1

Space exploration is the discovery and exploration of outer space by means of space technology.
[1]
Physical exploration of space is conducted both by human spaceflights and by robotic spacecraft.
While the observation of objects in space, known as astronomy, predates reliable recorded history, it was
the development of large and relatively efficient rockets during the early 20th century that allowed
physical space exploration to become a reality. Common rationales for exploring space include advancing
scientific research, uniting different nations, ensuring the future survival of humanity and developing
military and strategic advantages against other countries.
Space exploration has often been used as a proxy competition for geopolitical rivalries such as the Cold
War. The early era of space exploration was driven by a "Space Race" between the Soviet Union and
the United States, the launch of the first man-made object to orbit the Earth, the USSR's Sputnik 1, on 4
October 1957, and the first Moon landing by the American Apollo 11 craft on 20 July 1969 are often taken
as the boundaries for this initial period. The Soviet space program achieved many of the first milestones,
including the first living being in orbit in 1957, the first human spaceflight (Yuri Gagarin aboard Vostok 1)
in 1961, the first spacewalk (by Aleksei Leonov) on 18 March 1965, the first automatic landing on another
celestial body in 1966, and the launch of the first space station (Salyut 1) in 1971.
After the first 20 years of exploration, focus shifted from one-off flights to renewable hardware, such as
the Space Shuttle program, and from competition to cooperation as with the International Space
Station (ISS).
With the substantial completion of the ISS[2] following STS-133 in March 2011, plans for space exploration
by the USA remain in flux. Constellation, a Bush Administration program for a return to the Moon by
2020[3] was judged inadequately funded and unrealistic by an expert review panel reporting in 2009.[4] The
Obama Administration proposed a revision of Constellation in 2010 to focus on the development of the
capability for crewed missions beyond low earth orbit (LEO), envisioning extending the operation of
the ISS beyond 2020, transferring the development of launch vehicles for human crews from NASA to the
private sector, and developing technology to enable missions to beyond LEO, such as Earth/Moon L1, the
Moon,Earth/Sun L2, near-earth asteroids, and Phobos or Mars orbit.[5] As of March 2011, the US Senate
and House of Representatives are still working towards a compromise NASA funding bill, which will
probably terminate Constellation and fund development of a heavy lift launch vehicle (HLLV).[6]
In the 2000s, the People's Republic of China initiated a successful manned spaceflight program, while
the European Union, Japan, and India have also planned future manned space missions. China, Russia,
Japan, and India have advocated manned missions to the Moon during the 21st century, while the
European Union has advocated manned missions to both the Moon and Mars during the 21st century.
From the 1990s onwards, private interests began promoting space tourism and then private space
exploration of the Moon (see Google Lunar X Prize).
The first steps of putting a man-made object into space were taken by German scientists during World
War II while testing the V-2 rocket, which became the first man-made object in space on 3 October 1942
with the launching of the A-4. After the war, the U.S. used German scientists and their captured rockets in
programs for both military and civilian research. The first scientific exploration from space was the cosmic
radiation experiment[which?] launched by the U.S. on a V-2 rocket on 10 May 1946. [citation needed] The first
images of Earth taken from space followed the same year[2][7] while the first animal experiment saw fruit

