Astronautics. Step over the abyss

18
Astronautics. Step over the abyss


Sons and Daughters of the Planet Blue
Soar upward, disturbing the stars of peace.
The way to interstellar space is adjusted
For satellites, rockets, scientific stations.




***
A Russian guy was flying in a rocket,
I saw the whole earth from above.
Gagarin was the first in space.
How do you account for it?


In 1973, the working group of the British Interplanetary Society proceeded to design the appearance of an interstellar spacecraft capable in unmanned mode to overcome 6 light years and to conduct a brief study of the Barnard star neighborhoods.

The fundamental difference between the British project and the works of science fiction was the original design conditions: in their work, British scientists relied solely on real-life technologies or technologies of the near future, the imminent appearance of which is beyond doubt. The fantastic “anti-gravity”, the unknown “teleportation” and “superlight engines” were rejected as exotic and obviously impossible ideas.

Under the terms of the project, the developers had to abandon even the photon engine that was popular at the time. Despite the theoretical possibility of the existence of a substance annihilation reaction, even the most courageous physicists who regularly experiment with hallucinogenic cannabinoids cannot explain how to put into practice the storage of “antimatter” and how to collect the released energy.

The project received the symbolic name "Daedalus" - in honor of the eponymous hero of the Greek myth, who managed to fly over the sea, in contrast to the high-flying Icarus.


The automatic interstellar ship Daedalus had a two-stage design.

The meaning of the project "Daedalus":

Proof of the possibility of mankind creating an unmanned spacecraft for the study of star systems closest to the Sun.

Technical side of the project:

A study from the flight trajectory of the Barnard star system (red dwarf of spectral class М5V at a distance of 5,91 light years, one of the closest to the Sun and, at the same time, the “fastest” star in the sky, perpendicular to the direction of the earth observer’s view is 90 km / c, which, coupled with a relatively “close” distance, makes “Flying Barnard” a real “comet”). The choice of goal was determined by the theory of the existence of a planetary system in Barnard's star (the theory was subsequently refuted). In our time, the “reference target” is the star Proxima Centauri (the 4,22 distance from the year) nearest the Sun.

Moving Barnard's Star in the Earth's Sky

Terms of the project:

Unmanned spaceship. Only realistic technologies of the near future. Maximum flight time to a star - 49 years! According to the terms of the project “Daedalus”, those who created the interstellar ship, should have had the opportunity to learn the results of the mission during their lifetime. In other words, to get to Barnard's star in 49 years, a spaceship will need a marching speed of the order of 0,1 speed of light.

Initial data:

In the presence of British scientists was quite impressive "set" of all the modern achievements of human civilization: nuclear technology, uncontrolled thermonuclear reaction, lasers, plasma physics, manned space launches to near-earth orbit, technology docking and assembly work of large objects in outer space, long-range systems space communications, microelectronics, automation and precision engineering. Is it enough to “touch your hand” to the stars?

Not far here - one stop by taxi

Crowded with sweet dreams and pride in the achievements of the human mind, the reader is already running to buy a ticket for an interstellar ship. Alas, his joy is premature. The universe has prepared its terrifying response to the pitiful attempts of humans to reach the nearest stars.

If you reduce the size of a star, similar to the Sun, to the size of a tennis ball, the entire Solar System will fit in Red Square. The dimensions of the Earth, in this case, are generally reduced to the size of a grain of sand.
At the same time, the nearest "tennis ball" (Proxima Centauri) will lie in the middle of Alexanderplatz in Berlin, and a little more distant Barnard star - on Piccadilly Circus in London!

The position of "Voyager-1" on February 8 2012 g. The distance 17 of the light hours from the Sun.

Monstrous distances question the very idea of ​​interstellar flights. The Voyager 1 automatic station, launched in 1977, took 35 years to cross the solar system (the probe went beyond its limits 25 August 2012 - the last echoes of the solar wind melted past the stern, while the intensity galactic radiation). On the flight of "Red Square" took 35 years. How much time will Voyager take, what to fly “from Moscow to London”?

Around us are quadrillions of kilometers of the black abyss - do we have a chance to reach the nearest star in at least half of the earth's century?

I'll send a ship for you ...

Nobody had any doubts that “Daedalus” would have monstrous dimensions - only the “payload” could reach hundreds of tons. In addition to relatively light astrophysical instruments, detectors and television cameras, a rather large compartment of control of the ship’s systems, a computer center, and most importantly a communications system with the Earth is needed on board the ship.

Modern radio telescopes have tremendous sensitivity: the transmitter of the Voyager 1 apparatus, astronomical units at 124 distance (124 times farther than from Earth to the Sun), has a total power of 23 Watt - less light bulb in your refrigerator. Surprisingly, this was enough to ensure uninterrupted communication with the device at a distance of 18,5 billion kilometers! (a prerequisite is that the position of the Voyager in space is known to the nearest 200 meters)

Barnard's star is at a distance of 5,96 light years from the Sun - 3000 times farther than Voyager Station. Obviously, in this case, the 23-watt interceptor is indispensable - an incredible distance and considerable error in determining the position of the starship in space will require a radiation power of hundreds of kilowatts. With all the ensuing requirements for the dimensions of the antenna.

