10 mysteries 'terrible' about space technology

With the rapid development of space technology, people have more and more opportunities to explore the universe, but the main challenges of space flight continue to hinder the dream of flying further. human.

To achieve the goal of flying further, scientists have studied a variety of new technologies and have new ideas for future space travel plans. Recently, the website " New Scientist " of the UK has introduced and analyzed 10 space technologies in the future, while evaluating the ability to implement them. 10 future space technologies that scientists think are among the technologies that can be achieved, but there are also some technologies that are nearly impossible to achieve.

1. Push ion technology

Feasibility: a few years or will be achieved

Traditional rockets can be launched due to the high speed exhaust gas exhaust at the rear. Ion push also applies the same jet principle, but it does not use burning fuel to produce high heat, but it is a series of charged particles or ions released. Maybe its thrust is relatively weak, but the important thing is that push ions need much less fuel than a conventional rocket. As long as the propulsion ion can maintain long-term stability, it will eventually be able to accelerate the spacecraft at a higher speed.

The technology related to ion push has been applied to a number of spacecraft in space, such as Japan's " Hayabusa " space probe and Europe's " SMART-1 " spaceship, furthermore technology has made great progress. Further in the future, the most promising spacecraft in outer space travel is probably the VASIMR ion missile. This type of rocket is slightly different from the conventional push ion. The popular ion push uses a strong electromagnetic field to accelerate ion bodies, which ion rockets like VASIMR use radio frequency generators to heat up ions up to 1 million degrees Celsius. In strong magnetic fields, the ion rotates with a fixed frequency, adjusts the radio frequency adjuster to this frequency, injects extremely powerful energy for ions, and constantly increases thrust. Preliminary tests prove, if all goes well, VASIMR ion rockets will be able to bring manned spacecraft to Mars within 39 days.

2. Technology pushes nuclear force impulse

Feasibility: very capable of achieving, but extremely dangerous

In all kinds of technologies, the most dangerous, conventional and risky point of view must refer to technology that pushes nuclear forces. The basic idea of ​​technology to push the main nuclear impulse is, the missile's tail throws a nuclear bomb periodically to create thrust. This bizarre idea was made by the US Department of Defense's Advanced Defense Planning Agency. This research plan is called " Orion Plan ", this is the plan actually considered by the US in 1955. The goal of the plan is to study a fast-paced interstellar travel program. In the program was finally launched by the High-Defense Defense Research Planning Agency, the rocket was designed to be a big ' shock absorber ', and there was also a radiation shield to protect the security. full of passengers.

This program seems feasible, but it can be dangerous for radioactive atmospheres. Therefore, in the 60s of the 20th century, this plan was really not done at all. Although there are many concerns, some people are still studying the motivation to push nuclear force. In theory, the speed of a nuclear engine spacecraft could reach 10% of the speed of light. At this rate, the nearest constellation may need 40 years.

3. Nuclear fusion missiles

Feasibility: It is feasible, but at least after ten years.

Space technology based on nuclear engines is completely not only the technology of pushing nuclear forces, but also other methods of using nuclear energy. For example, missiles are installed with a fission reactor to create fusion reaction, thereby creating thrust.

In synthetic nuclear reactions, the compressed synthetic nucleus from there produces tremendous energy. Most fusion reactors use tokamax to control fuel in a magnetic field to regulate fusion. But, tokamak is very heavy, completely unsuitable for rockets. Therefore, synthetic nuclear engine missiles must certainly apply another method of fusion reaction, which is the inertia-restricted synthetic nuclear reaction. This design uses high-energy rays (usually lasers) to replace the magnetic field of tokamak. When fusion reactions occur, the magnetic field continues to lead the ions to spray the missile tail, creating a synthetic nuclear rocket propulsion force.

4. Busade jet engine

Feasibility: There are huge technological challenges.

All boosters, including nuclear fusion missiles, exist a similarly critical conundrum. In order to achieve the target faster and further, the missile must carry more fuel, but more fuel will certainly increase the weight of the rocket, proceeding to reduce the thrust. If you want to travel between stars, you must definitely stay away from that situation. So, in 1960, physicist Robert Busade proposed a jet engine, and the Busade jet engine could solve this problem.

The principle of Busade jet engines is the same as nuclear fusion missiles, but it absolutely does not need to carry enough nuclear fuel. Its working principle is: First, it is necessary to ionize hydrogen in the surrounding space, then use a strong magnetic field to absorb hydrogen ions as fuel. Although the Busade jet engine program has no problem like a reactor like in nuclear fusion missiles, the problem it faces is the problem of magnetic field level. Because hydrogen material in the interstellar space is very small, so its magnetic field must be wide enough to be possible, even to be extended to thousands of kilometers. Unless it is done in detailed calculations before launch, designing the exact trajectory of spaceship flights, there is no need to carry much fuel, nor need a large magnetic field. However, this idea has the disadvantage that the spacecraft must be operated according to the established trajectory, unable to drift outward, moreover the journey back from another planet will become more difficult.

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5. Solar propulsion technology

Feasibility: is completely feasible, but adaptation to space is limited.

