A previous thread (
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthr...87#post1702487) got me to wandering around the web looking at different/new/unconventional forms of space travel that are not that far into the distant future. I, for one, get a stiffy when i think about this type of stuff, and would like to share some of this information with you guys and see what your thoughts are on some of these ideas.
Solar Sails:
I put this one first because there will be a launch of the very first real solar sail coming up VERY soon (within a month or two). It is a Russian project and the craft is named Cosmos 1.
http://www.planetary.org/solarsail/
This is a theory about to become fact. They really don't have any idea at all how this will work, the thing could fall apart or fly like a kite.
Quote:
Cosmos 1 has 8 triangular sails, each 15 meters (50 feet) in length, configured around the spacecraft's body at the center. The sails will be deployed by inflatable tubes once the spacecraft is in orbit.
The spacecraft will be launched from a submerged Russian submarine in the Barents Sea. It will be carried into orbit on board a Volna rocket - a converted ICBM left over from the old Soviet arsenal.
Cosmos 1 will orbit the Earth at an altitude of over 800 kilometers. It will gradually raise its orbit by solar sailing -- the pressure of light particles from the Sun upon its luminous sails.
|
Laser Propelled Craft:
The government has been experimenting with this technology for some time in secret (supposedly) and now private companies are starting to pick it up. This technology is still very much in it's infancy, but already vry small craft are being shot up into the sky under laser power.
Lightcraft Technology Inc Is one of these companies
http://www.lightcrafttechnologies.com/ (there's also been some work out of japan)
The web site linked above has video of some of LTI's record flights. Granted it's only a few hundred feet, and the craft are only a few inches, but you gotta start somewhere, and i gotta admit it looks pretty cool.
Quote:
|
A lightcraft in action. The bright light you see is the air combusting under the rim of the craft.
|
http://science.howstuffworks.com/light-propulsion.htm
Space Elevators :
Now you all may think this one is super-far off but it may not be as far off as many people believe. Due to recent events such as the latest space shuttle tragedy, and the growing ease of carbon nanotube production this dream may become reality almost certainly within our lifetime, if not within the next 20 years. Various space agencies such as NASA have begun serious consideration into the subject and the ball is starting to roll on ideas of how to accomplish this realistically and soon.
http://www.space.com/businesstechnol...or_040629.html
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast07sep_1.htm
http://www.wired.com/news/technology...,57536,00.html
Magnetic Field Disrupter:
This one may also seem a bit far-fetched, but the technology is proven, if not implemented yet (as far as we know) on a large scale craft. This one was touched on by the original TFP post that gave me the idea to make this one (link on top of post). Supposedly the US government already has a HUGE craft (possibly more) that utilizes the technology to make itself super-light.
The basic idea around the concept is that with the generation of a large/powerful enough electromagnetic bubble you could, in effect, cancel out th earth's gravitational pull on an object inside that bubble (atleast partially). You would reduce the mass/weight of an object 90%, thus reducing the need for vast amounts of energy neded for things like thrust and lift. Also such a super-light low-mass vehicle would be able to maneuver much easier as the gravitational forces acting on it would be much smaller. It would be able to stop faster/easier and shift direction faster/easier.
http://seekers.100megs6.com//UFOManTR-3B.htm
http://www.mufonla.com/tr3b.htm
The technological ability is real, wether or not you want to believe that the US has built/uses such a craft is up to you. With all the stories of reverse-engineered alien technology and such it can be a little hard to swallow for some. This basic technology does not nessesarily have to have been dreamed up by a little grey guy with big eyes though, its really not all that hard to grasp the concept, and you dont have to put all that much thought into it. Even if we DID get this stuff from aliens (yea yea..) we probably would have thought of it ourselves eventually.
Ion Engines :
Ion engines are already in use, and their use is expanding.
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/SMART-1/SEMLB6XO4HD_0.html
Quote:
Operating in the near vacuum of space, ion engines shoot out a propellant gas much faster than the jet of a chemical rocket. They deliver about ten times as much thrust per kilo of propellant used. The ions that give the engines their name are charged atoms, accelerated by a choice of electric guns. If the power comes from the spacecraft's solar panels, the technique is called 'solar-electric propulsion'.
Ion engines work their magic in a leisurely way. As solar panels of a normal size supply only a few kilowatts of power, a solar-powered ion engine cannot compete with the whoosh of a chemical rocket. But a typical chemical rocket burns for only a few minutes. An ion engine can go on pushing gently for months or even years - for as long as the Sun shines and the small supply of propellant lasts.
In 1998, NASA launched a demonstration spacecraft called Deep Space 1, which flew by a near-Earth asteroid and went on to intercept a comet. ESA's SMART-1, with much less chemical boost, will go no farther than the Moon. But it will demonstrate more subtle operations of the kind needed in distant missions. These will combine solar-electric propulsion with manoeuvres using the gravity of planets and moons.
|
I'll touch on a few more later on (this is taking a while to type LOL).
Next i'll go into things like Star Trek's Warp Drive.
ENGAGE!!!!1!!