flies lifted into space in 1947, both also on modified V-2s launched by Americans. Starting in 1947, the
Soviets, also with the help of German teams, launched sub-orbital V-2 rockets and their own variant,
the R-1, including radiation and animal experiments on some flights. These suborbital experiments only
allowed a very short time in space which limited their usefulness.
First flights
The first successful orbital launch was of the Soviet unmanned Sputnik 1 ("Satellite 1") mission on 4
October 1957. The satellite weighed about 83 kg (184 pounds), and is believed to have orbited Earth at a
height of about 250 km (160 mi). It had two radio transmitters (20 and 40 MHz), which emitted "beeps"
that could be heard by radios around the globe. Analysis of the radio signals was used to gather
information about the electron density of the ionosphere, while temperature and pressure data was
encoded in the duration of radio beeps. The results indicated that the satellite was not punctured by
a meteoroid. Sputnik 1 was launched by an R-7 rocket. It burned up upon re-entry on 3 January 1958.
This success led to an escalation of the American space program, which unsuccessfully attempted to
launch a Vanguard satellite into orbit two months later. On 31 January 1958, the U.S. successfully
orbitedExplorer 1 on a Juno rocket. In the meantime, the Soviet dog Laika became the first animal in orbit
on 3 November 1957.
First human flights
The first successful human spaceflight was Vostok 1 ("East 1"), carrying 27 year old
Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on 12 April 1961. The spacecraft completed one orbit around the globe,
lasting about 1 hour and 48 minutes. Gagarin's flight resonated around the world; it was a demonstration
of the advanced Soviet space program and it opened an entirely new era in space exploration: human
spaceflight.
The U.S. first launched a person into space within a month of Vostok 1 with Alan Shepard's suborbital
flight in Mercury-Redstone 3. Orbital flight was achieved by the United States when John
Glenn's Mercury-Atlas 6 orbited the Earth on 20 February 1962.
Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, orbited the Earth 48 times aboard Vostok 6 on 16 June
1963.
China first launched a person into space 42 years after the launch of Vostok 1, on 15 October 2003, with
the flight of Yang Liwei aboard the Shenzhou 5 (Spaceboat 5) spacecraft.
First planetary explorations
The first artificial object to reach another celestial body was Luna 2 in 1959.[8] The first automatic landing
on another celestial body was performed by Luna 9[9] in 1966. Luna 10 became the first artificial satellite
of the Moon.[10]
The first manned landing on another celestial body was performed by Apollo 11 in its lunar landing on 20
July 1969.
The first successful interplanetary flyby was the 1962 Mariner 2 flyby of Venus (closest approach 34,773
kilometers). Flybys for the other planets were first achieved in 1965 for Mars by Mariner 4, 1973
for Jupiter byPioneer 10, 1974 for Mercury by Mariner 10, 1979 for Saturn by Pioneer 11, 1986
for Uranus by Voyager 2, and 1989 for Neptune by Voyager 2.

The first interplanetary surface mission to return at least limited surface data from another planet was the
1970 landing of Venera 7 on Venus which returned data to earth for 23 minutes. In 1971 the Mars
3 mission achieved the first soft landing on Mars returning data for almost 20 seconds. Later much longer
duration surface missions were achieved, including over 6 years of Mars surface operation by Viking
1 from 1975 to 1982 and over 2 hours of transmission from the surface of Venus by Venera 13 in 1982,
the longest ever Soviet planetary surface mission.
Key people in early space exploration
The dream of stepping into the outer reaches of the Earth's atmosphere was driven by the fiction of Jules
Verne[11][12][13] and H.G.Wells,[14] and rocket technology was developed to try to realise this vision. The
German V-2 was the first rocket to travel into space, overcoming the problems of thrust and material
failure. During the final days of World War II this technology was obtained by both the Americans and
Soviets as were its designers. The initial driving force for further development of the technology was a
weapons race for intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) to be used as long-range carriers for
fast nuclear weapondelivery, but in 1961 when USSR launched the first man into space, the U.S. declared
itself to be in a "Space Race" with the Soviets.
Apollo 11 was the spaceflight that landed the first humans on the Moon, Americans Neil
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, on July 20, 1969, at 20:18 UTC. Armstrong became the first to step onto the
lunar surface six hours later on July 21 at 02:56 UTC. Armstrong spent about two and a half hours outside
the spacecraft, Aldrin slightly less, and together they collected 47.5 pounds (21.5 kg) of lunar material for
return to Earth. A third member of the mission, Michael Collins, piloted the command spacecraft alone in
lunar orbit until Armstrong and Aldrin returned to it just under a day later for the trip back to Earth.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the agency of the United States
government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and
for aeronautics and aerospace research.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
in 1958[5] with a distinctly civilian (rather than military) orientation encouraging peaceful applications in
space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29, 1958, disestablishing
NASA's predecessor, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). The new agency became
operational on October 1, 1958.[6][7]
Since that time, most U.S. space exploration efforts have been led by NASA, including the Apollo moonlanding missions, the Skylab space station, and later the Space Shuttle. Currently, NASA is supporting
the International Space Stationand is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew
Vehicle and Commercial Crew vehicles. The agency is also responsible for the Launch Services
Program (LSP) which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned
NASA launches. Most recently, NASA announced a new Space Launch System that it said would take the
agency's astronauts farther into space than ever before and lay the cornerstone for future human space
exploration efforts by the U.S.[8][9][10]
NASA science is focused on better understanding Earth through the Earth Observing System,
[11]
advancing heliophysics through the efforts of the Science Mission Directorate's Heliophysics Research
Program,[12] exploring bodies throughout the Solar System with advanced robotic missions such as New
Horizons,[13] and researching astrophysics topics, such as the Big Bang, through the Great

Observatories and associated programs.[14] NASA shares data with various national and international
organizations such as from the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite.

