{"id":19619,"date":"2015-08-22T21:24:38","date_gmt":"2015-08-22T13:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/six-small-steps-that-could-add-up-to-giant-leaps-for-spaceships\/"},"modified":"2015-08-22T21:24:38","modified_gmt":"2015-08-22T13:24:38","slug":"six-small-steps-that-could-add-up-to-giant-leaps-for-spaceships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/six-small-steps-that-could-add-up-to-giant-leaps-for-spaceships\/","title":{"rendered":"Six small steps that could add up to giant leaps for spaceships"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Magbeam
An artist\u2019s conception shows a Magbeam station emitting a plasma beam to propel a target spacecraft beyond Jupiter. (Credit: UW Advanced Propulsion Lab)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SPOKANE, Wash. \u2014 Is there a better way to power a spaceship? The basic tools of the rocket trade have been refined over the course of nearly nine decades, but there\u2019s only so far the physics will take us. If we ever want to send anything to another star system, as described in Kim Stanley Robinson\u2019s newly published book \u201cAurora,\u201d we\u2019ll have to come up with new technologies.<\/p>\n

Some of those technologies were laid out at Sasquan, the world science-fiction convention playing out this week in Spokane, during a session on the art and science of spaceships. And it turns out many of those technologies have a Seattle spin. Here\u2019s a quick rundown for six research areas, with links to the local connections:<\/p>\n

\"pluto\"
\nScience journalist Alan Boyle<\/strong> is the author of “The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made A Big Difference.”<\/p>\n

Ion drives:<\/strong> These are the engines that provide the \u201cimpulse power\u201d for starships on \u201cStar Trek,\u201d but the technology is science fact, not fiction. The current generation of solar-powered ion thrusters provide only enough push as a piece of paper weighing down on your hand \u2014 but they figure prominently in NASA\u2019s Dawn mission to Ceres and Vesta and the future mission to a near-Earth asteroid. Aerojet Rocketdyne\u2019s Redmond office plays a key role in electric propulsion development.<\/p>\n

Light sails and plasma sails:<\/strong> Solar sails can use the pressure of photons from the sun to drive a spacecraft through the solar system (or beyond) without on-board propellant, just as a sailboat is driven across a lake. The latest test of the technology was conducted earlier this year, using the Planetary Society\u2019s Lightsail prototype. Someday, directed beams of laser light or plasma particles could be employed to provide more push for interstellar flight (as described in \u201cAurora\u201d). The University of Washington\u2019s Advanced Propulsion Lab has looked into creating \u201cmini-magnetospheres\u201d for plasma to push against.<\/p>\n

Nuclear fusion propulsion:<\/strong> Decades ago, researchers talked of using nuclear power to blast spaceships to distant destinations. (Just look up \u201cProject NERVA\u201d or \u201cProject Orion.\u201d) \u201cAurora\u201d assumes that we\u2019ve figured out how to harness fusion power in space by the 26th century, but companies such as Redmond-based MSNW are aiming to do it long before that. (MSNW is also working on an electromagnetic thruster that calls to mind the current controversy over the EM Drive.)<\/p>\n

\"SpiderFab
In this artist\u2019s conception, a robotic spacecraft builds a large-scale structure from webs of 3-D-printed carbon fiber. (Credit: Tethers Unlimited)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In-space assembly:<\/strong> What if you could build up a spaceship from Tinkertoy-style, carbon-fiber struts that are 3-D-printed in orbit? That\u2019s exactly what Bothell-based Tethers Unlimited wants to do with its SpiderFab system. \u201cWe\u2019ve made tens of meters of truss out behind our lab,\u201d founder Robert Hoyt says. The next step is to test SpiderFab technology in space test the system in space. Hoyt says robotic \u201ctrusselators\u201d and \u201cspinnerets\u201d could build large-scale antennas for radio astronomy, or solar arrays for space-based power systems. (Tethers Unlimited has also developed tethers for propulsion and deorbiting, and is working on a solar-powered, water-based propulsion system.)<\/p>\n

In-flight refueling:<\/strong> Robert Winglee of UW\u2019s Advanced Propulsion Lab says he\u2019s devoting more attention to the idea of fueling future spacecraft with resources extracted from near-Earth asteroids. That\u2019s the sweet spot for Redmond-based Planetary Resources, which aims to start mining asteroids by 2025. \u201cYou look at the energetics and the costs \u2026 and you come to the conclusion that you have to do in-situ resource utilization,\u201d Winglee says. \u201cThe smart money is on Planetary Resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

Space elevators:<\/strong> The first five technologies are designed to work once you put a spaceship in orbit, but how do you get there? For now, chemical rockets are still the only way \u2014 but someday, payloads could ride a railway into the sky, as described in local author Neal Stephenson\u2019s latest science-fiction opus, \u201cSevenEves.\u201d Hoyt advised Stephenson while the book was being written. \u201cFor the most part, he got all the tether stuff very well,\u201d Hoyt says. You can get in on the ground floor this weekend at Seattle\u2019s Museum of Flight, where the 2015 Space Elevator Conference is under way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An artist\u2019s conception shows a Magbeam station emitting a plasma beam to propel a target spacecraft beyond Jupiter. (Credit: UW Advanced Propulsion Lab) SPOKANE, Wash. \u2014 Is there a better way to power a spaceship? The basic tools of the rocket trade have been refined over the course of nearly nine decades, but there\u2019s only so far […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5304,4820,5629,4482,2340],"class_list":["post-19619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-neal-stephenson","tag-planetary-resources","tag-sasquan","tag-science-fiction","tag-spaceflight"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19619"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19619\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}