Human Habitation and Migration into Outer Space
To get to nearby planets or, eventually, nearby stars one must have a propulsion
system that will work well enough.
Presently a rapid and technological feasible solution to slow chemical
propulsion fuels is the antimatter annihilation propulsion system pioneered
by the physicist Dr. Robert Forward. All of its features are based on present
knowledge and no new "breakthroughs" forecasted. Stripped down antimatter
factories from particle accelerators dedicated to making antihydrogen and
storing it in energy return on the antihydrogen made as it (and the hydrogen
stored) are converted from matter to energy as pi-mesons traveling as exhaust
at the speed of light. Newton's second law of motion suggests that an "equal
and opposite" reaction to this velocity will result in a ship reaching
near this speed after an initial acceleration. This system will get us
to the neighboring worlds of the Mars, Moon and outer planets.
The next advance in propulsion should be expected to be fusion in which
the thermonuclear processes of the sun are imitated in a controlled reaction
that is self sustaining. Such a system could be portable and inexhaustible
enough to get us to nearby star systems. Various ramjet designs are ideal
to interstellar voyages in later centuries.
It is possible that in the fourth millennium (3000 A.D.) our understanding
of fusion reactions may be great enough for us to create artificial stars.
Such stellar engineers could then collapse these fusion reactors to create
a blackhole white hole pair upon collapse and hold the wormhole connection
open by a large Casimir capacitor. Wormholes in principle are possible
according to CalTech astrophysicist
Kip Thorne and others. A wormhole could rip a hole in the fabric of space-time
by warping its curvature in upon itself as happens in the start of a blackhole
as it pinches itself off from the black hole's surroundings. This hole
or tunnel would not be confined by the speed of light limit because this
speed is a property of space-time which has been bent torn so as to make
a shortcut. This is the only method currently conceivable of any intergalactic
voyages. It also would lead to travel backwards in time and therefore to
alternative pasts and possibly alternative futures. Such a possibility
suggests the presence of multiple timelines to cross and parallel universes
that interweave into a metaverse such as in Hawking's wave function of
the universe.
Propulsion Systems (Rocket Science) and the Colonization of Space
Links
to the 3 propulsion techniques described below can be found here.
I Antimatter annihilation propulsion
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A Antimatter is created by the combination of quantum mechanics and special
relativity discovered by Paul Dirac
Max Plank determined that waves such as light also act as particles which
became called photons in discrete packets which he called quanta
Since light waves also act like particles, Erwin Schrödinger reasoned
that particles might also act like waves and in his quantum mechanical
wave equation he showed how electrons and other atomic particles do act
like waves.
Paul Dirac, then, did combine the electromagnetic equation of Maxwell Plank,
the special relativity of Einstein and his own equations for the behavior
of electrons to arrive at a synthesis which suggested two solutions to
his equation, one positive and one negative. This would mean that any particle
could have either positive or negative energy and therefore there are two
kinds [or polarities] of every particle/ wave. For example, an electron
can be negative [as usual] or positive [The positive electron was dubbed
the "positron", all other reverse-polarity particles are called anti
such as antiproton etc.] Dirac explained these antiparticles as representing
displaced electrons whose positions were left vacant because the electrons
are primarily in the closely packed inner orbits which do not allow for
these "holes" to be filled. Dislocating inner electrons is possible by
transporting electrons at near light speed velocities in giant electromagnetic
rings such as at Fermi Lab in Batavia, IL
and CERN [European Organization for Nuclear
Research in Switzerland] and IHEP [Institute for High Energy Physics
in Russia] and at these near luminous speeds colliding the particles into
various metals to dislodge inner electrons from their orbits.
B Based on current knowledge and production techniques of CERN, Fermilab,
and IHEP.-
1 Smaller high energy laboratories such as Hadron in California could be
converted into antimatter production facilities.
2 Larger laboratories such as CERN, Fermilab and IHEP can be more useful
in researching for particles such as the "top quark" found at Fermilab
as discussed in part II.
C Antimatter propulsion could be done today because it is based on present
demonstrated and documented technological abilities
1 Would provide extremely rapid transit between the planets in our solar
system to explore it thoroughly and exploit its vast resources.
2 This nearby, at-home experience could prepare us well for potential interstellar
trips and provide a fertile upbringing among youngsters who might want
to participate in an long-term interstellar mission.
D Is already potentially competitive with chemical fuels due to its powerful
exhaust velocity [the pions emit at the speed of light] and its extremely
low mass ratio
II Fusion Propulsion
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A Theoretical background in high energy/ particle physics
1 Discovery of " super symmetrical particles will possibly give empirical
data to help integrate the four fundamental forces into a grand unified
field theory.
2 This grand unified field theory will then give the basis for a better
understanding of the precise mechanisms of fusion as it occurs in nature
such as in the interior of stars.
3 Better conceptual models will help achieve a successful self-sustaining
controlled fusion reaction in the laboratory which generates a surplus
of energy by describing the conditions necessary for such a reaction.