NASA's Space Shuttle Program, officially called the Space Transportation System (STS), was the
United States government's manned launch vehicle program from 1981 to 2011, with the program
officially beginning in 1972. The wingedSpace Shuttle orbiter was launched vertically, usually carrying four
to seven astronauts (although two and eight have been carried) and up to 50,000 lb (22,700 kg)
of payload into low Earth orbit (LEO). When its mission was complete, the Shuttlecould independently
move itself out of orbit using its Orbital Maneuvering System (it oriented itself heads down and tail first,
firing its OMS engines, thus slowing it down) and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. During descent and
landing the orbiter acted as a re-entry vehicle and a glider, using its RCS system and flight control
surfaces to maintain altitude until it made an unpowered landing at either Kennedy Space Center or
Edwards Air Force Base.
The Shuttle is the only winged manned spacecraft to have achieved orbit and land, and the only reusable
manned space vehicle that has ever made multiple flights into orbit (the Russian shuttle Buran was very
similar and had the same capabilities but made only one unmanned spaceflight before it was cancelled).
Its missions involved carrying large payloads to various orbits (including segments to be added to
the International Space Station), providing crew rotation for the International Space Station, and
performing service missions. The orbiter also recovered satellites and other payloads (e.g. from the ISS)
from orbit and returned them to Earth, though its use in this capacity was rare. Each vehicle was designed
with a projected lifespan of 100 launches, or 10 years' operational life.
The program formally commenced in 1972, although the concept had been explored since the late 1960s,
and was the sole focus of NASA's manned operations after the final Apollo and Skylab flights in the mid1970s. The Shuttle was originally conceived of and presented to the public in 1972 as a 'Space Truck'
which would, among other things, be used to build a United States space station in low Earth orbit during
the 1980s and then be replaced by a new vehicle by the early 1990s. When the concept of the U.S. space
station evolved into that of the International Space Station, which suffered from long delays and design
changes before it could be completed, the service life of the Space Shuttle was extended several times
until 2011 when it was finally retired serving at least 15 years longer than it was originally designed to
do. In 2004, according to the President George W. Bush's Vision for Space Exploration, use of the Space
Shuttle was to be focused almost exclusively on completing assembly of the ISS, which was far behind
schedule at that point.
The first experimental orbiter "Enterprise", built only for initial atmospheric landing tests (ALT), was
delivered for those test flights in 1976, and the first launch to space took place on April 12, 1981,
with Columbia flying on STS-1. The Space Shuttle program finished with its last mission, STS-135 flown
by Atlantis, in July 2011, retiring the final Shuttle in the fleet. The Space Shuttle program formally ended
on August 31, 2011.[1]
Retirement of the Shuttle - the most complex vehicle ever built - ended the era in which all of America's
varied space activities were performed by one craft -or even one organization. Functions performed by

the Shuttle for 30 years will be done by not one but many different spacecraft currently flying or in
advanced development. Secret military missions are being flown by the US Air Force's "highly successful"
unmanned mini-space plane, the X-37B[citation needed]. By 2012, cargo supply to the International Space
Station began to be flown by privately owned commercial craft under NASA's Commercial Resupply
Services by SpaceX's successfully tested and partially reusable Dragon spacecraft, followed by Orbital
Sciences'Cygnus spacecraft in late 2013. Crew service to the ISS will be flown exclusively by the
Russian Soyuz while NASA works on the Commercial Crew Development program. For missions
beyond low Earth orbit, NASA is building the Space Launch System and the Orion spacecraft.

