Challenges Of Interstellar Space Travel

Introduction

The idea of interstellar space travel has been discussed for many years between many scientists and engineers since 1950s (Adelman, 180). It has not only been discussed but also demonstrated in science fiction literature. By getting the knowledge of interstellar travel, people wonder when will we be able to travel between stars and if it is even possible to reach another star other than the sun. However, others wonder “what is the point of spending so much money on something that it isn’t possible?” or “why do we have to study another star when we have the sun that light our day?” The answers to those two questions are; one day our sun will become a red giant and end the life of earth and the second reason a nearby supernova can affect our solar system (Mallove, pg .4). In order to escape from these tragedies, we need to find a way to be transported to another star. Dr. Leslie Robert Shepherd, nuclear physicist and member of The British Interplanetary Society, first published a paper on “Interstellar Flight” in 1952. From then on The British Interplanetary Society kept the research on “Interstellar Space Travel” throughout its history (The Telegraph, 2012). Our research question is “Can we ever reach other stars other than the sun?” This paper will explain the challenges of interstellar flight, ways to travel into space and finally projects that had appeared during the years of research.

Challenges of Starflight

Interstellar space travel is very hard to accomplish. There are many challenges to overcome in order to succeed. The first challenge of interstellar space travel would be distance (Mallove,5) . The closest star is Proxima Centauri is 4.3 light years which is about 4.0681×〖10〗^13 km away from earth. It would t...

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...ceed the limitations of rockets using chemical energy (Mallove, 49). This type of rocket is used by heating the fuel with nuclear reactor to provide thrust another words a propellant mass (Tate, 2013).

Ion and plasma drive are very similar they work electrically accelerating ions or plasma to provide thrust. The speed of the rocket is slow but it would run for much longer time than the nuclear chemical rockets (Tate, 2013).

Antimatter rockets were proposed in the early 1950s by a German scientist, Eugen Sanger. This rocket would have a speed of about 3×〖10〗^7 m/s . It would produce “energetic gamma rays” which causes to travel about the speed of light (Mallove, 49).

The major problem with these rockets is fuel. It needs huge amount fuel , bigger that what earth could produce. For example, Nu clear fusion rockets would need about “1000 supertankers full of fuel”