A concept spacecraft designed to carry humans and cargo from Earth to Mars in mere days could help mankind colonize the stars, but there’s just one problem: it never stops.
The most expensive part of space is when the craft speeds up and slows down so the space train is designed to keep moving. To reach it, travelers would launch from nearby space stations and catch up to the train in order to board.
The concept vehicle was designed as part of a larger space travel network to help mankind colonize the stars.
They say real estate is the best investment around and now savvy entrepreneurs have the opportunity to get in on the ground floor of interplanetary land speculation, if you believe in that sort of thing.
Space Travel is turning into big business and some companies are even starting to launch asteroid mining projects, but that’s not OK with one man who is challenging the Outer Space Treaty of 1967.
The treaty says no nation can claim any celestial body in space, but British Dr. Phil Davies says it’s outdated and unenforceable. He wants the U.N. to seize all exoplanet real estate and hold it in a trust for future generations.
An “impossible” EmDrive thruster that breaks the laws of physics could one day carry astronauts to Mars in 10 days at “warp speed” thanks to research being published soon.
The EmDrive, the brainchild of Roger Sawyer, uses no fuel and could potentially propel a spaceship to Mars in 10 weeks and reach Alpha Centauri in 100 years.
When Sawyer first came out with the idea for the EmDrive in 1999 the mainstream scientific community largely ignored him because his engine appeared to break the laws of physics.
Now, NASA’s Eaglework’s lab along with four other laboratories are conducting research into the theory. The peer-reviewed journal AIAA Journal of Propulsion and Power agreed to publish their research this week.
NASA continues to build toward a manned mission to Mars and a new plan to put a space station in orbit above the red planet could help the agency put astronaut boots on the ground.
Using the Orion crew capsule and Space Launch System (SLS) already under construction, NASA could put six astronauts into orbit over Mars for a year.
While they were there, the astronauts would conduct experiments using the Mars rovers in real time, which would improve scientific discoveries absent the 20 minute time delay NASA researchers work under.
With additional Orion capsules they could even visit the two tiny Martian moon and do some exploring of their own.
NASA contracted six companies to design deep space habitats capable of housing astronauts during long-haul missions to Mars and beyond this week.
The habitats will be built here on Earth where NASA can test them to make sure they meet the needs of astronauts in deep space. Eventually they’ll be deployed on the moon and then later on Mars.
The spacefaring nations of the world plan to send at least five robotic missions to Mars in the next five years, and eventually begin colonization of the red planet, but the alien life already there may complicate matters.
NASA is worried about infecting Mars with microbes from Earth that hitch a ride on visiting spacecraft and manage to live through the vacuum of space.
NASA’s Curiosity Mars Rover has been on the surface of the red planet for four years, but if a government audit of the space agency is correct it will be a lot longer before a manned mission makes it there.
A recent government audit of NASA showed the space agency was dangerously close to missing budgetary and timeline goals for its Orion crew capsule and its accompanying Space Launch System (SLS).
The trouble stems from the many changing goals Congress has given NASA over the years and the tight budgetary restrictions the space agency is forced to operate under.
The bottom line: there may be no manned Mars mission in 2030.
Coburn Palmer 