The Space Transportation System (STS) was a proposed system of reusable manned space vehicles
envisioned by NASA in 1969 to support extended operations beyond the Apollo program. (NASA
appropriated the name for its Space Shuttle Program, the only component of the proposal to survive
Congressional funding approval.) The purpose of the system was twofold: to reduce the cost of
spaceflight by replacing the current method of launching "capsules" on expendable rockets with reusable
spacecraft; and to support ambitious follow-on programs including permanent orbiting space
stations around the Earth and Moon, and a human landing mission to Mars.
In February 1969, President Richard Nixon appointed a Space Task Group headed by Vice
President Spiro Agnew to recommend human space projects beyond Apollo. The group responded in
September with the outline of the STS, and three different program levels of effort culminating with a
human Mars landing by 1983 at the earliest, and by the end of the twentieth century at the latest. The
system's major components consisted of:

a permanent space station module designed for 6 to 12 occupants, in a 270-nautical-mile

(500 km) Earth orbit, and as a permanent lunar orbit station. Modules could be combined in Earth
orbit to create a 50 to 100 person permanent station.
a chemically fueled low-Earth orbit (100-to-270-nautical-mile (190 to 500 km)) shuttle

a chemically fueled space tug to move crew and equipment between Earth orbits
(including geosynchronous), and which could be adapted for use as a lunar orbit-to-surface shuttle

a nuclear-powered vehicle using the NERVA engine to ferry crew, spacecraft and supplies
between low Earth orbit and lunar orbit, geosynchronous orbit, or to other planets in the solar system.

The tug and ferry vehicles would be of a modular design, allowing them to be clustered and/or staged for
large payloads or interplanetary missions. The system would be supported by permanent Earth and lunar
orbital propellant depots.[1] The Saturn V might still have been used as a heavy lift launch vehicle for the
nuclear ferry and space station modules. A special "Mars Excursion Module" would be the only remaining
vehicle necessary for a human Mars landing.
As Apollo accomplished its objective of landing the first men on the Moon, political support for further
manned space activities began to wane, which was reflected in unwillingness of the Congress to provide
funding for most of these extended activities. Based on this, Nixon rejected all parts of the program
except the Space Shuttle which inherited the STS name. As funded, the Shuttle was greatly scaled back
from its planned degree of reusabliilty, and deferred in time. The Shuttle first flew in 1981, and was retired
in 2011.

A second part of the system, Space Station Freedom, was approved in the early 1980s and announced in
1984 by president Ronald Reagan. However, this also became politically unviable by 1993, and was
replaced with the International Space Station, with substantial contribution byRussia. The ISS was
completed in 2010.
2.
The International Space Station (ISS) is a space station, or a habitable artificial satellite in low Earth
orbit. The ninth space station to be inhabited by crews, it follows the Soviet and later Russian Salyut,
Almaz, and Mir stations, andSkylab from the U.S. The ISS is a modular structure whose first component
was launched in 1998.[7] Now the largest artificial body in orbit, it can often be seen at the appropriate
time with the naked eye from Earth.[8] The ISS consists of pressurised modules, external trusses, solar
arrays and other components. ISS components have been launched by American Space Shuttles as well
as Russian Proton and Soyuz rockets.[9] Budget constraints led to the merger of three space station
projects with the Japanese Kib module and Canadian robotics. In 1993 the partially built components for
a Soviet/Russian space station Mir-2, the proposed American Freedom, and the proposed
EuropeanColumbus merged into a single multinational programme.[9] The ISS is arguably the most
expensive single item ever constructed.[10]
The ISS serves as a microgravity and space environment research laboratory in which crew members
conduct experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy, meteorology and other fields.[11][12]
[13] The station is suited for the testing of spacecraft systems and equipment required for missions to the
Moon and Mars.[14]
Since the arrival of Expedition 1 on 2 November 2000, the station has been continuously occupied for 13
years and 51 days, the longest continuous human presence in space. (In 2010, the station surpassed the
previous record of almost 10 years (or 3,634 days) held by Mir.) The station is serviced by a variety of
visiting spacecraft: Soyuz, Progress, the Automated Transfer Vehicle, the H-II Transfer Vehicle,[15]
Dragon, and Cygnus. It has been visited by astronauts and cosmonauts from 15 different nations.[16]
The ISS programme is a joint project among five participating space agencies: NASA, Roskosmos, JAXA,
ESA, and CSA.[15][17] The ownership and use of the space station is established by intergovernmental
treaties and agreements.[18] The station is divided into two sections, the Russian Orbital Segment (ROS)
and the United States Orbital Segment (USOS), which is shared by many nations. The ISS maintains an
orbit with an altitude of between 330 km (205 mi) and 435 km (270 mi) by means of reboost manoeuvres
using the engines of the Zvezda module or visiting spacecraft. It completes 15.50 orbits per day.[19] The
ISS is funded until 2020, and may operate until 2028.[20][21][22] The Russian Federal Space Agency,
Roskosmos (RKA) has proposed using the ISS to commission modules for a new space station, called
OPSEK, before the remainder of the ISS is deorbited. According to the original Memorandum of
Understanding between NASA and Rosaviakosmos, the International Space Station was intended to be a
laboratory, observatory and factory in space. It was also planned to provide transportation, maintenance,
and act as a staging base for possible future missions to the Moon, Mars and asteroids.[23] In the 2010
United States National Space Policy, the ISS was given additional roles of serving commercial,
diplomatic[24] and educational purposes.[25]

