An Alternative method to transport Zac Manchester’s

PCB-starship to Alpha Centauri.

Contact information.

Main page

 

Internet entrepreneur Yuri Milner is proposing sending a “nanocraft” (idea developed by Zac Manchester), a working space probe so small (1-2 grams) that it could be accelerated to 20% the speed of light and reach Alpha Centauri in 20 years or so.

Mr Milner has launched a $100 million effort, dubbed Breakthrough Starshot, to prove the principle of sending  tiny crafts attached to  light sails that are blasted from earth with laser beams for propulsion, the idea has the blessings of Dr. Stephen Hawking, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg among others, NASA is also working on Micro spacecraft.

 

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Proposed Nanocraft                               light beamer array will shoot gigawatts of laser beams to the Nanocraft’s light sails.

(held by Mr Yuri Milner)

 

The micro spacecraft weighing little more than a sheet of paper and driven by a sail comparable in size a child’s kite fashioned from fabric only a few hundred atoms in thickness, will be accelerated by a 100 billion-watt laser-powered array reaching a velocity of 60,000km a second.

 

Before sending the first nanocrafts to Alpha Centauri we must wait for the lasers to be designed and constructed, but as the nanocraft’s development is fairly advanced, I propose attaching a nanocraft to a Fluid Space Drive that is simple and inexpensive (compared to a multi laser array) where it will travel with a constant acceleration of 0,2 mps reaching Alpha Centauri in 28 years (see main page).

 

The Fluid Space Drive is a propellantless propulsion system, to see how this is possible without breaking the law of conservation of linear momentum please see note at end of this page, or read what David Hambling wrote on Fortean Times magazine: Looking for loopholes. The impossible may just take longer and require some imagination.

Or see Fluid Space Drive’s main page, includes video

What are the advantage of a propellantless propulsion system?

At present all spacecraft travel from earth to their destination at constant speed (they coast at constant velocity), We use enormous rockets in our space exploration programs, but almost all the push the spacecraft acquires is during the first few minutes the rockets are firing before they run out of fuel, the rest of the trip the spaceship travels at a constant velocity (no acceleration).

So if it’s Mars we want to go, at present we can produce a few minutes of acceleration versus 300 days of constant velocity (just coasting).

What the Fluid space drive does is generate a strong force in one direction from the inside, constantly pushing the spacecraft/probe resulting in it relentlessly gaining velocity to speeds never before possible.

As long as the Fluid Space Drive receives electrical power by means of solar panels or/and some Air Independent Power Source like the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator illustrated in the following illustration, the spacecraft will continue accelerating.

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If we send two identical spacecraft to Mars (figs 2, 3 and 4), spacecraft A with a FSD attached and spacecraft B with no FSD, they will both start their journey at the same velocity but while spacecraft B will spend 300 days at constant velocity, as spacecraft A is constantly accelerating it will in time leave spacecraft B far behind and reach enormous velocities (Fig 4)

 

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Fig 2

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Fig 3

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Fig 4

An early proposed application for the Fluid Space Drive was a simple method to get to Mars FAST using technologies available now, for instant a spaceship composed of a Bigelow Aerospace inflatable module towed to mars at a constant acceleration by an array of Fluid Space Drives.

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If we replace the payload (Bigelow space module) with a 2 gram nanocraft, a constant acceleration of 0,2 mps is possible and Alpha Centauri will be reached in 28 years (see main page).

 

Contact Information

William John Elliott S.
(Exit code) 56-2-2042863
(Exit code) 56-9-85530114

Whatsapp +56985530114
william.john.elliott (contact on Skype)
http://www.wjetech.cl/

wjeconsultant@gmail.com
wje@wjetech.cl

 

 

 

Fluid Space Drive (V3) explained.

              

                    

                                             Fig 1 Principal elements of a Fluid Space Drive.

We have:

A pressurized structure/spacecraft (1) in a micro-gravity environment, inside the spacecraft is a 100k mass (2) we call Ram Mass Assembly or RMA.

The RMA (2) has freedom to move across the length (not breadth) of the spacecraft.

Inside the pressurized structure we have a forward ramming piston (3a) and a rear ramming piston (3b)

We also have a probe (5) we wish to accelerate.