British scientists have named a very definite figure: the payload of the Daedal spaceship (the mass of the control compartment, scientific instruments and communication systems) will be about 450 tons. For comparison, the mass of the International Space Station to date has exceeded 417 tons.
The mass of the necessary payload of a starship lies in realistic limits. In addition, given the progress in microelectronics and space technologies over the past 40 years, this figure may slightly decrease.

Engine and fuel. Extreme energy consumption of interstellar flights becomes a key barrier to the implementation of such expeditions.

British scientists adhered to simple logic: Which of the methods of energy generation known to us is the most productive? The answer is obvious - thermonuclear fusion. Are we able to create a stable "fusion reactor" today? Alas, no, all attempts to create a "controlled thermonuclear" fail. Conclusion? We'll have to use an explosive reaction. The spaceship "Daedalus" turns into a "fire up" with a pulsed thermonuclear rocket engine.

The principle of operation in theory is simple: “targets” from a frozen mixture of deuterium and helium-3 are fed into the working chamber. The “target” is warmed up by a pulse of lasers — a tiny thermonuclear explosion follows — and, voila, the release of energy to accelerate the ship!
The calculation showed that for effective acceleration of the “Daedalus” it will be necessary to produce 250 explosions per second - therefore, targets must be fed into the combustion chamber of a pulsed fusion engine with a speed of 10 km / s!

This is pure fiction - in reality, there is not a single workable sample of a pulsed thermonuclear engine. Moreover, the unique characteristics of the engine and the high demands on its reliability (the starship's engine must run continuously for 4 years) make talking about a starship a meaningless history.

On the other hand, in the design of a pulsed thermonuclear engine there is not a single element that has not been tested in practice - superconducting solenoids, lasers of enormous power, electron guns ... this has long been mastered by industry and often brought to mass production. We have a developed theory and rich practical developments in the field of plasma physics - it’s just a matter of creating a pulse engine based on these systems.

The estimated mass of the spacecraft design (engine, tanks, trusses bearing) - 6170 tons, excluding fuel. In principle, the figure sounds realistic. No tenths and countless zeros. To deliver such a number of metal structures to a low near-earth orbit would require the “total” 44 launch of the powerful Saturn-5 rocket (140 tons payload with a launch mass of 3000 tons).

Super heavyweight class rocket H-1, launch weight 2735 ... 2950 tons

Until now, these figures theoretically fit into the capabilities of modern industry, although they required some development of modern technologies. The time has come to ask the main question: what is the required mass of fuel for acceleration of a starship to the speed of light 0,1? The answer sounds scary, and at the same time, encouraging - 50 000 tons of nuclear fuel. Despite the seeming improbability of this figure, this is “only” half of the displacement of the American atomic aircraft carrier. Another thing is that modern astronautics is not yet ready to work with such bulky structures.

But the main problem was another: the main component of the fuel for a pulsed thermonuclear engine is the rare and expensive isotope Helium-3. The current production of helium-3 does not exceed 500 kg per year. At the same time, you need to pour 30 000 tons of this specific substance into the tanks of “Daedalus”.
No comments - such an amount of helium-3 on Earth is not to be found. "British scientists" (this time you can deservedly put the expression in quotation marks) suggested building a "Daedalus" in Jupiter’s orbit and filling it there, extracting fuel from the upper cloud layer of a giant planet.
Pure futuristic, multiplied by the absurd.

Despite the overall disappointing picture, the project “Daedalus” showed that the existing scientific knowledge is enough to send an expedition to the nearest stars. The problem lies in the scale of the work - we have working samples of “Tokamak”, superconducting electromagnets, cryostats and Dewar vessels under ideal laboratory conditions, but we don’t have any idea how their hypertrophied copies weighing hundreds of tons will work. How to ensure the continuous operation of these fantastic structures for many years - all this in the brutal conditions of open space, without any possibility of repair and maintenance by man.

Working on the shape of the Daedalus spaceship, scientists faced with many small, but no less important problems. In addition to the already mentioned doubts about the reliability of a pulsed thermonuclear engine, the creators of the interstellar spacecraft faced the problem of balancing a giant spacecraft, its proper acceleration and orientation in space. There were also positive moments - in the 40 years that have passed since the beginning of work on the Daedalus project, the problem with the digital computing complex on board the ship was successfully solved. The colossal progress in microelectronics, nanotechnology, the emergence of substances with unique characteristics - all this significantly simplified the conditions for creating a starship. Also, the problem of remote space communications was successfully solved.

But still no solution has been found to the classical problem - the safety of the interstellar expedition. At 0,1 speed from the speed of light, any speck of dust becomes a dangerous obstacle for the ship, and a tiny meteorite the size of a flash drive can be the end of the whole expedition. In other words, the ship has every chance to burn before it gets to the target. In theory, two solutions are proposed: the first "line of defense" is a protective cloud of microparticles, held by a magnetic field a hundred kilometers ahead of the ship's course. The second “line of defense” is a metal, ceramic or composite shield to reflect fragments of disintegrated meteorites. If everything is more or less clear with the shield design, then even Nobel Prize in Physics doesn’t know how to put into practice the “protective cloud of microparticles” at a considerable distance from the ship. It is clear that with the help of a magnetic field, but how exactly ...