A spaceplane is a vehicle that operates as an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere, as well as

a spacecraft when it is in space. It combines features of an aircraft and a spacecraft, which can be

thought of as an aircraft that can endure and maneuver in the vacuum of space or likewise a spacecraft
that can fly like an airplane. Typically, it takes the form of a spacecraft equipped with wings,
although lifting bodies have been designed and tested as well. The propulsion to reach space may be
purely rocket based or may use the assistance of air-breathing engines.
However, for an aircraft to successfully fly in Earth's atmosphere, it must be able to
successfully control, power and sustain its own flight.[1] If a spaceplane cannot successfully control itself,
power itself or sustain its flight oncereentering Earth's atmosphere, it cannot be considered successful
at aviation in the atmosphere.
Only five spaceplanes have successfully flown to date, having reentered Earth's
atmosphere, returned to Earth, and safely landed the X-15, Space Shuttle, Buran, SpaceShipOne,
and X-37. All five are rocket gliders. Only rockets androcket-powered aircraft have thus far succeeded in
reaching space. Two of these five (X-15 and SpaceShipOne) are rocket-powered aircraft, having been
carried up to an altitude of several tens of thousands of feet by an atmospheric aircraft mother ship before
release. Three (Space Shuttle, Buran, and X-37) are vertical takeoff horizontal landing (VTHL) vehicles
relying upon rocket lift for the ascent phase in reaching space and atmospheric
lift for reentry, descentand landing. All three of the orbital spaceplanes successfully flown to date utilize
a VTHL (vertical takeoff, horizontal landing) design. They include the piloted United States Space
Shuttle and two unmanned spaceplanes: the late-1980s Soviet Buran and the early-2010s Boeing X-37.
The early-1980s BOR-4 (subscale test vehicle for the Spiral spaceplane that was subsequently cancelled)
was a spacecraft that did successfully reenter the atmosphere and fly like an aircraft. But it was not
designed to sustain atmospheric flight. It was designed to stop flying, open a parachute and then splash
in the ocean.
These vehicles have used wings to provide aerobraking to return from orbit and to provide lift, allowing
them to land on a runway like conventional aircraft. These vehicles are still designed to ascend to orbit
vertically under rocket power like conventional expendable launch vehicles. One drawback of
spaceplanes is that they have a significantly smaller payload fraction than a ballistic design with the same
takeoff weight. This is in part due to the weight of the wings around 9-12% of the weight of the
atmospheric flight weight of the vehicle. This significantly reduces the payload size, but the reusability is
intended to offset this disadvantage.
While all spaceplanes have used atmospheric lift for the reentry phase, none to date have succeeded in a
design that relies on aerodynamic lift for the ascent phase in reaching space (excluding amother ship first
stage). Efforts such as the Silbervogel and X-30/X-33 have all failed to materialize into a vehicle capable
of successfully reaching space. The Pegasus winged booster has had many successful flights to deploy
orbital payloads, but since its aerodynamic vehicle component operates only as a booster, and not
operate in space as a spacecraft, it is not typically considered to be a spaceplane. [citation needed]
On the other hand, OREX[6] is a test vehicle of HOPE-X and launched into 450 km LEO using H-II in
1994. OREX succeeded to reenter, but it was only hemispherical head of HOPE-X, that is, not planeshaped.
Other spaceplane designs are suborbital, requiring far less energy for propulsion, and can use the
vehicle's wings to provide lift for the ascent to space in addition to the rocket. As of 2010, the only such
craft to have successfully flown to and fromspace, back to earth, have been the North American X-

