When the astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first landed on the moon on July 20th 1969 it had revolutionized space travel and gave us the confidence that we could eventually reach the stars.Currently, manned space missions have only got us to the moon. However, unmanned missions done by robotic space probes have gone much further. The farthest a space probe has ever gone is over 19 billions miles which was done by Voyager 1 launched in 1977 and still continues to go further and further into interstellar space. It travels extremely fast at over 39,000 mph. However, the universe is colossal, containing galaxies, each galaxy containing billions of stars. To even get to the nearest star system Alpha Centurai which is about 40 trillion miles away from the earth woulds still take over 40000 years. This reveals just how massive space is. This brings into question, could we ever send people to the stars? Exploration needs to occur within a human's natural lifetime. We would need huge advancements in space technology in order to get us deeper into space. Here, we will explore advances in space technology that is likely to occur in the future.
Future Methods of Propulsion
In the coming decades and centuries new methods of spacecraft propulsion will reveal itself. Some of them you would see in Science Fiction films such as Star Trek and Avatar.
Ion thrusters
Ion thrusters is have been already used as propulsion system. There have been used in missions, such as Deep Space 1, Smart 1 and Haybusa. However, in the future it may be much more common and may be used to in manned missions as well.
So how do ion thrusters work? Ion thrusters work by releasing ions which are simply just atoms and molecules that are electrically charged. They are formed from ionization which is a process that involves adding or removing electrons. Ions can either have a positive or electric charge. This provide the spacecraft with thrust and can give it much higher speeds than any other spacecraft today. Furthermore, they are much more efficient because they require less fuel than chemical rockets and will be a much cheaper method of spacecraft propulsion. Below is a video which shows in more detail how ion thrusters work.
Nuclear Propulsion
Nuclear propulsion is another possibility in space travel. Spacecraft of the future could use nuclear fusion as energy to power them. Nuclear fusion is energy source that fuels our sun and other stars and gives the destructive power to hydrogen bombs. This would mean we could send people to Mars in just 30 days. Fusion rockets would use the energy generated when the nuclei of two or more atoms fuse together.
However, there are still many challenges in developing fusion rockets. For example, scientists have still not been able to develop a fusion reactor that produces more energy than it uses. According to John Grunsfield who is a associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, to sort out this problem we need to study how fusion works in spacecraft engines.
Space Travel using Antimatter
In James Cameron's epic fantasy Avatar the Interstellar Vehicle Venture Star which was one of the interstellar starships that transport supplies, equipment, people and data between Earth and the moon Pandora uses an antimatter propulsion system. In reality it is possible to make propulsion systems that use antimatter since it does exist in the universe.
So what is antimatter? Well, it is simply what you might think it is - it is the opposite of matter which makes up most of the universe. The difference between anti-matter and matter is that antimatter electric charge is reversed. For example, electrons have a negative charge whereas anti-electrons have a positive charge. When antimatter and matter meet they collide causing an explosion generating huge amounts of energy. According to some scientists this can produce much more energy than any other method of propulsion today. When they meet and annihilate they generate 10 billion times more energy that chemical energy like hydrogen and oxygen combustion that the space shuttle uses as propulsion. Furthermore, the collision between matter and antimatter is also 1000 times more powerful than nuclear fission reactions and 300 times more powerful than nuclear fusion reactions. This gives it the potential of being for future spacecraft propulsion systems.
With matter-antimatter engines spacecraft would be able to travel at a fraction of the speed of light. It would also be the most efficient propulsion system ever develop since all the mass of matter and antimatter would be converted into energy.
However, there are many problems with developing antimatter propulsion systems such as the lack of antimatter in the universe. As I said earlier the majority of the universe is made up of antimatter. If there was equal amounts of antimatter as matter in the universe then we would be able to see signs of collisions between matter and antimatter from Earth.
Fortunately, there is still a way to get antimatter to develop these propulsion systems. We can create antimatter using technology such as atom smashers. These atom smashers create antimatter by accelerating atoms to near the speed of light and smashing them together which exposes the fundamental constituents creating small amounts of antimatter. Yet, they have only been able to produce about 1 or 2 picograms(a trillionth of a gram) of antimatter. This is still not enough energy to be used for spacecraft propulsion. Even all the antimatter made in a year by CERN which is an example of an atom smasher would only be able to power a 100 watt-electric light for three seconds. To power a starship travelling to other star systems would require tonnes of antimatter. It is also tremendously expensive to produce even very small amounts of antimatter.
Below is a video which shows many more problems of developing antimatter propulsion:
Warp Drives - Faster than light travel
Warp Drives have often been seen in Science Fiction films, notably Star Trek where They are a technology which allow you to travel faster than the speed of light, but could they ever become reality and make travelling to distant stars as easy as science fiction.
However, the idea of faster than light spaceships violates Einstein's theory of relativity where nothing can travel faster than light. When an object travels faster they gain more mass and need more energy. If an object traveled at the speed of light it would gain infinite mass and would require infinite energy. Even to get to that speed would require more energy than what exists in the entire universe. If a starship went this speed it would gain infinite mass and would simultaneously be crushed to nothing. Einstein's theory has been proved many times in particle accelerators.