... The ship sails in icy emptiness. 50 years have passed since he left the solar system and the long road stretched six light-years behind the Daedalus. Safely crossed the dangerous Kuiper belt and the mysterious Oort cloud, fragile instruments survived the flow of galactic rays and the brutal cold of the Cosmos ... Soon the planned rendezvous with the Barnard star system ... but what does this chance meeting in the middle of the boundless ocean star promise the envoy of the distant Earth? New hazards from colliding with large meteorites? Magnetic fields and deadly radiation belts in the vicinity of "traveling Barnard"? Unexpected emissions from protractors? Time will tell ... "Daedalus" in two days will rush past the star and disappear forever in the vastness of Space.


Daedalus versus 102-storeyed skyscraper Empire State Building



Empire State Building, a key panorama of New York. Height without spike 381 m, height with spire 441 meter



Daedalus versus Saturn V super heavyweight launch vehicle



Saturn V on the launch pad


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18 comments
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  1. Turdaun
    +11
    April 12 2013 08: 50
    Of course, I would like to "see" in this age, how people will begin to travel in the universe. That would be really cool.
    1. +14
      April 12 2013 09: 38
      Quote: Turdahun
      Of course, I would like to "see" in this age, how people will begin to travel in the universe. That would be really cool.


      For starters, I would like to see how the social structure of society changes, otherwise, under the current dominance of a consumer society, humanity will even stop dreaming about stars soon.
      1. -2
        April 12 2013 13: 46
        Quote: carver
        under the current dominance of a consumer society

        So all nature on Earth is programmed)))

        And this is normal. Everything goes its own way!
        Quote: carver
        humanity will even stop dreaming about the stars soon.

        Temporary decline. Like the middle ages.
        How long the weakening of interest in space will drag on in time is unknown: there will be a need - they will fly tomorrow; doesn’t appear - we can still sit on the zhupp for 10 000 years. But, in any case, this decline is temporary
        1. Zynaps
          +3
          April 12 2013 22: 51
          Quote: SWEET_SIXTEEN
          So all nature on Earth is programmed))) And this is normal. Everything goes its own way! Temporary recession. Like the middle ages.


          yeah yeah. With the collapse of the USSR, mankind did not have an alternative development model. smart Americans have long insisted that with the loss of such a rival, they themselves are stuck in a civilizational swamp. The USSR made them move their rolls and compete in many positions. and to consume in an American way the planet does not have enough resources. six such planets are needed.
      2. -1
        April 12 2013 23: 11
        Quote: carver
        For starters, I would like to see how the social structure of society changes, otherwise, under the current dominance of a consumer society, humanity will even stop dreaming about stars soon.


        And where is the social system? Today is Cosmonautics Day, not social construction day.
    2. +2
      April 12 2013 17: 47
      While people are killing each other, while they are investing crazy funds in military budgets, we will not fly further than Mars. And even Mars is a big question, not from a technical point of view, but from an economic and political one.
  2. Sacred
    +2
    April 12 2013 09: 27
    In the next 50 years, this is not real!
  3. 0
    April 12 2013 09: 54
    Unfortunately, the interest in the development of interplanetary flights from the leadership of the leading countries has subsided. If in the middle of the last century the development of rocket and other technologies grew at a gigantic pace and mankind within a short period of time was able to launch the first satellite into space and visit the moon, then in the following decades all movement in this direction practically stopped. Now the main interest lies in the exploration of "near" space around the Earth for military and commercial purposes.
    What happened that was so global for all of humanity that could be compared with the beginning of space exploration?
  4. gorkoxnumx
    0
    April 12 2013 10: 46
    Still real !!! Technology is now rapidly improving, but as always, it all comes down to money. I think we need to rapidly develop astronautics and explore our solar system and concentrate our forces on Mars as the most favorable planet for living after the earth.
    1. Zynaps
      0
      April 12 2013 23: 06
      modern technologies are not enough to master the solar system. need nuclear rocket engines. for the same flight to Mars. and the NERVA-2 project and our similar project were closed back in the late 1970s. on modern engines with chemical fuel, you can fly to Mars, but here there are serious problems for people. as we know, after a year of orbital flight, virtually disabled people return to Earth. the cosmonauts will have a long rehabilitation for the next flight (because training a new specialist will cost much more), and even then - not everyone returns to duty. the path to Mars using modern rocket technologies will take almost two years of flight and a minimum of six months stay on Mars - in the zone of low gravity. those. the crew is unlikely to be able to survive the landing - mostly corpses will return. and with a NRE, the flight will take months. but where are they - these same NRE ... there is a whole layer of problems of biological protection against radiation from the reactor. so, after all, even the first step to entering the Deep Space is not visible. the construction of heavy orbital platforms in geostationary orbit, which the late academician Chertok dreamed of. and without this outpost, even talking about the serious program of manned interplanetary astronautics is somehow even embarrassing.
  5. 0
    April 12 2013 11: 17
    I read about this project in 1990. It was very interesting. To date, this is the most elaborate project of the interstellar ship.
  6. +1
    April 12 2013 11: 18
    Thank you for reminding me. I read about this project, when I was still a schoolboy, in the late 70s. In my opinion, in the newspaper "Zarabogo". It seemed then fantasy. However, as it seemed, the first theoretical descriptions and experiments using and the operation of cell phones.
  7. postman
    0
    April 12 2013 12: 44
    I was surprised. It’s clear why you asked me about assembly in orbit.
    Rђ RІRѕS,
    Quote: Author
    even the most daring physicists who regularly experiment with hallucinogenic cannabioidsare not able to explain

