Rocky Planet found outside our Solar System!

[heruamon]

mrstickball said:

heruamon said:

mrstickball said:
heruamon -

We have the ability to travel to the stars. It's really the question of how long it'll take to exploit it.

The key to space travel is the simple key to driving: Energy. The problem is finding a source of energy that can power a spacecraft to very fast speeds. Such a power source must be cheap, readily available, and safe. Solar really doesn't fit that bill because it's bulky.

However, we've already researched how to do it. It was called Project Daedalus, and it was completed in the 1960's. Also, Project Orion used similar studies into near-FTL travel in the 60's.

Essentially, the key is some sort of nuclear process. Project Orion used nuclear bomb explosions behind the craft, while Daedalus used a nuclear nozzle jetting behind it.

The problem with both crafts is the amount of material needed to achieve 1/10th (or so) of lightspeed. Daedalus would need ~50,000 tons of material to travel at 1/10th the speed of light.

However, those studies were decades ago. We now have a fairly reasonable source of fissionable material: He3. 10 tons of HE3 would be able to able to power roughly 300KG of material up to 0.75c (c = speed of light). HE3 is readily abundant in our solar system, and should be mostly abundant in other solar systems where gas giants are present. Because of this, a craft could refuel at other solar systems.

Of course, making a drive core that can burn HE3 is still many decades away. We don't even have a power plant that can process the stuff, so we have to first make it applicable, then miniaturize it.

Nevertheless, it can and will happen. It may take decades or even a century, but it will happen. I just wish I was younger to see it

Yeah...I read about it before, but the cost would be astronomical, and it wouldn't be functional for manned space travel...detonating nuclear material to provide thrust...good concept.  I think inter system travel and commerce is probably the best way to get humans more acclamated to space travel.  The key is what's the ROI for mankind...can you imagine if we would have found some rare valuable minerals on the moon...the place would be covered with clonies at this point...instead...we only found moon rocks.  Now, if we could discover some amazing materials in the asteriod field, national government would go for broke to exploit space.

See, the problem isn't if they have valuable minerals - it's if the cost to get there offsets whatever the value is.

Currently, our technology for delivering payload to space is HORRIBLE. We are using nasty chemical rockets to blast off into space. This requires thousands of tons of fuel (which also takes more fuel to get up there). By and large, it's just atrocious because we're attempting to reach escape velocity by a self-enclosed system.

Change such a system to a space elevator, where we merely use energy, and the costs go considerably down. Currently, it costs ~$4,000/KG-$40,000/KG to lift an object into space via rockets. So imagine trying to build a mining colony with humans at $20,000/kg (cost for putting a sat in geosync orbit) - It's just not economically feasible.

Now, with a space elevator, costs drop to $100-$300/KG. Much, MUCH cheaper. Suddenly, the cost to deploy a moon base goes from billions, if not a trillion, down to just a few billion in R&D and other costs to actually build the colony, not put it there.

One should also note that the wholesale cost to launch something via energy projection (that is, shooting a laser at a pusher plate to push it along a rail into the air) is currently at $220/KG with the beam at 0.5% efficiency. Imagine the cost if the beam was 10% efficient  

Once that happens, and it should in the next 10-20 years (I really think Obama and the govt. have botched this by not using some of that stim money on this), we'll see space flight become a very affordable thing to do.

The administration would have been freaking raped by the like of communist hater if they had pushed hard for space initiatives, specificly.  There was alot of money for R&D in general, and that's what needed, as propulsion is only one piece of the puzzle (although a very important piece).  WRT a mineral, I was thinking something sci-fi-ish...nothing that we already have on Earth...some super dense alloy 100X lighter than aluminum but 100X stronger than steel...believe me...if we discover something like that on Mars...Mars would be colonized in 20 years!  It’s sad, but in higher education, there is almost a disdain for researching, for the sake of knowledge…everybody is looking at the bottom-line…and what products they can make a buck off…