What types of interstellar spacecraft have been designed?

Interstellar Shipcaft or a spacecraft capable of making trips between solar systems would have to be significantly more advanced than the interplanetary vessel that humanity has already built. While the distance between the planets in this solar system can be measured in light or light hours, the distances between stellar systems are usually tens of light years. Because solar systems are so small due to the huge expansion of the empty space that are built in, to successfully achieve their goal, high -ranking navigation and power systems will be necessary; Once you are moving the object, there is little resistance to slow it down. With current chemical missile technology, however, the acceleration of any object above the speed above many a thousandth of the speed of light would be extremely difficult. In order to create an interstellar spacecraft, it was recognized that solid chemical missile fuel would be insufficient and that new drive methods must be designed. Interstellar spacecraft by truthSimilarly, it had to serve as an autonomous cosmic colony, possibly an apartment generation of individuals and means for their survival and prosperity. The proposed alternatives include suspended animation systems or people genetically modified to live longer, ate less or are boredom resistant.

One of the first concrete designs for interstellar spacecraft comes from the Orion project , which was born in 1958 in General Atomics in San Diego. The project, which believed several atomic scientists to be practical with today's technology, means an aloyal equipped with a massive impact absorber, powered by thermonuclear bombs that emerged the back of the vessel. The bombs would eliminate part of the explosion (some form of plastic was considered optimal), which would serve as a driving substance to provide thrust. Many dozens of scientists and engineers seriously built an Orion spacecraft at the age of 60 and usingLO for trips around the solar system in the 70s and 80s, but the project was postponed due to the political sensitivity of nuclear weapons.

Another advanced form of the proposed interstellar spacecraft is Ramjet. This ramjet would consist of a giant blade on the front of the vessel, which is designed to attract interstellar hydrogen much in the way the jet engine receives air. Hydrogen cores would be fused in the responses of proton-proton, which would provide energy for the move. Although the amount of free floating hydrogen in interstellar spaces is scattered, many hydrogen can be hipped by its design, arguing if the vessel moved almost at the speed of light. It was calculated that such a ship could be at approximately 16% of light speed.

Another proposed spacecraft is a sun sail. Because even sunlight is exerting some pressure on the surfaces, it can be used to push the useful load connected to the gigantic sun sail.Such a sail would have to be many kilometers wide, but maybe only a few thick atoms depending on the material used. Graphene, especially strong and thin carbon atoms, can be one potential candidate. It turned firmly, a useful load consisting of only a few hundred tons can be enough to use a sun sail capable of accelerating the payload to a substantial part of the speed of light. The only problem is slowing down as soon as you reach your target star system, a task that could be assigned to nuclear retro-crets.

Many other types of interstellar spacecraft were considered, both in a serious context and in science -Fi. The spacecraft that uses worms or "bending" of space -time is popularly discussed, although such designs usually require either an amazing amount of energy (probably in the order of what the Sun is in a few minutes), or the use of negative matter, an exotic form of matter that may or may not actually exist. Creating ships, toTeré uses real driving substances to ensure pulling, it is much more realistic, although their work is probably for decades gone, due to our current technology. Given the truly radical consequences of interstellar travel and colonization, several decades seem to be waiting for a long time.