Future Spacecrafts

ashicjose

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Dear friends, for some time there is a wild thinking in my mind and I want to share it with you guys ,is this possible using centrifugal energy by nuclear reactor to push the spacecraft to move forward.By creating something like legs and helical gears in spacecrafts to control the direction.:confused:
 

Dovah

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Dear friends, for some time there is a wild thinking in my mind and I want to share it with you guys ,is this possible using centrifugal energy by nuclear reactor to push the spacecraft to move forward.By creating something like legs and helical gears in spacecrafts to control the direction.:confused:
A reactor on a space craft would have to be large. It would be costly. The risks would be high(radiation). Fusion and anti-matter are being considered though we are a long time away from actually seeing them.

By creating something like legs and helical gears in spacecrafts to control the direction.
Space=Vacuum, so I doubt legs would be of any use (3rd law of motion), gaseous propulsion would be more apt.
 

bengalraider

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Well as far as nuclear powered spacecraft are concerned they have been in operation for quite sometime now , most of these spacecraft have used RTG(radioisotopic thermoelectric generators) to convert the heat of nuclear reactions directly into electrical energy. These devices do not propel the craft which is mainly done by utilizing gravity slingshots however the RTG produces electrical energy for the spacecrafts systems.in fact i think they celebrated the 50th yr of nuclear powered spaceflight recently anyhoo i'll just post links and you can go read up as much as you guys want

50 Years of Nuclear-Powered Spacecraft | Space Nuclear Power & Planetary Probes | Transit 4A & Space Nuclear Age | Space.com
Russians to ride a nuclear-powered spacecraft to Mars - CSMonitor.com
Nuclear propulsion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Project Orion (nuclear propulsion) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Orion the last link was a different beast altogether i'll let the video below talk for me

HowStuffWorks Videos "Nuclear-Powered Spacecraft"
 

pmaitra

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Space=Vacuum, so I doubt legs would be of any use (3rd law of motion), gaseous propulsion would be more apt.
Parhaps we can have electricity activating solenoid installed in the spacecraft. these solenoids would then use the earth's magnetic field to propel itself. It won't be a race car, but it can definitely correct its course and make changes to its orbital radius or velocity.
 

Dovah

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Parhaps we can have electricity activating solenoid installed in the spacecraft. these solenoids would then use the earth's magnetic field to propel itself. It won't be a race car, but it can definitely correct its course and make changes to its orbital radius or velocity.
Would make sense for smaller ranges an but once out of the magnetic field we'd have to switch to secondary fuel.
 

pmaitra

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Would make sense for smaller ranges an but once out of the magnetic field we'd have to switch to secondary fuel.
Correct. I was talking for orbital spacecraft that will be close enough to the earth.

For interplanetary travel, it probably won't work.
 

bengalraider

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There have been conceptual nuclear powered ION drive spacecraft designed where the electricity from the RTG is utilized to push a stream of charged ions out of a nozzle in the craft providing thrust!
 

ashicjose

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Space=Vacuum, so I doubt legs would be of any use (3rd law of motion), gaseous propulsion would be more apt.
my idea is not to have leg to walk but to create centrifugal force ( to do this i think we need legs big as same as the ship itself ) and gears like automatic vehicles ( with this you can control the torque of each leg ) to stop the rotating motion of the legs and generating a force to move the spaceship.
 

ashicjose

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with nuclear reactors having almost unlimited power supply we will be able to travel for many decades.
 

bengalraider

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with nuclear reactors having almost unlimited power supply we will be able to travel for many decades.
That was the base for project Daedalus
Overall length: 190 metres
Propellant mass first stage: 46,000 tonnes
Propellant mass second stage: 4,000 tonnes
First stage empty mass at staging: 1,690 tonnes
Second stage mass at cruise speed: 980 tonnes
Engine burn time first stage: 2.05 years
Engine burn time second stage: 1.76 years
Thrust first stage: 7,540,000 newtons
Thrust second stage: 663,000 newtons
Engine exhaust velocity: 10,600,000 m/s & 9,210,000 m/s
Payload mass: 450 tonnes
[video=youtube_share;RfsKxnPK6ls]http://youtu.be/RfsKxnPK6ls[/video]
The world's first engineering study of an unmanned spaceship to explore one of the nearer stars was made by a technical group of the British Interplanetary Society between 1973-77. The target selected for the exercise was Barnard's Star, nearly 6 light years distant from Earth. The contributors recognised that the work, based on the technology extrapolated to the beginning of the 21st Century, could represent only a first approximation to the solution of starflight.

The results showed it would be a formidable task requiring a massive craft that would dwarf the Saturn V moon rocket, the largest space vehicle yet flown by man. Daedalus, as conceived, would weigh some 54,000 tonnes, nearly 20 times the weight of the Saturn V, carrying nearly 500 tonnes of fully automated payload. Because of the enormous time lag involved in radio communications between the Earth and the ship, a semi-intelligent computer would have to control the entire ship and work out all actions necessary for the exploration phase of the mission.

The result was a two stage, nuclear fusion powered vehicle, unmanned and under autonomous operation due to the distances involved, accelerated to 16% of the speed of light, and armed with a variety of probes, sensors, robotic wardens and intelligent decision making computers. Although the journey could take as long as 40 years, a flyby at such speeds would be over in 70 hours.

Although the study was conducted during the 1970's, it's still referred to today, even in NASA, as a baseline study. Any future mission to the stars probably won't look anything like Daedalus, but it gives a good idea of the complexity and scale of task, and the length of time it would take to get to even the closest stars.

No estimate of the cost of such an enterprise could be made, but it would be way beyond the capacity of an individual nation, and would probably need a period of world stability unlike any we have seen to date
Project Daedalus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nuclear pulse propulsion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Starship Daedalus - Introduction
 

Dovah

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Hmm...I'm not sure what you are talking of. Gear motion 'inside' or 'on the 'surface' or in anyway connected to the ship can't propel it in space. Maybe, you're talking of gravity slingshots talked of in Post # 4, if so then you're right.
 

Dovah

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bengalraider

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Real future space propulsion concepts in development presently

Lightcraft
A lightcraft is a space- or air-vehicle driven by laser propulsion. Laser propulsion is currently in early stages of development. Lightcraft use an external source of laser or maser energy to provide power for producing thrust. The laser/maser energy is focused to a high intensity in order to create a plasma. The plasma expands, producing thrust.
[video=youtube_share;KtH-SxqdtaA]http://youtu.be/KtH-SxqdtaA[/video]

Solar Sails
Solar sails (also called light sails or photon sails) are a form of spacecraft propulsion using the radiation pressure of light from a star or laser to push enormous ultra-thin mirrors to high speeds.
Japan's JAXA successfully tested IKAROS in 2010. The goal was to deploy and control the sail and for the first time determining the minute orbit perturbations caused by light pressure. Orbit determination was done by the nearby AKATSUKI probe from which IKAROS detached after both had been brought into a transfer orbit to Venus. The total effect over the six month' flight was 100 m/s.


[video=youtube_share;YKjZ2I_gSXM]http://youtu.be/YKjZ2I_gSXM[/video]
 

bengalraider

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pmaitra

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Interesting lunar rover concept:

 
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Godless-Kafir

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Dear friends, for some time there is a wild thinking in my mind and I want to share it with you guys ,is this possible using centrifugal energy by nuclear reactor to push the spacecraft to move forward.By creating something like legs and helical gears in spacecrafts to control the direction.:confused:
Its not a new idea, one of our own space crafts technology is looking into nuclear power. Dont remember the name of the project.
 

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