    Where did the firewood come from, i.e. knowledge (I'm talking about fly agarics)?
    ===================================
    To the asked question (by AB) I, EVEN NOT CURRENTLY, will try to give an answer:
    1.Vacuum:
    in 1979, antiprotons were also found in cosmic rays. This was immediately reported by two groups: Soviet physicists from the A.I. Ioffe Leningrad Physical-Technical Institute and American scientists from the L. Johnson Space Flight Center.
    So "it turns", well, that is. antimatter in our reality is and moves in space, in VACUUM.
    The positron was discovered in cosmic rays in 1932.
    2. You can manipulate the antiproton (I) and positrons (I) - these are not electrically neutral particles, by a magnetic field. So get antihydrogen (ALPHA) ..
    Well, the truth is only 38 atoms
    crying
    3.Hydrogen, can also be manipulated -it has a tiny magnetic momentwhich, when using sufficiently strong superconducting electromagnets and at the very minimum temperature (only 0,5 degrees above absolute zero), allows for the manipulation of atoms.

    The problem is not retention, storage and delivery. And in stock.

    If we had at our disposal a small planet of antimatter, then all the problems with the energy crisis immediately disappeared.

    Note: Barnarda later found no planets.

    Quote: Author
    for effective acceleration of Daedalus it will be necessary to produce 250 explosions per second - therefore, targets must be fed into the combustion chamber of a pulsed thermonuclear engine at a speed of 10 km / s!

    ?
    where did you dig this figure from?
    1. Not such a feed rate of the working fluid (capsule) in the COP.
    2. Serve not CONSEQUENTLY but PARALLEL, with radial (we do not live in a one-dimensional world .....) - "distributed injection"

    More interesting Longshot (US Navy and NASA), unlike similar projects (Daedalus), Longshot was developed solely on the basis of existing technologies.

    Quote: Author
    The answer sounds frightening, and at the same time, encouraging - 50 tons of nuclear fuel.

    recycled, then.
    It was suggested to first send fuel supplies along the trajectory (at intervals) and "pick up" them on the go, as needed.
    But this is another project.
    According to Daedalus - working drawing (lying around in the archive) recourse
    1. +2
      April 12 2013 14: 02
      Quote: Postman
      Where did the firewood come from, i.e. knowledge (I'm talking about fly agarics)?

      It’s clear where - http://fed.sibnovosti.ru/society/231424-russkoyazychnoy-wikipedia-vnov-ugrozhayu


      t-zakrytiem-iz-za-stati-o-konople

      http://polit.ru/news/2013/04/10/cannabis/
      I didn’t know such a word before))
      Quote: Postman
      The problem is not retention, storage and delivery. And in stock.

      problem in the scope of work
      in the laboratory under the gun of an electron microscope, you can do everything. but try to make practical use of it
      Quote: Postman
      According to Daedalus - working drawing (lying around in the archive)

      ehh
      But I wonder - why exactly helium-3?
      Quote: Postman
      Longshot (US Navy and NASA) is more interesting, unlike similar projects (Daedalus), Longshot was developed solely on the basis of existing technologies.

      I only have a drawing
      1. postman
        0
        April 12 2013 14: 38
        Quote: SWEET_SIXTEEN
        Clear from where

        How prosaic. I thought: the Netherlands, a cafe, dusk, doses on a tray (tray), Mouzon, smoke ...

        Quote: SWEET_SIXTEEN
        But I wonder - why exactly helium-3?

        This would justify more than 65 years of cutting people's money.
        The thermonuclear seems to be there, but it seems to be like not.
        Helium -3 is (in greater numbers) - NO?
        But NO and no ships?
        There are good articles on this subject, such as: Fusion and the children of Lieutenant Schmidt
        We are waiting for the development of the deposits of the Moon and Jupiter. tongue

        But seriously, it's all about MeV and what "comes out after trensmutation" (thermal neutrons and less pa isotopes are required)
        It is not strange ITER on D + T
        it is understandable. The combustion temperature for He3 is required 3 (!) times higher than for ITER.
        Fusion negative
        1. 0
          April 12 2013 14: 52
          Quote: Postman
          I thought: the Netherlands, a cafe, dusk, doses on a tray (tray), Mouzon, smoke ...

