Posted on 03/25/2011 12:01:39 PM PDT by LibWhacker
Spaceships powered primarily by water could open up the solar system to exploration, making flights to Mars and other far-flung locales far cheaper, a recent study has found.
A journey to Mars and back in a water-fueled vehicle could cost as little as one space shuttle launch costs today, researchers said. And the idea is to keep these "space coaches" in orbit between trips, so their relative value would grow over time, as the vehicles reduce the need for expensive one-off missions that launch from Earth.
The water-powered space coach is just a concept at the moment, but it could become a reality soon enough, researchers said. [Video: Space Engines: The New Generation]
"It's really a systems integration challenge," said study lead author Brian McConnell, a software engineer and technology entrepreneur. "The fundamental technology is already there."
Space coach: The basics
The space coach concept vehicle is water-driven and water-centric, starting with its solar-powered electrothermal engines. These engines would super-heat water, and the resulting steam would then be vented out of a nozzle, producing the necessary amount of thrust.
Electrothermal engines are very efficient, and they're well-suited for sustained, low-thrust travel, researchers said. This mode of propulsion would do the lion's share of the work, pushing the space coach from Earth orbit to Mars.
Smaller chemical rockets could be called into service from time to time when a rapid change in velocity is needed, McConnell said.
The space coach's living quarters would be composed of a series of interconnected habitat modules. These would be expandable and made of fabric, researchers said — much like Bigelow Aerospace's inflatable modules, which have already been deployed and tested in low-Earth orbit.
Water would be a big part of the space coach's body, too, according to the study. Packed along the habitat modules, it would provide good radiation shielding. It could also be incorporated into the fabric walls themselves, freezing into a strong, rigid debris shield when the structure is exposed to the extreme cold of space.
Rotating the craft could also generate artificial gravity approximating that of Earth in certain parts of the ship, researchers said.
Slashing the cost of space travel
The dependence on water as the chief propellant would make the space coach a relatively cheap vehicle to operate, researchers said. That's partly because electrothermal engines are so efficient, and partly because the use of water as fuel makes most of the ship consumable, or recyclable.
Because there are fewer single-use materials, there's much less dead weight. Water first used for radiation shielding, for example, could later be shunted off to the engines. Combined, these factors would translate into huge savings over a more "traditional" spacecraft mission to Mars using chemical rockets, according to the study.
"Altogether, this reduces costs by a factor of 30 times or better," McConnell told SPACE.com. He estimates a roundtrip mission to the Martian moon Phobos, for example, could be made for less than $1 billion.
A space coach journey would also be more comfortable, McConnell added. The ship would carry large quantities of water, so astronauts could conceivably grow some food crops and — luxury of luxuries — even take hot baths now and again.
McConnell and co-author Alexander Tolley published their study last March in the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society.
A fleet of space coaches?
McConnell envisions space coaches cruising around the solar system, each individual vehicle fueling up with water in low-Earth orbit when the need arises. In the future, fuel could be sourced along a space coach's travels — for example, water could be mined from an asteroid or a Martian moon.
Parts could be swapped out and upgraded on orbit as well, helping to keep the space coaches in good operating condition for several decades, McConnell said. Each mission undertaken from low-Earth orbit would be far cheaper than anything launching from the ground.
McConnell thinks an entire fleet of space coaches could one day populate the heavens, flying a variety of different flags — as long as somebody takes the initial plunge.
"If one party decides to do this, I think it would spur a lot of other activity," McConnell said. "I think countries wouldn't want to get left behind."
From vision to reality
No huge technological leaps are required to make the space coach a reality, McConnell said. Bigelow's expandable habitats are already space-tested, for example, as are several varieties of electrothermal engine.
"There's not a lot of new technology that needs to be built," McConnell said.
Electrothermal engines that use water as fuel, however, have not been flight-tested, so some work needs to be done on the propulsion system. McConnell envisions holding a design competition for the engines, as well as one for the overall ship design — cash-reward contests that would be like smaller versions of the Google Lunar X Prize, which is a $30 million private race to the moon.