And a radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG, RITEG) (4) to provide power to the system.

For this presentation we shall assume that the assembly composed of pressurized structure (1), probe (5), rear and forward ramming pistons (3a and 3b) and secondary control systems (not shown) have a mass of 800k (mass of RMA (2) is not included in this total).

 

                                                                                                                                    Fig 2

Fig 2 illustrates the RMA (M2), it has a series of flaps attached to servo motors, when the flaps are closed they form the shape of an open cone that functions as an air brake increasing the RMA’s drag coefficient (note Dd) therefore slowing it’s relative velocity inside the pressurized structure (M1).

Note: The illustration does not show the ideal aerodynamically shape for low drag.

 So how does it work?

 

              

  Cycle 0

We start the cycle with the RMA (2) positioned against the rear ramming piston (3a).

 

Cycle 1

The rear ramming piston (3a) expands with sufficient force to accelerate the RMA (2) to a velocity (V2) of 1m/s in the +X direction.

P2 is the RMA’s momentum, (momentum = Mass x Velocity =100k x 1m/s =100P) in the +X direction so P2 =100p.

The spacecraft’s momentum (P2) in the –X direction is equal but in the opposite (-X) direction or -100p.

Therefore the velocity of the spacecraft in the –X direction is -0.125m/s.

V1 = Velocity of pressurized structure/spacecraft (1) in m/s.

V2 = Velocity of RMA(2) in m/s

P1 = Momentum of pressurized structure/spacecraft (1).

P2 = Momentum of RMA (2) mass x V2

 

Cycle 2

As the spacecraft’s travels in the –X direction with a constant velocity of 0.125m/s, the RMA is traveling inside the spacecraft with a constant velocity of 1m/s in the +X direction.

 

Although the spacecraft is pressurized (air or other suitable gas at normal atmospheric pressure), as the RMA’s flaps are open, the air drag is minimal and does not exert sufficient force to noticeably slow it’s +X velocity.

 

Cycle 3

 

The spacecraft (1) and the RMA (2) travel in opposite directions until they collide at the inner forward end of the spaceship.

As both the spaceship (1) and the RMA (2) have the equal momentum (P1 = -100p   P2 = 100p P1 + P2 = 0) the system comes to a full stop.

 

Cycle 4

 

The forward ramming piston (3b) expands with sufficient force to accelerate the RMA (2) to a velocity (V3) of 1m/s in the -X direction.

P3 is the RMA’s momentum, (momentum = Mass x Velocity =100k x 1m/s =100p) in the +X direction so P3 =-100p.

The spacecraft’s momentum (P4) in the –X direction is also 100p therefore the velocity of the spacecraft in the +X direction is 0.125m/s.

 

V3 = Velocity of RMA (2) in m/s

V4 = Velocity of pressurized structure/spacecraft (1) in m/s.

P4 = Momentum of pressurized structure/spacecraft (1).

P3 = Momentum of RMA (2) mass x V2

 

Cycle 5

 

The RNA’s flaps close (see fig 2), greatly incrementing the drag force slowing the RMA’s –X velocity without greatly affecting the +X velocity of the spacecraft (M1).

 

This effect (the velocity of M2 is affected in greater magnitude that the velocity of M1) is very counter intuitive to many (maybe everybody), why it works is explain here, but more important the effect can be observed with an experiment set up using the same elements available in a physics classroom to demonstrate the conservation of momentum. (See here)

If a physics classroom/lab is not available here is an idea for a DIY test bed that can be constructed with little expenses.

 

Cycle 6

 

The spacecraft (1) and the RMA (2) travel in opposite directions until they collide at the inner forward end of the spaceship.

When the RMA collides with the spacecraft’s inner wall it’s –X final velocity (V3f) is LESS than it’s –X initial velocity (before the flaps were closed) it does not have the same momentum (it lost velocity) therefore the collision is not sufficient to cancel M1’s +X acceleration (gained in cycle 4) and the cycle finishes with a net gain of velocity in the +X direction for the spacecraft.

The gain in +X velocity will increase every time the cycle (1 to 6) is repeated