          Shame on you, comrade. Postman! Children come here too. feel
          Quote: Postman
          The "burning" temperature for He3 will be required 3 (!) Times higher

          and this with the same output of released energy
          isn't it easier to use D + T? Why grabbed the helium-3?
          Quote: Postman
          Fusion

          Half a century of fruitless efforts, tokamaks, stellarators
          1. postman
            0
            April 12 2013 18: 21
            Quote: SWEET_SIXTEEN
            Why grab onto helium-3?

            -Clean exhaust (isotopes) and a larger exhaust E. I understand. forgot the plate or did not stick. (Everything is in it)
            - Deuterium with tritium remained (nuclear weapons work)

            Quote: SWEET_SIXTEEN
            Half a century of fruitless efforts, tokamaks, stellarators

            Read:
            1. DEAR option: Last fall in California, Physics National Laboratory. Lawrence in Livermore with the help of NIF made a breakthrough, using all the fantastic power of lasers. A $ 3,5 billion unit focused 121 kJ of UV radiation (6% of the maximum design power of NIF lasers) in a tiny chamber with a target, and as a result, deuterium and tritium atoms merged into helium atoms, emitting 300 trillion high-energy neutrons.
            2.Cheap: Helion Energy in Redmond, WA; Tri Alpha Energy in Foothill Ranch, California; General Fusion in Vancouver, British Columbia
            3.Exotics: Pyroelectric Cold Synthesis (University of California, Los Angeles)
            Someone will break through.
            Tokomak turned out to be a dead end, but a holy place is never empty
            1. postman
              0
              April 12 2013 18: 22
              Quote: SWEET_SIXTEEN
              SWEET_SIXTEEN

              The plate does not cling, the scoreboard is in the mail.
            2. 0
              April 12 2013 18: 44
              Quote: Postman
              A unit worth $ 3,5 billion focused 121 kJ of UV radiation (6% of the maximum design power of NIF lasers) in a tiny chamber volume with a target, and as a result, deuterium and tritium atoms merged into helium atoms, emitting 300 trillion high-energy neutrons.

              very funny joke
              Quote: Postman
              and a larger exhaust E. I get it. forgot the plate or did not stick. (Everything is in it)

              Got.
              D + He3 = He4 (3,6 MeV) + p (14,7 MeV)
              spent 3,6 megaelectron-volts. got a proton with energy 14,7 megael. volt

              or is it different?
              1. postman
                0
                April 12 2013 19: 41
                Quote: SWEET_SIXTEEN
                very funny joke

                1. Have rockets been crackers for a long time?
                2. Has humanity long mastered the threshold of 6000K
                (Do you know the conditions under the mantle of the sun?)
                density on temperature during retention must be ensured to ignite = nTτ

                Quote: SWEET_SIXTEEN
                or is it different?

                Otherwise, you mixed the right and left sides of the equation
                SO nizya !!
                ========================
                Your D and T incidently emit neutrons (a lot), and G3 = no
                And there are reactions (see table) - gamma radiation.
                ================================================== ======================
                An antimatter planet is preferable.
                DO YOU KNOW THE COORDINATES?
                1. postman
                  0
                  April 12 2013 19: 43
                  pictures are never made by
            3. Zynaps
              0
              April 12 2013 23: 49
              Quote: Postman
              Tokomak turned out to be a dead end, but a holy place is never empty


              this statement is a lie. The stellarators, bottlecotrons and similar childhood diseases turned out to be deadlocks. all modern studies of thermonuclear reactions are conducted either on tokamaks, or on inertial systems of laser or electronic compression of targets with hydrogen / lithium isotopes. otherwise Europe wouldn’t have built Eurotor.
              1. postman
                0
                April 13 2013 12: 31
                Quote: Zynaps
                this statement is a lie.

                1.This is not a statement, this is my opinion.
                About the lie - it’s better not to rush with words, moderate your anger and fervor slightly.
                2. I did not speak about research, meaning a functioning installation.
                And this follows at least from the banal sv-in the sphere:
                For a given volume, a sphere has a minimum surface area.
                density retention time and temperature and material costs in this property of a sphere and a donut are as clear as 2x2
                And nature does not "strive" for a donut, but strive for a sphere (bubble)


                Quote: Zynaps
                otherwise Europe wouldn’t have built Eurotor.

                about the eurotor did not hear anything.
                ITER is meant
                Quote: Zynaps
                or on inertial systems for laser or electronic compression of targets with hydrogen / lithium isotopes.

                These are already methods of heating and holding, and where does the bagel, the magnetic field, is the current in the cord?
                moreover, ICF is an alternative to Ttokamaku, and unlike ITER (where the foundation has not been excavated), NIF fired at in 2009
          2. Zynaps
            0
            April 12 2013 23: 45
            Quote: SWEET_SIXTEEN
            Half a century of fruitless efforts, tokamaks, stellarators


            it is not a fruitless effort. these were the necessary steps to fulfill the Lawson test. it's just that the problem turned out to be more complicated than it was initially understood. Therefore, thermonuclear fusion began to be realized in other ways, such as inertial compression of a target made of a mixture of hydrogen isotopes by laser beams and high-current electron beams. work is in progress. the fusion won't go anywhere. just the next step will be a very ingenious project of thorium energy - much cheaper and safer than traditional nuclear reactors. and in 25-30 years (or even earlier) the prototype of thermonuclear fusion "in iron" will mature. and there it is already a stone's throw to industrial fusion.
      2. postman
        0
        April 13 2013 12: 41
        Will you find it yourself or?