15 and SpaceShipOne. Neither of these craft was capable of entering orbit. The X-15 and SpaceShipOne
both began their independent flight only after being lifted to high altitude by a carrier aircraft.
Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic unveiled on December 7, 2009, the SpaceShipTwo space plane,
the VSS Enterprise, and its WhiteKnightTwo mothership, "Eve". SpaceShipTwo is designed to carry two
pilots and six passengers on suborbital flights. On 29 April 2013, after three years of unpowered testing,
the spacecraft successfully performed its first powered test flight. [7]
XCOR Aerospace signed a $30 million contract with Yecheon Astro Space Center to build and lease
its Lynx Mark II spaceplane, which would be designed to take off from a runway under its own rocket
power, and to reach the same altitude and speed range as SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo, due to the
fact that Lynx is propelled by higher specific impulse fuels. Lynx is designed to only carry a pilot and one
passenger, although tickets are expected to be around half those quoted for Virgin Galactic services. [8]
Hyflex[9][10] was a miniaturized suborbital demonstrator of HOPE-X launched in 1996. Hyflex flew to
110 km altitude and succeeded in atmospheric reentry, subsequently achieving hypersonic flight. Though
Hyflex achieved a controlled aircraft descent, it was not designed for a planned aircraft landing, the
engineers opting instead for a splashdown without a parachute. The Hyflex that flew failed to recover and
sank in the Pacific Ocean.

What Is The Future Of Space

Travel?
Chemical rockets may be a dead end because of their extreme inefficiency. Just to put the space shuttle into earth
orbit (to reach 17,500 MPH), the rockets need to carry 15 times its weight in fuel and thats considered extremely
efficient among other chemical-based rocket systems. To escape earths gravitational pull and explore our solar
system (to reach 25,000 MPH), you would need significantly more fuel. Occasionally, space agencies can mitigate
some of the problems by using gravitational assists from planets. They use a planets gravity well to slingshot a probe
toward its destination, significantly speeding it up.
The problem with this solution is one of availability. To take advantage of a planets gravity well, the planet has to be in
a specific place, at a specific time. This leaves a small window which a probe would need to be launched. Some of
these windows can be incredibly rare. The Voyager space probes, which explored the planets in the outer solar
system, took advantage of a planet alignment that happens only once every 176 years.
Then there is the cost. The average cost to put the space shuttle into orbit is 450 million USD per mission. Thats a
huge price tag just to reach low earth orbit, and its also a big part of the reason the shuttle program was scrapped. If
we wanted to leave earth orbit and explore our solar system with such an inefficient technology (without gravitational

assists), the problems become severely compounded. Because there arent any fuel stations in space, a spaceship
has to carry all its fuel with it, fuel which is not only pricey, but heavy.
If we wanted to leave our solar system and travel to our closest neighboring star in a reasonable time frame (say, 900
years) using standard chemical-based rockets, it would require 10137 kilograms of fuel that is more fuel than exists on
our planet. Thus, we need to look towards developing a better, more efficient method of propulsion.

Solar sails do exactly as the name suggests; they sail on the solar wind. There is no actual wind in space because
space is a vacuum, but there is something similar that a spacecraft could use to propel itself. A craft equipped with a
giant sail made out of ultra-thin mirrors can harness a combination of light and high speed ejected gasses from the
sun to reach incredible speeds. The pressure of the light and gasses is very small, but since there no friction in the
vacuum of space, it allows that small pressure to build up over time. Given enough time, this pressure can propel a
craft to a significant fraction of light speed. The time to reach top speeds could be lessened by aiming extremely
powerful lasers or masers at the sails from a base on the moon or other satellite without an atmosphere.
However, a solar sail does have its drawbacks. Once far enough away from the sun (and any laser boosting stations
we have setup), the craft would no longer be accelerating and instead rely on its own inertia to travel to its destination.
The craft would then have to direct its sails towards the destination star to decelerate and slow down.
Solar sail spacecrafts became a reality when, back in May 2010, the Japanese launched the Ikaros probe. It
successfully deployed its solar sails and is currently in a wide orbit around the sun. Its expected to reach Jupiter in a
few years.

