Recently, we heard the sad news that Neil Armstrong had passed away. This was an American Navy fighter pilot, test pilot, astronaut, Moon walker, hero, teacher, accident investigator, pioneer, aerospace engineer, Administrator, Business Director, father and husband, a great human being. How can one person have so many titles? His achievements are best exemplified of course in that period of 1969, when suspended in a sunbeams shadow, he walked across the sea of tranquillity with his good friend Edwin Eugene ‘Buzz’ Aldrin.
Starship Blog
With the recent creation of the new i4is website, along with the newer blogs, we have included a selection of previous Starship Blog posts from our archive which we hope you will enjoy browsing. If you would like to write an article and have it appear on our web site, then get in touch with us.
The Initiative for Interstellar Studies
We in the Initiative believe that it is possible to create an interstellar capable society this century. We want to see blueprints for both robotic and crewed vessels made, and hopefully someday, for metal to cut metal and the actual Starships constructed. This is an exciting and visionary goal but what better way to spend ones short existence on this Earth, than to spend it in the fulfilment of peaceful human expansion out into space.
How much will it cost, and how soon?
Two vital questions often get debated in the interstellar community, how much will an interstellar mission cost and when is it likely to happen? To place this question in context, let us first consider some big program costs in history.
Interstellar Ramjets
The ramjet was a proposed variant of the fusion engine, but rather than carrying along its own fuel, it would use enormous electromagnetic fields to ram scoop hydrogen from the interstellar medium. The high energy protons enter the ram scoop, confined by magnetic field lines and then meeting under the conditions for fusion reactions to occur, producing a high energy exhaust jet. In theory, if the interstellar ramjet can be made to work, then relativistic star travel will be possible.
Modern space artist: Adrian Mann – the graphical engineer
Although Adrian Mann is a painter, his work is mainly achieved through the click of a mouse using sophisticated computer software. He is fast gaining a reputation for turning the visions of pioneers into real world engineering schematics and it is hoped eventual realisation.
How fast to the stars?
The Interstellar Index is about interstellar travel, that is – Spaceships that travel to other stars. But what does it really take to send a spacecraft through the void of space to those distance sea of Suns?
The voyage of HMS Challenger
Humans have been an explorer species for centuries, and few adventures epitomise this so well than the voyage of HMS Challenger in 1872 sailing out from Portsmouth in England on a trip that was of immense importance and would continue until 1876.