        Remember:
        This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States federal government (see 17 USC 105).
    2. Zynaps
      0
      April 12 2013 23: 28
      Quote: Postman
      So "it turns", well, that is. antimatter in our reality is and moves in space, in VACUUM.


      that's the secret of open sign. there is an old experiment (about 60 years ago): the core of a heavy element is irradiated with hard gamma rays. in this experiment, the core acts as an anvil, and gamma rays as hammers. some of the gamma-quanta are scattered, but some of them are pulling out electron-positron pairs from vacuum according to the laws of conservation of energy and charge. energetically more powerful quanta are capable of generating particle-antiparticle pairs and are heavier than leptons.

      Quote: Postman
      The positron was discovered in cosmic rays in 1932.


      and a little later, positrons were discovered during beta decay of one of the radioactive isotopes of sodium.

      Quote: Postman
      The problem is not retention, storage and delivery. And in stock.


      rather in receipt. I remember student calculations, from which it followed that in order to obtain 1 (one) kilogram of positronium, all power plants in the USSR had to work continuously for 7 years only to complete this task. But a kilo of positronium still needs to be held in some completely stunning synchrotron.

      Quote: Postman
      Longshot (US Navy and NASA) is more interesting, unlike similar projects (Daedalus), Longshot was developed solely on the basis of existing technologies.


      Orion was even more real. it could be created on the technology of the 70s.

      Quote: Postman
      It was suggested to first send fuel supplies along the trajectory (at intervals) and "pick up" them on the go, as needed.


      not this way. It was proposed to use in outer space a ramjet engine that collects interstellar hydrogen. to attract the hydrogen nucleus to the ship's axis was a powerful electron beam with a current of the order of a kiloampere. the benefit was such that the protons on the axis of the ship captured each one electronically and became ordinary hydrogen, with which it was easy to operate.
      1. postman
        0
        April 13 2013 04: 25
        Quote: Zynaps
        the core of a heavy element is irradiated with hard

        I'm talking about "natural" so to speak, not "tuning". And what they (natural) discovered is important
        Quote: Zynaps
        and a little later positrons

        I wrote above.
        Quote: Zynaps
        Orion was even more real. it could be created on the technology of the 70s.

        The Orion project was closed in 1965. Zzabyt was thrown into a landfill.
        You at least read the numbers there TENS OF MILLIONS tons - what are the real technologies of the 70s? (It started at 59
        if you're talking about "put-puts", "hot rods" - this is in chemistry
        And foolishly it was possible x ... that is, to break the legs. There would be no earth (in our usual way)


        Quote: Zynaps
        not this way. It was proposed to use a ramjet in open space.

        So, tomorrow I’ll try to send a doc. well and the rest
  8. 0
    April 12 2013 12: 49
    Rather, they will probably do the x-ray laser. With such an engine, a speed of 0,25s can be achieved. that is, you can fly to Alpha Centauri in 10 years, and this is fun.
    Although, who knows.
    I’m not a scientist, the problem with creating such lasers has not yet been solved, but it seems to me that technically it will be easier than putting an aircraft carrier of 60 tons into orbit.
    Hi all! hi
    1. postman
      0
      April 12 2013 13: 16
      Quote: ATATA
      Rather, they will probably do the x-ray laser. With such an engine, a speed of 0,25s can be achieved.

      The principle of remote control on an x-ray laser do not tell?
      Sail? HOW (and how) are you planning to REFLECT? How to deal with beam divergence? How to provide power at a distance of at least within the orbit of Mars (not to mention the A-Centauri), How are you going to control (regulate) if the distance from the source and sail is 1 light hour permissible (not to mention years)
      Direct-flow? eee. And thrust than to create?
      reference: Newton's second law, the Meshchersky equation, the Tsiolkovsky formula.

      What do you dislike about a simple laser, all other things being equal. Why X-ray then?
      Which from the optical range has SIGNIFICANT DISADVANTAGES:
      -With decreasing wavelength, the efficiency of laser gain
      - In the X-ray range there are no good mirrors, which makes it difficult to create resonators
      - For generation in the x-ray range, much higher pump powers are needed

      ??
      1. 0
        April 12 2013 13: 54
        Quote: Postman
        X-ray generation requires significantly higher pump powers

        EMNIP Comrade Reagan (SDI) solved this problem with a nuclear explosion
        Quote: Postman
        Direct-flow? eee. And thrust than to create?

        well, there is not a complete vacuum. you can collect material with a magnetic trap. It's all about the size of such a "trap")))
        1. postman
          0
          April 12 2013 14: 47
          Quote: SWEET_SIXTEEN
          EMNIP Comrade Reagan (SDI) solved this problem with a nuclear explosion

          I wanted to decide !!!! The significant difference.
          And there is only one combat use ((there it was just that more radiation should be ABSORBED by the target, and the source is DISPOSABLE), but HOW will you (WHAT) reflect ??? X-ray Radiation! Well, have you been on Fluorography for a long time?