An ion thruster (or ion drive) is a lot less exciting than how it is often portrayed in science fiction books and movies. It
operates on similar principle as the solar sail; using very low thrust but over an extended period of time. It achieves
this thrust by ejecting charged ions, gas or plasma out of its electric engine which propels the spacecraft. This method
of acceleration allows a craft to achieve a very high specific impulse. Such a craft would only work in the vacuum of
space since the thrust is so low. However, the fuel required by the engine is significantly less than is required by
chemical rockets which maxes out thanks to the Carnot limit (a limit on efficiency).
This technology is being heavily considered for future space missions and has already proven its feasibility in space.
In 1998, NASA launched the Deep Space 1 probe which was powered by a xenon gas ion engine and was the first
ion drive in space. In 2003, Japan launched the Hayabusa probe which used 4 xenon ion engines. Its mission was to
rendezvous with an asteroid and collect samples. It completed its mission and returned to earth in June of 2010.

Like the solar sail, ion drives also have their drawbacks. First, they would need to carry their fuel with them. While the
amount required to get the nearest star is technically feasible, it wouldnt be very practical. Travel time is another
issue. While an ion drive is significantly more efficient than rocket engines, and is great for jaunts around our solar
system, interstellar travel is another matter entirely. With a gravitational assist from our sun, it still would take 19,000
years to reach Proxima Centauri with a ship using an ion engine.
We need more speed if we want to leave the confines of our solar cradle

If we wanted to get to our nearest neighboring star using the best technology available to us right now, nuclear
propulsion is our best option. Its fast, proven and relatively cheap. A ship equipped with nuclear pulse propulsion and
could theoretically reach 12% the speed of light. That is so fast, you could travel completely around the earth and end
up back at your starting point in just under 2 seconds. Or you could travel to the moon in 13 seconds it took Apollo
11 four days to reach the moon by comparison. While it would take 19,000 years to reach Proxima Centauri with an
Ion Drive, it would take a relatively manageable 35 years using nuclear pulse propulsion. A human would be able to
travel to our nearest neighboring star within his or her lifetime. And it could be done with technology that already
exists.
The way nuclear propulsion works sounds a bit crazy, but it is proven and it is relatively simple. Small nuclear bombs
are dropped out of the back of the spacecraft which detonate. The resulting force from the explosion accelerates the
craft. This is done repeatedly until the desired speed has been attained. An incredibly large, reinforced pusher plate
would shield the craft from damages and radiation while dampeners would be used to mitigate the effects of G force
and provide smooth acceleration.
The US military began looking into nuclear pulse propulsion back in 1958 under the project name Orion. The project
was shelved in 1963 thanks to the Partial Test Ban Treaty which prevents nuclear devices being detonated in space.
The idea wasnt forgotten however. In 1973, the British Interplanetary Society developed a similar concept, called
Project Daedalus. Then in 1998, the nuclear engineering department at PSU began developing two improved
versions of the Daedalus design known as Project Ican and Project Aimstar.
One of the obvious drawbacks to nuclear pulse propulsion is that you have to carry your fuel with you. This means
carrying hundreds or thousands of small nuclear bombs. There is also the problem of ablation of the pusher plate.
Repeated exposure to nuclear blasts will cause erosion if not sprayed with a special oil before each detonation. Yet
another problem is nuclear fallout. This could be averted if a craft is launched from a polar region, or if a craft is
launched into space using conventional rockets, then once far enough away, began using its nuclear propulsion.
The late Carl Sagan once suggested that nuclear pulse propulsion would be an excellent use for our current
stockpiles of nuclear weapons.

A spacecraft equipped with a nuclear fusion engine could explore our solar system without the need to carry a large
fuel supply thanks to its efficient, long-term acceleration capability. There are two ways a fusion engine could work.
The first is using the energy created by a fusion reaction to generate electricity. This electricity could be used to
superheat plasma which then would be ejected out the back of the craft, providing thrust. The second method would
be more direct. It would use the plasma-based exhaust from the fusion reaction to provide thrust.
The drawbacks of a fusion engine are very similar to that of the ion drive. While fusion is a huge improvement over ion
drives, it would be very hard to achieve the higher speeds necessary when traveling between stars. Fusion
technology is also still in the experimental stage of development. The technology must overcome hurdles with plasma
confinement to become viable, then a reactor would need to be miniaturized to a size manageable for a spacecraft.
Currently, experimental laser-based ICF reactors are as large as football stadiums and are struggling to break even
with power output.

