Space Travel: Past, Present, and Future

1
Space Travel Past, Present, and Future

• Daniel Alterbaum and Hershel Eisenberger
• The Big Bang and Beyond
• Professor Verde

2
Overview

• History of American Space Travel
• Current Designs and Models
• Models in Development

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Robert H. Goddard

• The Father of Modern Rocketry (1882-1945)
• Contributions
• Developed liquid fuel for rockets
• Proved that rockets will work in a vacuum
• Invented gimbels and multistage rockets
• Developed gyroscopic control apparatuses and
  liquid fuel pumps
• Predicted that rocket technology could be used to
  reach the moon in 1912

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The Goddard Rocket

• Launched on March 16, 1926, in Auburn,
  Massachusetts
• First rocket to use liquid fuel

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Liquid and Solid Fuel Rockets

• Liquid-Fuel Rockets
• First theorized by Tziolozski in 1896
• Most powerful thrust system available
• Liquid oxygen currently most popular fuel
• Solid-Fuel Rockets
• More reliable than liquid fuel
• Much simpler and more straightforward

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The Physics of Rocket Movement

• Newtons Third Law of Motion
• For every action, there is an opposite and equal
  reaction.
• Rockets dont push off something - the force
  exerted by the thrust pushes the rocket in the
  direction opposite the thrust

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History of American Space Flight

• Explorer I January 31, 1958
• First American satellite launch
• Mercury Redstone Rockets
• January 31, 1961 First primate in space
• May 1961 Allan Shepard is first American in
  space
• Gemini Titan II Rockets
• First American space walk in 1965
• Apollo-Saturn V
• Multistage rockets for more power to travel to
  moon
• Pioneer X
• First spacecraft to travel through Asteroid Belt
  and take pictures of Jupiter
• Skylab
• 1973 First American space station
• Voyager I
• Furthest-traveling spacecraft (now twice as far
  as Pluto)
• Space Shuttle Program April 12, 1981

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Pictures!
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The Modern Space Shuttle

• Uses a combination of liquid and solid fuel
  rockets
• Relies on much of the technology conceived by
  Goddard
• Orbital Maneuvering System (OMS)
• Reusability through atmosphere exit/reentry

10
Future Design Overview

• Current research efforts are focusing on
  improving the efficiency of contemporary designs
• Contemporary shuttles are high-mass and require
  significant fuel to achieve escape velocity
• vcritical (GM/R)1/2
• Research focuses include tethers, plasma rockets,
  and fusion-powered rockets

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Momentum-Exchange Tether Propulsion

• Technology that could greatly increase the
  efficiency of near-Earth transportation (i.e.,
  the moon and Mars)
• Involves the creation of 100-mile tethers
  composed of multi-fiber metallic strands
• Using electric currents and gravity, these
  tethers could be attached to orbiting objects
  (e.g., satellites, shuttles) and could fling them
  away from the Earth towards the moon or Mars
• Such trips would be made substantially quicker
  and with less fuel use

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Momentum-Exchange Tether Propulsion
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Electrodynamic Tether Propulsion

• Metallic wires of approximately six miles in
  length that generate electrical currents when
  passed through substantial magnetic fields, such
  as those surrounding the Earth and Jupiter
• When attached to a space payload, these tethers
  could take advantage of the planetary or solar
  magnetospheres and use the force of the
  electrical current exerted to fling objects
  deeper into space
• Could be far less expensive than standard rocket
  propulsion and could facilitate better long-term
  satellite orbit maintenance

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Electrodynamic Tether Propulsion
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Plasma Rockets

• Current model is the Variable Specific
  Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASMIR), which may be
  tested in space in mid-2004
• How it Works
• Radio waves are disbursed throughout a liquid
  fuel of compressed hydrogen
• The waves heat the liquid in a manner similar to
  how microwaves heat food
• Three specialized magnetic cells amplify the heat
  concentration until the hydrogen is transformed
  into plasma (atoms stripped of electrons)
• Magnetic fields provide containment for the
  superheated plasma, enabling thrusts that could
  accelerate the plasma rockets to speeds 2-3 times
  greater than those achieved by current designs
• This design may later be used in nuclear fusion
  facilities

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Plasma Rockets
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Fusion-Powered Rockets

• If made practically possible, fusion-powered
  space shuttle and rocket designs would have
  immense utility for astronauts traveling long
  distances in space
• Fusion-powered engines would be able to superheat
  liquid hydrogen fuel quite efficiently, not only
  providing strong thrust power but also generating
  much extra power to run the shuttle entirely
• Such energy could be used to generate artificial
  gravity through shuttle rotation and cool the
  liquid hydrogen needed for combustion
• Providing the energy needed to cool the hydrogen
  and to generate power could significantly reduce
  shuttle mass and payload (which is often used to
  contain excess liquid hydrogen to compensate for
  combusted losses and power generation)
• Current major problem lies in containment of
  radioactive uranium energy current models can
  only generate about 225,000 pounds of thrust
  (compared to 400,000 pounds in current chemical
  models) anything more could not be contained due
  to high heat

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Fusion-Powered Rockets
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Bibliography

• Tether Information Dr. Robert P. Hoyt and Dr.
  Robert L. Forward of Tethers Unlimited, Inc.
  (TUI), the company subcontracted by NASA to
  investigate their potential usefulness
• http//www.tethers.com
• Plasma Rockets Information Plasma Rockets Could
  Propel Man to Mars, by Glen Golightly, reporting
  at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) Advanced Space
  Propulsion Laboratory
• http//www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology
  /plasma_propulsion_000616.html
• Fusion-Powered Rockets Information Will Nuclear
  Power Put Humans on Mars?, by Greg Clark
• http//www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/
  nuclearmars_000521.html
• History Information NASA website
• http//www.nasa.gov
• Goddard Information Goddard Space Flight Center
  website
• http//www.gsfc.nasa.gov/gsfc/service/gallery/fact
  _sheets/general/goddard/goddard.htm
• Liquid Fuel Rocket Information About.com
  Inventors Directory
• http//inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blroc
  ketliquid.htm