Fortunately though, there is still a way we could go faster than the speed of light without violating the law of relativity. Imagine a piece of paper with point A and point B, and imagine that you could bend the space between the two points. If you were at point A and your destination was B you would actually be bringing your destination to you. This is exactly how warp drives work. The starship would not be moving at all. It would be spacetime that is moving.
The warp drive could create a huge bubble of energy which could bend spacetime and bring the destination to you. However, creating this enormous bubble of energy would require a special power source, one that is equal to the mass of an entire planet and is very different from anything we'd seen before. A very strange energy called negative energy! Currently, we do not know much about this energy. All that is known about it is that it makes things fall upwards instead of downwards. The complete opposite of what gravity does to us.
This energy combined with positive energy in a warp bubble can push and pull a starship forward. This combination of both negative and positive energy in the bubble would create an expansion of space behind the starship which would push it forward, and destroy space in front and pulls it along. This could mean trips to distant stars could be done in just minutes.
Nuclear Propulsion
Nuclear propulsion is another possibility in space travel. Spacecraft of the future could use nuclear fusion as energy to power them. Nuclear fusion is energy source that fuels our sun and other stars and gives the destructive power to hydrogen bombs. This would mean we could send people to Mars in just 30 days. Fusion rockets would use the energy generated when the nuclei of two or more atoms fuse together.
However, there are still many challenges in developing fusion rockets. For example, scientists have still not been able to develop a fusion reactor that produces more energy than it uses. According to John Grunsfield who is a associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, to sort out this problem we need to study how fusion works in spacecraft engines.
Space Travel using Antimatter
In James Cameron's epic fantasy Avatar the Interstellar Vehicle Venture Star which was one of the interstellar starships that transport supplies, equipment, people and data between Earth and the moon Pandora uses an antimatter propulsion system. In reality it is possible to make propulsion systems that use antimatter since it does exist in the universe.
So what is antimatter? Well, it is simply what you might think it is - it is the opposite of matter which makes up most of the universe. The difference between anti-matter and matter is that antimatter electric charge is reversed. For example, electrons have a negative charge whereas anti-electrons have a positive charge. When antimatter and matter meet they collide causing an explosion generating huge amounts of energy. According to some scientists this can produce much more energy than any other method of propulsion today. When they meet and annihilate they generate 10 billion times more energy that chemical energy like hydrogen and oxygen combustion that the space shuttle uses as propulsion. Furthermore, the collision between matter and antimatter is also 1000 times more powerful than nuclear fission reactions and 300 times more powerful than nuclear fusion reactions. This gives it the potential of being for future spacecraft propulsion systems.
With matter-antimatter engines spacecraft would be able to travel at a fraction of the speed of light. It would also be the most efficient propulsion system ever develop since all the mass of matter and antimatter would be converted into energy.
However, there are many problems with developing antimatter propulsion systems such as the lack of antimatter in the universe. As I said earlier the majority of the universe is made up of antimatter. If there was equal amounts of antimatter as matter in the universe then we would be able to see signs of collisions between matter and antimatter from Earth.
Fortunately, there is still a way to get antimatter to develop these propulsion systems. We can create antimatter using technology such as atom smashers. These atom smashers create antimatter by accelerating atoms to near the speed of light and smashing them together which exposes the fundamental constituents creating small amounts of antimatter. Yet, they have only been able to produce about 1 or 2 picograms(a trillionth of a gram) of antimatter. This is still not enough energy to be used for spacecraft propulsion. Even all the antimatter made in a year by CERN which is an example of an atom smasher would only be able to power a 100 watt-electric light for three seconds. To power a starship travelling to other star systems would require tonnes of antimatter. It is also tremendously expensive to produce even very small amounts of antimatter.
Below is a video which shows many more problems of developing antimatter propulsion:
Warp Drives - Faster than light travel
Warp Drives have often been seen in Science Fiction films, notably Star Trek where They are a technology which allow you to travel faster than the speed of light, but could they ever become reality and make travelling to distant stars as easy as science fiction.
However, the idea of faster than light spaceships violates Einstein's theory of relativity where nothing can travel faster than light. When an object travels faster they gain more mass and need more energy. If an object traveled at the speed of light it would gain infinite mass and would require infinite energy. Even to get to that speed would require more energy than what exists in the entire universe. If a starship went this speed it would gain infinite mass and would simultaneously be crushed to nothing. Einstein's theory has been proved many times in particle accelerators.
Fortunately though, there is still a way we could go faster than the speed of light without violating the law of relativity. Imagine a piece of paper with point A and point B, and imagine that you could bend the space between the two points. If you were at point A and your destination was B you would actually be bringing your destination to you. This is exactly how warp drives work. The starship would not be moving at all. It would be spacetime that is moving.
The warp drive could create a huge bubble of energy which could bend spacetime and bring the destination to you. However, creating this enormous bubble of energy would require a special power source, one that is equal to the mass of an entire planet and is very different from anything we'd seen before. A very strange energy called negative energy! Currently, we do not know much about this energy. All that is known about it is that it makes things fall upwards instead of downwards. The complete opposite of what gravity does to us.
This energy combined with positive energy in a warp bubble can push and pull a starship forward. This combination of both negative and positive energy in the bubble would create an expansion of space behind the starship which would push it forward, and destroy space in front and pulls it along. This could mean trips to distant stars could be done in just minutes.