Antimatter is the most potent fuel source that we currently know of. Its also the most efficient. Antimatter is as the
name implies, matter which has its charges reversed. When antimatter comes into contact with normal matter, the two
annihilate one another in a ferocious blast of pure energy. A piece of antimatter the size of a small coin contains
enough energy to propel a fully loaded space shuttle into orbit. Once in orbit, NASA claims that a trip to Mars would
only require as little as 10 milligrams worth of antimatter. n engine using antimatter is pretty simple in its operation. A
beam of anti-electrons is released into an engine core where it annihilates the surface of a metal plate. This creates a
small explosion which propels the craft forward. Another proposed design uses a sail, similar to the solar sail
described above. A cloud of anti-particles is released which then reacts explosively with surface of the sail. This
reaction can propel the craft to incredible speeds. According to NASA, an antimatter powered craft would be able to
reach speeds up to 70% the speed of light. That means we could reach Proxima Centauri in just under 6 years.
The drawbacks of using antimatter are production and containment. Antimatter is a byproduct of atom-smashing tests
done at particle accelerators. Tests which are very expensive to operate. If we wanted to produce a single gram of
antimatter, it would cost over a trillion dollars. Containment is also another issue. Since antimatter violently reacts
when it comes into contact with normal matter, it would have to be stored in vacuum containers at incredibly low
temperatures, suspended by strong magnetic fields. This becomes a challenge because anti-electrons (positrons)
repel each other, often explosively. Some solutions have been proposed, one suggests that by combining positrons
with electrons, researchers can create an element called positronium which can theoretically store the anti-electrons
indefinitely.

Faster than light travel is just the stuff of science fiction, right? After all, didnt Einstein say that the speed of light is the
ultimate speed limit? Not necessarily, claim physicists. The devil is in the details. According to physics, there are ways
around the universes ultimate speed limit. These technical loopholes could theoretically and potentially allow us to
race a beam of light, and win.
NASA researchers know that nothing can accelerate faster than the speed of light, but they also know there is no
such restriction regarding space itself. Spacetime has no such limit on how fast it can move, and it is believed that
spacetime exceeded the speed of light during the expansion of the big bang. Researchers at NASAs advanced
propulsion division have been wondering if spacetime can make a repeat performance.
A warp drive, once the stuff of science fiction, could travel faster than light by riding on a wave of spacetime. It creates
this wave by compressing the spacetime in front of the ship and expanding the spacetime behind it. A ship then sits in
the middle of this wave, and is propelled through space. Since the ship itself isnt moving, and only the spacetime
around the ship is moving, no laws of physics are broken.
At NASA Eagleworks, researchers have begun to attempt to prove the concept of warp drive with lab experiments.
There, the researchers set up a mini warp drive called the White-Juday Warp Field Interferometer. The experiment
seeks to generate a very tiny instance of a warp field. A warp field that is so small, it is only expected to perturb
spacetime by one part in 10 million. While the results will be underwhelming if successful, it will be existence for proof
of concept. The location for the new project is the facility that was built for the Apollo program, the very same one that
put astronauts on the moon.
The first scientific paper which took warp drives seriously was written in 1994 by Mexican physicist Miguel Alcubierre.
Alcubierres paper called for enormous energies to power his theoretical warp drive. The mass-energy equivalent of
Jupiter. Harnessing that kind of energy is impractical and virtually impossible, so his paper went largely ignored.
In October of 2012, at the 100 Year Starship Symposium, NASA researcher Harold White gave a presentation where
he announced that he discovered loopholes in the mathematical equations. Loopholes which brought down the
energy requirements to levels much lower than previously thought. He calculated that by altering the design of the
warp engine and the ship itself, he could get the energy requirements down to just a few thousand pounds of mass.
This takes warp drives out of the realm of science fiction and puts them in the realm of the plausible.