B Success in controlled fusion will allow for the basis of a Bussard-type
ramjet to travel the speed of light towards nearby stars such as Alpha
Centauri at 4.3 light years away or Tau Ceti at about 20 light years distant.
1 The ramjet is a jet which uses the abundant, ubiquitous hydrogen particles
in space as [ideal] fuel for its fusion reactor. To provide sufficient
hydrogen particles to attain light speed, a scoop several miles wide in
front of the space craft will be needed.
2 Such a ramjet would be constructed on a space station or moon base to
piece together the miles long hydrogen scoop in zero or low gravity.
III Legal, economic, sociological and philosophical
aspects to interplanetary and especially interstellar travel
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A Legal
1 Moon colonization has been primarily stymied by the inability to own
property on the Moon for multinational corporations due to the Outer Space
Treaty which states "celestial bodies will be the providence of all mankind"-
This communistic [and unrealistic, overly romanticized] view of off-planet
resources will assure us it is not the providence of any part of mankind
since no one will have any reason to "conquer the darkness of space" for
everyone else. Only a firmly capitalist foundation can build a future in
space to increase human access to space.
a) The US must repudiate this treaty. As the only country to ever have
landed on the Moon, we can claim legal and propriety access to its resources.
b) We must not repudiate other space-faring countries such as Europe [probably
through the European Space Agency (ESA) of the European Community (EC)]
or Japan from claiming national or corporate property there in correspondence
to their usage needs.
2 An international Homestead Treaty proposed by the National
Space Society in which individuals own land based on their need of
use would be the most equitable, peaceful development of Moon and space
resources in general.
a) This area of property rights would be an exclusive domain of international
law.
b) The individual property owners would still be subject to their respective
nations' laws.
3 Joint ventures to other more distant planets and stars must be negotiated
by treaty as to how the property will be allocated in terms of the Homestead
Treaty and private or corporate ownership.
4 The Millennial Project and the
Atlantis Project suggest starting a new
artificial island nation-state [Millennial Project suggests building it
near the Kenya coast and Atlantis Project suggests the Caribbean].
a) How to start a new nation after its beginnings under a previous sovereign
power [e.g. the United States in both cases] is an interesting and thorny
legal question
b) A Millenialist suggests a joint venture with the United Nations [which
certainly would be precedent setting]. It could be financed by the World
Bank or International Monetary Fund or some such source.
This UN banner provides military defense protection [by the UN Security
Council] which a small island state cannot afford.
The island state can then pay "taxes" or more accurately interest on its
UN loan
B Economic
1 Only national governments and transnational corporations have the necessary
budgets for space exploration
2 A compromise between these financial forces in economic/ legal structure
[property] must be reached before large scale efforts will be undertaken
based on the profit motive.
C Sociological
1 Distant human communities that we do not have instant telecommunications
access to will change our sense of relatedness to each other. Colloquially,
that they are so far away, will make us feel closer together.
2 Space communities will develop new unique cultures and forms of self
government that will also provide a contrast to our terrestrial traditions
D Philosophical
1 Distant planetary or interstellar will only be reachable by days/ weeks
[planets] or years [stars] which will sever the instant telecommunications
network of our planet's connectivity. It will also give us an expanded
sense of the place and purpose of humanity.
2 Especially interstellar communities which will be 5 to 25 years travel
distant, shall become so culturally and politically independent that they
will become separate civilizations and must be expected to, in time, establish
separate nationhood.
IV The possibility of a more rapid than light speed
[superliminal velocity] exists someday in
the potential creation of wormholes by generating 1019 billion
electron volts of energy [at the Plank constant level], a quadrillion times
larger than that generated by the proposed Superconducting Supercollider.
A This would allow [necessitate, I believe] going backwards in time since
Einstein's equation suggests that nothing [ordinarily] can go faster than
light but, if so, it is going backwards into the universe i.e. into the
past
B Additionally, this mode of transportation would involve the traversing
of large distances [such as the 20 light years to Tau Ceti] in a fraction
of the otherwise needed 20 years.
C Another potential use in the extreme future is when the universe
is approaching its end of "life span" by thermodynamic cooling [which is
expected to take 1040 years] then humans could escape into the
past [sometimes thought of as parallel universe or bubble universe that
split from ours at a previous moment - this idea is explained in Stephen
Hawking's concept of the wave function of the universe] to prevent destruction
in the Big Crunch, the apparent inevitable result of the Big Bang [or in
the Big Freeze if the universe expands infinitely].
D There is no way, it seems, to predict exactly where or when in space-time
a person would be after reappearance at the other side of a wormhole. It
would seem to be a function of velocity through the wormhole and/ or the
amount of energy generated to create the wormhole [this energy quantity
would presumably cause different lengths of wormholes and therefore different
distances traversed. Eventually, these variables would likely be known
and controllable.
bibliography
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of page)
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