This is a technology that needs to carry enough fuel, so it can theoretically achieve very high speeds, but it often requires a period of time to accomplish this goal. Compared to the traditional use of wind to control boats, the sun's ' net ' will draw energy from the sun's rays. Currently, solar propulsion technology has been successfully tested in vacuum chambers on earth.

However, conducting experiments in space has not been successful. For example, in 2005, the American Planetary Association - the world's largest amateur scientific space organization, studied the creation of a ' Universe 1 ' spacecraft, the rocket carrying the sun's ' net '. Its crashed due to an incident.

Although there are many problems in the early stages of technology, the solar ' net ' is still a very promising space technology in the future. At least it can guarantee flights in the solar system, sunlight can provide it the strongest thrust. In the future, humans will be able to mainly use solar energy to travel between stars.

6. Technology to push nets from school

Feasibility: only suitable for space flights with close distance, as in the solar system.

The difference with the solar grid is that, the magnetic field net caused by the solar wind creates a repulsive force, not the sun's rays. The solar wind is a stream of charged particles with magnetic fields. Scientists propose, around the spacecraft to create a magnetic field in contrast to the solar wind magnetic field, thus being able to use the convection force of the magnetic field to propel the spacecraft to fly in space. A similar technology also has the " space spider web " technology, which creates an electrical grid around the spacecraft, which can push large amounts of positive ions in the solar wind, thereby gaining thrust.

Whether the magnetic field, or the " space spider " technology, must use the magnetic field to " surf ", the magnetic field makes the spacecraft change its trajectory, even leaving space between planets. Solar nets or nets from walls are not suitable for traveling between planets. When they leave the sun, the intensity of the sun's rays and the solar wind are rapidly decreasing. Therefore, it does not have enough thrust to go to another planet.

7. Laser push technology

Feasibility: There are major technical challenges.

Because the sun is not enough to propel the spaceship, scientists have proposed laser propulsion technology, the use of extremely large laser beams will push the spacecraft into space, the technology itself is "burning laser " . The so-called " laser burning " is the use of powerful lasers to wear out the special metal of the spacecraft's tail, the metal gradually evaporates and creates repulsive force.

Another type of similar technology is the solar grid technology proposed by the physicist and science fiction novel Gregory Benford, which involves installing solar grids into the spacecraft. On the solar grid, there is a special coating. Emitting a beam of microwaves on the ground, this wave of microwaves ignites a special coating that produces molecules that create repulsive force. This technology will probably make traveling between planets faster.
Laser push technology also has many significant challenges. First, the laser beams must focus on the spacecraft accurately, although the distance is longer, the laser beam cannot make any mistakes. Otherwise, the spaceship will be in danger due to insufficient energy. Second, the power produced by the laser beams must be super strong. In some cases, the energy needed for it may be much higher than all human energy today.

8. Technology of space-time variation

Feasibility: not likely.

In 1994, University of Wales physicist Miguer Aerkubilie introduced technology to use interplanetary material. In this idea, the spacecraft thrust mainly because of ' extraterrestrial ' material (the kind of material that has not been discovered yet). This is a grain of quality and back pressure. It can ' distort ' time and space, thereby making the spacecraft quickly approach the space ahead, while the space behind is constantly expanding. The spacecraft is like being in a bubble that gets bigger and bigger and can fly faster than the speed of light, and it will not go against the theory of relativity.

However, the technology idea of ​​Aerkubilie exists many problems. First, in order to maintain this time and space transformation, there must be very large energy, this kind of energy can be larger than the whole energy of the whole universe. Second, this machine can release large amounts of radiation, seriously threatening the life safety of spacecraft passengers. In addition, whether 'extraterrestrial matter' exists or not has not yet been determined. So, physically, it is very difficult to create this variation ball.

9. Technology using black holes

Feasibility: completely incapable.

Because someone thought of the space-time variation, there was a scientist who thought 'time- tunnel '. They believe that it is possible to use the " wormhole " (wormhole, black hole) that can realize this idea. The concept of ' wormhole ' proposed by famous American physicist John Wiley Harrell, means that in the universe there can exist two consecutive narrow tunnels of different space-time. The main problem here is, does ' wormholes ' really exist? If so, can we go through it? However, these problems have not been answered so far. Perhaps similar to the above ' extraterrestrial ' matter, the ' wormhole ' does not exist at all.

In the 90s of the 20th century, physicist S. Kafelnikov also proposed another concept of ' wormhole '. However, all the ' wormhole ' theories cannot provide real evidence of the existence of ' wormholes ', the more realistic avenues for the passage of space-time cannot be proposed. . If scientists can find the answer, then the speed of the spacecraft will not only be the concept of the speed of light.

10. Multi-dimensional space technology

Feasibility: is very difficult to understand.

We can often see the space is usually three-dimensional. However, German physicist Wilhelm Bernhard Buck said that if the universe had more spatial dimensions, spacecraft could penetrate them and achieve tremendous speed.

Super-speed spacecraft can fly to the moon in minutes, flying to Mars only needs 2.5 hours, to reach Alpha Centauri galaxy only 80 days. However, this idea was hard to understand, Wilhelm's theory was never recognized by colleagues.