K. F. Long

Deep Space Propulsion (eBook, PDF)

A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

As humans take their first tentative steps off our home planet, and debate the costs/benefits of sending people back to the Moon and perhaps on to Mars, we must also start to make plans for the day when we will venture forth as pioneers farther out into the Solar System and beyond - perhaps far, far beyond - to explore and settle new worlds around other stars. It is vital that we develop the deep space propulsion technologies that will take us there, first to explore with robotic probes, then to follow ourselves. This is necessary so that if anything catastrophic happened to Earth, our species would survive. And the possibilities for catastrophe are great. An impacting asteroid ended the reign of the dinosaurs, and today we have many other threats such as global war, climate change, pollution, resource limitations and overpopulation.

In this book, Kelvin F. Long takes us on all the possible journeys - the mission targets, the technologies we might use to power such journeys, and what scientific knowledge we are seeking to obtain upon arriving there.

Despite the problems of today it is important that we take a long-term view for the future of our species. In fact, the only way to assure a future is to start planning for it now and then progress incrementally. Today, society is not in a position to launch the types of missions outlined in this book, mainly due to a lack of political motivations to try and the economic cost for launching it. But if we start to develop these technologies today, then it is likely that one of them will come to technological maturity at some point in the coming centuries and will power our species to the stars. Our commitment today to achieve near-term goals will ensure a tomorrow for the generations ahead.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Springer US
• Seitenzahl: 367
• Erscheinungstermin: 25. November 2011
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781461406075
• Artikelnr.: 37359151

Autorenporträt

Kelvin Long was born in Cambridge, England. He holds a Bachelors degree in Aerospace Engineering and a Masters degree in Astrophysics, both from Queen Mary College University of London. He has been a college and university teacher and served for several years in the Parachute Regiment Volunteer Reserve of the British Army. He currently works as a physicist in industry. He has published numerous papers and articles on the subject of astrophysics and space exploration and is currently the Assistant Editor of the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society. He has also contributed to many other publications on interstellar travel. He has appeared on the Austrian Broadcasting Radio Station FM4 as well as in the documentary How to Colonize the Stars produced by Christian Darkin. He is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, a chartered member of the Institute of Physics, a member of The Planetary Society, a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics, Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society, and an associate member of the International Association for Astronomical Artists. He is a Practitioner of the Tau Zero Foundation, which actively promotes and coordinates international research into interstellar flight and within this capacity was the co-founder of an interstellar research initiative called Project Icarus. He is happily married to Gemma and likes to spend his spare time reading and writing science fiction, spacecraft model building, and using his Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope.

Inhaltsangabe

Foreword.- Preface.- Acknowledgements.- Introduction to Interstellar Flight.- Aircraft, Rockets and Interplanetary Travel.- Exploring the Solar System.- Exploring the Outer Reaches - Pluto and Beyond.- Robotic Missions to the Stars.- Electric Propulsion Methods - Static, Thermal, and Magnetic.- Nuclear Propulsion Methods - Fission, Fusion, and Antimatter.- Beams, Sails, and Scopes.- Aerospace Design Principles in Interstellar Flight.- Interstellar Ships - Historical Design Concepts.- The Scientific, Cultural, and Economic Returns of Interstellar Flight.- The Role of Speculative Fiction in Driving Technology.- Realizing the Technological Future and the Roadmap to the Stars.- Epilogue: A Vision for the Future.- Bibliography.- Appendices.

Rezensionen

From the book reviews:

"This is a readable, insightful and personal history of interstellar travel thinking with a focus on propulsion ... . each chapter has an 'introduction' providing a short overview of the chapter while the 'practice exercises' at the end are to stimulate discussion. ... The theoretical background presented here by Long deserves to be read and the bibliography deserves to be considered as a starting point for anyone interested in these topics. The colour illustrations are very helpful." (Anders Hansson, The Aeronautical Journal, November, 2014)
"Kelvin has taken the reader from the basic, simple principles of reaction propulsion ... and on to the exotic world of deep-space journeys. ... The most valuable aspect of this book is that it never bucks difficult issues ... . If there is one book from which to gather all essential aspects of deep-space propulsion and stellar transportation systems this is it. It is both required reading and an essential reference ... . useful for the layreader and the professional." (Spaceflight, Vol. 54 (7), July, 2012)