I designed a crewed interstellar spacecraft 1

[alfa0152]

Hi everybody,

I would like to share with you a crewed interstellar spacecraft which I have designed and called Solar One.

It employs a combination of 3 propulsion methods: nuclear fusion, beam-powered propulsion , and photon propulsion.

Basically, several compact fusion reactors power a laser system that propels a huge light sail.

Physicist Robert Forward already proposed in 1983 to use a 26-TW laser system to propel a 100-km light sail, a fresnel lens to focus the beam of the laser, and decelerate the spacecraft with a secondary light sail.

I propose something a bit different, which is to use to use for example a 60 TW-laser to propel a 5-km light sail that would deploy from the spacecraft after the acceleration stage, use parabolic mirrors that gradually change their orientation in order to focus the laser beam, and finally use a photon rocket to decelerate the spacecraft.

In theory, it could be possible to achieve 25% the speed of light, reaching the closest potentially habitable exoplanet in less than 20 years.

There are of course many challenges, like building high-energy continuous-wave lasers, reducing the weight of the nuclear fusion reactors (and of course achieving effective nuclear fusion first), and minimizing the effects of zero gravity during such a long trip.

What do you guys suggest to overcome these challenges?

This is my paper and a short video that summarizes all.

 

[SWComposites]

Lots of money. Couple of miracles.

 

[IRstuff]

More than a couple, I think, more like around a couple dozen

> The worldwide power generation capacity is easily under 10 TW, for starters, and you want 220 TW.
> You want a 60 TW laser, which requires, even at the 50% achieved by the best ytterbium-fiber lasers, 120 TW, which is the 12 times the entire world's production, and that needs to be continuously supplied
> However, your paper's stated acceleration for the light sail requires 88 MW/m^2 --> 177 TW, which means you need at least 354 TW of plug power, which has to be beamed or generated in space
> Your laser mirror needs to be 550 km i diameter to achieve the 4.5 picoradian divergence necessary to maintain the required power density on the light sail for 100 days.
> However, there is nothing remotely capable of achieving 0.45 picoradian pointing accuracy at all, much less over 100 days continuously

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

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[rb1957]

how on earth do you expect a satellite fusion power plant in our lifetime (or our children's ?) ...

another day in paradise, or is paradise one day closer ?

 

[Sparweb]

expect a satellite fusion power plant in our lifetime

Obvious: Finish the Tokamak reactor project, then simply scale it down 1:100. Ten years, 20 tops.
You guys are such pessimists...

http://www.sparweb.ca

 

[IRstuff]

There's an apocryphal story about Claude Shannon, who was famous for key tenets of information theory and generalized problem solving; he basically said that one shouldn't try to solve a problem before its time, meaning that some problems cannot be solved with current technology or knowledge and that one must wait until such things become available. Otherwise, you're trying to use a spiderweb to catch an eagle; it just ain't going to happen.

The OP is trying to solve a problem with a solution that consumes more power than the world has ever produced in a century; that some signal that the problem's solution is too immature. Just because the math is possible doesn't make the solution possible. Einstein bent his pick on Grand Unified Theory; the math and physics of his time just weren't enough, and he wasted possibly decades that he could have spent more fruitfully.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

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[0707]

I don´t know how, but I believe the man can achieve the light velocity. We only need to lost mass and pass to another dimension, for instance wormholes. "But wormholes might not be available for space travel. What if instead you actively distorted space-time in a controlled way, to travel faster than 300,000km/s relative to someone else?."

luis

 

[IRstuff]

Sure, might as well wish for warp drives

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

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[0707]

the unknown is geting closer and closer

luis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHAaoTMrc3A

 

[rb1957]

so to is the apocalypse

another day in paradise, or is paradise one day closer ?

 

[alfa0152]

Thanks for your comments!

 

[WKTaylor]

As-far-as interstellar 'flight' goes, the movie Passengers seems to best describe the truest essence of the journey I have ever seen. I was actually able to suspend disbelief... based on the mechanics of the vehicle and it's AI robotics employed for maintenance and emergency repairs... and the extreme-long-term stasis [hibernation] required for human/animal/plant-life survival... except for the unlucky 3-people...

Regards, Wil Taylor
o Trust - But Verify!
o We believe to be true what we prefer to be true. [Unknown]
o For those who believe, no proof is required; for those who cannot believe, no proof is possible. [variation,Stuart Chase]
o Unfortunately, in science what You 'believe' is irrelevant. ["Orion", Homebuiltairplanes.com forum]