to Mars was opened at Marshall Space Flight Center on Thursday.
The center's new $32 million Propulsion Research Laboratory was built to help local researchers unlock the secrets of efficient, cheaper spaceflight.
"This is an important cornerstone" of propulsion research, said Marshall Director Dave King. "We are unveiling our future here."
(Excerpt) Read more at al.com ...
Nuclear electric seems like a hot combination.
Having trouble with the link.
Is it like this?
Magnetic Bubbles In Space: A New Propulsion Concept?
Huntsville - Jan 06, 2004
Exploration of deep space requires new propulsion technologies that not only reduce travel time, but are cost effective and safe as well.
One such proposed technology being developed at The University of Alabama in Huntsville is based on the concept of a sail pushed along by space plasma.
The basic ingredients of a plasma sail are a magnetic solenoid and a plasma machine aboard a spacecraft. The plasma machine must be capable of releasing a dense and warm plasma cloud. As the cloud expands, the magnetic field lines generated by the solenoid stretch out because of the diamagnetic nature of the plasma. This stretching creates a magnetic bubble, or balloon.
Research reveals that available plasma technologies can stretch the "balloon" to distances of several tens of kilometers, according to UAH Professor Dr. Nagendra Singh. "When this bubble intercepts the solar wind, which is a fast stream of plasma coming from the Sun and permeates all over deep space, a propulsive force acts on the spacecraft in a manner similar to the common sail," he said.
Singh is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at The University of Alabama in Huntsville. This concept of a plasma sail is still in the initial stages of development, according to Singh.
UAH researchers are developing a computer model to study the basic physics of blowing the magnetic bubble as well as how the force acting on the spacecraft to the interaction of the solar wind with the blown magnetic bubble.
"Our modeling efforts include state-of-the-art, fully three-dimensional plasma codes and electromagnetic codes to calculate the force," said Dr. Reza Adhami, chairman of UAH's Electrical and Computer Engineering Department.
Singh said the blowing magnetic bubbles might have other applications in space exploration. "Such bubbles can be used as protective shields for astronauts against energetically charged particles commonly found in space," he said.
Wow, days. A lot of effort considering we got there in 3 days during Apollo.
I'll have to show this to our youngest son (age 14) who loves all things 'Space'.
Right, but with a lot of smoke, noise, and excitement, and only once per rocket. The new system would be able to shuttle back and forth a lot, low impact.
"This rendition, by artist Les Bossinas, depicts a hypothetical spacecraft with a "negative energy" induction ring, inspired by recent theories describing how space could be warped with negative energy to produce hyperfast transport to reach distant star systems."<P
Who was Marshall anyway?
Yes, NOT to be confused with the 'negative vibes' from "kelly's heroes" . . . http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.movieactors.com/characters/freezes1/Sutherland.jpeg&imgrefurl=http://www.movieactors.com/characters/sutherland.htm&h=124&w=274&sz=9&tbnid=Lg9PsMIhGo8J:&tbnh=49&tbnw=108&start=2&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsutherland%2Bkelly%2527s%2Bheros%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DN
Interesting that the bubble could act as crew protection also.
Not really the same thing but the closest I could find off hand.
Pretty cool either way.
Interesting bio on Marshall. Didn't say he had anything to do with the space program unless he was responsible for bringing the Germans to Huntsville.
I'm lookin' - still don't have the answer but found this:
http://www.decaturdaily.com/decaturdaily/news/020812/city.shtml
Sort of like diesel electric, like train locomotives, I guess.
Hope it works, because the chemical rocket thing is very limited, for sure.
From web site: "Solar Sails in Science Fiction"
http://www.planetary.org/solarsail/science_fiction.htm
"Appropriately, the first great writer of truly scientific fiction was also the first to suggest the possibility of solar sails. In Jules Verne's 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon,..."
"Then in May 1951 the leading SF magazine of its time, Astounding Science Fiction, published a detailed account of how solar sails could be assembled in orbit and used for space travel. The account was a nonfiction article, "Clipper Ships of Space," by an engineer named Carl Wiley. ..."
"Now we come to the author who is most often given credit for introducing solar sails into science fiction: the great hard-SF writer, Arthur C. Clarke. His first story of solar sailing was published four years after "The Lady Who Sailed The Soul" (in Boy's Life, the magazine of the Boy Scouts of America, March 1964). Originally titled "Sunjammer," the story is technically much more detailed than Cordwainer Smith's accounts. But its use of solar sails is rather less spectacular: instead of carrying thousands of settlers to new planets, the story's seven "sun yachts" engage in a competitive race from Earth orbit to the Moon. "
There are several other authors mentioned. Clarke is the most famous to me. Anderson, also developed it. I think they missed some references in Heinlein, but I'm probably wrong about that.
Solar sails will probably be of some use at some time in the long distant future. Cool stuff.
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