          Quote: SWEET_SIXTEEN
          Well, there is not a complete vacuum.

          Comrade !!! What are we talking about?
          ATATA thought (REMIND):

          Quote: ATATA
          Rather, they will probably do the x-ray laser. With such an engine, a speed of 0,25s can be achieved.

          What kind of dust were you going to collect with X-ray lasers, and most importantly, ON FUY?
          Why dust

          And if uh. Reactive principle? - Then we recall the mass (x-ray radiation, not x-ray naturally)

          Octopuses, squids, cuttlefish, jellyfish move according to the principle of jet propulsion. And the seeds are bullet mad cucumbers
    2. Volkhov
      0
      April 12 2013 16: 20
      It was made a long time ago, one even fell on the Columbia - it burns green and the pieces are radioactive. 10 years ago.
  9. 0
    April 12 2013 13: 15
    Man became man when he began to admire the starry sky.
  10. 0
    April 12 2013 14: 05
    Barnard's Moving Star GIFs:
  11. Cosmonaut
    +2
    April 12 2013 14: 10
    In order for people to sharply continue to develop in this direction, something very epic must happen.
    Article +
  12. 0
    April 12 2013 14: 50
    cool!
    I love such fantastic projects)
    I think our scientists will soon be able to create a ship with the right engines, and ours, only Russia has enough brains for such a product. winked
    hint ... guided magnetic fields - motor force
  13. +1
    April 12 2013 15: 08
    Thank you for the article. In fact, comrades, apparently deep space will remain fiction. At least manned flights. In fact, everything has long been calculated and the lack of practical interest in the topic is absolutely adequate to the state of things. Let’s be realistic.
    ... let's pretend we want to deliver our primates in a "tin can" to Proxima Centauri during their lifetime. We send them one way, so a 42 year flight time seems reasonable. (Their task is to keep an eye on the unfolding machinery that nurtures colonists in artificial wombs. Yeah?). This means that the ship needs to reach a cruising speed of 10% of the speed of light, and then slow down at the other end. At ten percent of the speed of light, the relativistic effect is small - time will stretch, no more than a few hours or days in 42 years of travel.

    We need to accelerate our astronauts to 30 million meters per second, and then suspend. By cheating and using Newtonian dynamics, we get that the kinetic energy consumed by the acceleration will be 9 x 1017 Joules, that is, if rounded, 2 x 1018 for the entire trip. NB: It is understood that the engine used converts energy into a driving force with absolute efficiency, and the power plant is outside, so there is no need to take a working fluid on the road. It turns out that this is the lower limit of the energy cost of transporting our expedition the size of an old space ship to Proxima Centauri in less time than the life expectancy.

    For comparison, I add that the complete conversion of one kilogram of mass into energy gives 9 x 1016 Joules (which, according to one of my sources, is equal to 21,6 megatons in thermonuclear equivalent). So that we will need the energy equivalent of 400 megatons of nuclear armageddon to move a capsule that weighs like a loaded Volvo V70 car to Proxima Centauri in less time. So much energy will be given by all available American Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles.

    Here's a less explosive landmark: our entire planetary economy, which consumes roughly 4 terawatts of electricity (4 x 1012 watts). So it takes all of our global energy supply in about half a million seconds - about five days - to provide the necessary "w-zhah".

    Quote from Charles Strauss's article "Unreachable Starfrontier".
    1. +1
      April 12 2013 15: 17
      a purely formal theory, which does not include new discoveries, such as Higgs bosons and so on, therefore it is untenable, since this theory initially moves in the wrong direction and is repelled by nuclear fusion, as if other engines do not exist ... yes it is the most economical with high efficiency, but it’s not that, other principles are needed, due to which photons move? what gives them energy? but nothing ... it’s just a source, it’s just that particle, and their interaction has not been fully studied ... so you need to forget about thermonuclear fusion, well, or as some kind of auxiliary, such as generators
      1. +1
        April 12 2013 16: 00
        It relies solely on scientific facts. But these facts say that manned interstellar travel is impossible due to natural physical limitations.
        Quote: afire
        just have a source

        We have no such source. Talk to nuclear scientists and you will see a sour grin at the words "controlled fusion". request
        1. 0
          April 12 2013 16: 13
          read my post again, there it is just out of the question at all, since this source is massive and quickly exhausted.
  14. Volkhov
    0
    April 12 2013 16: 23
    It is interesting that if they built Daedalus, he would fly aft, but the protection problem would be solved with the engine running.
  15. 0
    April 12 2013 16: 39
    No comments - such an amount of helium-3 on Earth is not to be found. "British scientists" (this time you can deservedly put the expression in quotation marks) suggested building a "Daedalus" in Jupiter’s orbit and filling it there, extracting fuel from the upper cloud layer of a giant planet.
    Pure futuristic, multiplied by the absurd.