Once winners of these competitions emerge, ground-testing and, eventually, flight-testing would follow. McConnell declined to put forth any specific timelines, but he's optimistic about the possibilities.
"I think things could happen very quickly," he said. "It's really just a matter of convincing decision-makers that this is worth getting into."
Propulsion in space requires the ejection of mass for an equal force in the opposite direction. Or you can capture moving mass and use that momentum.
There was even some speculation of dropping nuclear weapons out the tail and using a shield to let it push the ship.
From “Wikipedia”
“A radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG, RITEG) is a nuclear reactor technology electrical generator that obtains its power from radioactive decay. In such a device, the heat released by the decay of a suitable radioactive material is converted into electricity by the Seebeck effect using an array of thermocouples.”
I believe these are the power sources used on the Voyageur space-craft for instance. And we KNOW that it’s going to last till the 23rd century. You DID see Star Trek the Movie didn’t you? :-)
yes I know - the question I was trying to answer was whether there is a way to generate power from nuclear energy without H2O. There is.
Also - a better idea is the VASIMIR engine. It is an actual reality. It’ll soon be tested on the ISS.
If you (or anyone else) is interested:
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were launched in 1977, and are the oldest operational spacecraft. At launch, each spacecraft carried two propulsion systems, a Delta-V system, including four 100 lbf and four 5 lbf monopropellant hydrazine thrusters made by Aerojet, and an attitude control system including 16 0.2 lbf monopropellant hydrazine thrusters. The Delta-V systems have long since been jettisoned, but the attitude control systems remain operational today. The 100 lbf thrusters are the original version of the thrusters intended for Orion’s crew module and the 0.2 lbf thrusters are the original version of the thrusters currently in use for the Global Positioning System Block IIR, and are similar to those newly in service for GPS Block IIF.
Vasimr is still an ejection of mass. It is a way to to greatly accelerate the mass. But it still requires loading up the ship with mass.
I didn't claim that it wasn't. I was simply answering the question posed in #21.
“Turning a screw outside a ship”
And the above statement refers to ????
Nuclear reactor’s create heat - for transportation it’s all a matter of converting that heat energy into some form of thrust.
In an airplane a “combustion engine” (which uses heat created by the burning of a fuel) drives a turbine. Nuclear powered naval craft use the heat’s reactor to turn water into steam to drive a turbine and the turbine driving “the screw”.
But, it’s all a matter of what you do with the energy from the reactor.
A nuclear powered space vehicle might use a “nuclear electric system”, where nuclear reactors are a heat source for electric ion drives, to expel plasma out of nozzles to propel & maneuver spacecraft already in space.
Apparently NASA thinks so too and has R&D programs in the hopper, with Boeing and others, to investigate the idea.
Nuclear in any of the systems referenced do not replace the water, they replace the solar power used to heat the water.
You original comment stated:
Our modern navies seem to think, for large ocean going vessels - aircraft carriers - and vessels with trips that last a very long time - strategic submarines, that nuclear power is the best? Why would space travel be any different?
The reason space travel is different there is no medium available to exert force against. You have to take that medium with you. Most proposed systems use hydrogen or water for space travel believing those materials are likely to be replaceable in space travel.
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/features/nep_prometheus.html
NEP still uses a propelant with mass. That is the ions being ejected to provide thrust.
Both of your first examples require some form of medium to travel in. Space doesn’t have enough friction in order to obtain any kind of useful propulsion.
And yes, ion drives have potential, but they haven’t been developed yet to a point where they might be used on a test flight to the moon/mars, much less as a reliable means of propulsion.
Converted into electricity for power for on-board systems. Not for propulsion. And nope, sorry, no Star Trek for me yet :p
Not to change the subject but, ... would water as a shield for cosmic radiation be practical?
I’ve seen stories discussing the problems relating to long term space travel, one big problem being dealing with shielding passengers from radiation.
Is water possibly a good answer?
Maybe but I don’t know the details.
However, if water is being used as a propelant, you probably don’t want to use it as a radiation shield since you would be consuming it.
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