The newly developed propulsion system could send a heavy spacecraft to the outer reaches of our Solar System in less than 5 years – something that took the previous Voyager 1 probe 35 years to achieve.
The idea, known as ‘pellet-beam’ propulsion, was initially awarded US$175,000 for NASA to develop earlier this year.
To be clear, the concept here isn’t much more than a paper count, so we can’t get too excited just yet.
However, it attracts attention not only because of its ability to transport us into space within the human soul – something that traditional, synthetic stones cannot – but also because it claims to be able to do so with great art.
“This concept envisions a new design that would allow humans to travel quickly (one ton or more) across the Solar System and interstellar,” explains the principal investigator of the proposal, aerospace engineer Artur Davoyan of the University of California, Los Angeles. Angeles. .
The pellet beam idea was inspired by the Breakthrough Starshot unit, which is working on a ‘light-sail’ propulsion system. With the help of millions of lasers, a small probe could reach nearby Proxima Centauri in just 20 years.
The new idea starts with a similar idea – to put fuel on a rocket instead of blowing one up – but it looks at how to make big changes. After all, a little research isn’t what we need if we want to one day explore, or even colonize, the worlds outside our own Sun.
In order to work, the mind control system requires two planes – one that takes off into space, and the other that goes around the Earth.
A spacecraft orbiting the Earth can shoot small particles into space.
The particles are then heated by lasers, causing a portion to dissolve into plasma that accelerates the pellets, a process called laser ablation.
Those pellets can reach 120 km / second (75 kilometers / second) and hit the spacecraft or repel the magnetic field inside it, which helps to propel the spacecraft to reach the maximum speed that will allow it to leave our atmosphere – the bubble. solar energy around our solar system.
“With the price of the pellet, the outer planets can reach in less than a year, 100 AU. [astronomical unit] about 3 years and the solar gravity at 500 AU about 15 years,” says Davoyan.
In short, AU, which stands for ‘astronomical unit’, represents the distance between the Earth and the Sun, or about 150 million km (93 million miles).
It took the Voyager 1 probe 35 years to cross space in 2012, about 122 AU away.
According to current developments, a 1 ton spacecraft could do the same in less than five years.
Davoyan explained to Matt Williams from Universe Today back in February that his team has taken the pellet method, instead of using lasers like other marine projects, because pellets can be driven by low-power lasers.
In their current opinion, a 10-megawatt laser beam is the one that can be used.
“Unlike a laser beam, the pellets don’t break apart as quickly, which allows us to fire a very heavy spacecraft,” Davoyan told Williams.
“The pellets, being heavier than a photon, carry more energy and can transfer higher energy to the plane.”
Of course, this is all just speculation right now. But part One of NASA’s Innovative and Advanced Concepts (NIAC) grant will help.
This project was one of 14 that was funded at this time, and the next step will be to show proof of concept using experiments.
“In the Phase 1 effort we will demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed concept by modeling in detail various aspects of the proposed architecture, as well as by conducting experimental studies,” says Davoyan.
We will be following developments closely.