    You can say fantasy :) What's in seventy-third, what's now, assembly technology in orbit, there is no more sophisticated "Lego". And then the production of only one fuel tank in orbit of the earth ... In general, even this is a pure NF. Never mind, in fifty years, British scientists will think about more mundane :)
  16. 0
    April 12 2013 16: 55
    It’s impossible to overpower alone, such a project should be international. Then we may well see
    1. 0
      April 12 2013 17: 58
      it all depends on the cost of the technologies used and the methods of their application, if it is inexpensive (relative to the state), then hardly anyone will want to share it ... license with interest
      1. 0
        April 12 2013 23: 44
        that's why in the near future such a journey is not possible, but it's a pity
  17. Nevsky
    +2
    April 12 2013 22: 37
    I'm afraid comrades, if there will be interstellar flights, then not in our lifetime crying

    God, why was I born in this era of consumption and germs ?! crying

    See what a beauty:

  18. Nevsky
    +2
    April 12 2013 23: 37
    Quote: Geisenberg
    Quote: carver
    For starters, I would like to see how the social structure of society changes, otherwise, under the current dominance of a consumer society, humanity will even stop dreaming about stars soon.


    And where is the social system? Today is Cosmonautics Day, not social construction day.


    At the same time, dear, that at least today’s Cosmonautics Day, goes into this very social system ... The maximum creative and scientific mobilization of the Soviet people, a challenge to Western conservative quality education for the elite. The country of workers and collective farmers sent man into space, and Western Civilization was an extra)))
  19. 0
    April 14 2013 16: 51
    Quote: Postman
    in 1979, antiprotons were also found in cosmic rays. This was reported by two groups at once: Soviet physicists from the A.I. Ioffe Leningrad Physics and Technology Institute and American scientists from the L. Johnson Space Flight Center. antimatter in our reality is and moves in space, in VACUUM.



    Nothing of the above implies that antiprotons came to us with cosmic rays from somewhere.
    it is much more likely that antiprotons are the product of a collision of high-energy cosmic rays with particles in radiation belts or in the upper atmosphere
    1. postman
      0
      April 17 2013 12: 20
      Quote: Straus_zloy
      it is much more likely that antiprotons are the product of a collision of high-energy cosmic rays with particles in radiation belts or in the upper atmosphere

      This is not real and contradicts both common sense and the realities of our world.
      EAS and REC methods





      Cosmic rays have a huge range of energies: from ~ 10 (to the 6th degree) to at least ~ 10 (to the 21st degree) eV.

      “For the discovery of the antiproton,” C. and Segre received the 1959 Nobel Prize in Physics.

      Phys. Rev. 100, 947-950 (1955) Observation of Antiprotons
      Radiation Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California
      Received October 24, 1955; published in the issue dated November 1955
  20. 0
    April 14 2013 16: 59
    Quote: Postman
    Helium -3 is (in greater numbers) - NO? And there are NO ships and NO? There are good articles on this subject, such as: Thermonuclear and children of Lieutenant Schmidt


    And is he so indispensable for an uncontrolled reaction? as far as I remember, helium is not put in a hydrogen bomb, do with lithium deuteride
    1. postman
      0
      April 17 2013 12: 32
      Quote: Straus_zloy
      And is he so indispensable for an uncontrolled reaction?

      We are talking about managed.
      And uncontrollable, by and large, an atomic initiator is not needed (Schumann, Otto Gan)
  21. 0
    April 14 2013 17: 44
    Quote: afire
    due to what photons move? what gives them energy?



    1.Photons move at the speed of light due to lack of mass (at least rest mass)

    2. They themselves are energy.
    1. postman
      0
      April 16 2013 14: 06
      Quote: Straus_zloy
      1. Photons travel at the speed of light

      Depends on the type of environment in which they "move"
      the Danes, Lin Howe and her employees (Rowland Institute for Science and Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts) in early 1999 managed to slow down the speed of the light wave in sodium gas by more than six orders of magnitude - up to 17 meters per second.
      Quote: Straus_zloy
      2. They themselves are energy.

      not quite Photon energy = constant bar x per frequency (or pulse per speed of light).
      Otherwise there would be no radiation pressure
  22. 0
    April 17 2013 19: 53
    To all fans of the space theme. Google a thermonuclear rocket engine on ambipolar traps. Here is a more or less realistic prospect after the capabilities of conventional nuclear rocket engines on thermal assemblies have been worked out. They are already in the metal and there is a project under them. We at least have. But it's all the same flights within the Earth-Moon. Well, the maximum is Mars, the inner planets. But the mirror cell will already be more serious. By the way, there are design estimates. Even in the movie he lit up. In the Avatar, the main character was brought to Pandora on it. So they will be supposedly look.
  23. 0
    April 3 2016 11: 14
    Well done anyway. First you need a task, and a solution will be found. History has repeatedly confirmed this.

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