ever wonder what the future of space travel might be like in a lot of Science Fiction Tales humans have colonized planets and asteroids all around the star system this is not simple to execute in real life at least not with the technology we have at present time given the hundreds of millions of miles that separate us from even the closest orbital bodies but with Elon Musk preparing for the first orbital of Starship We Are remarkably getting closer if this is successful this will be another historical milestone in space exploration and the SpaceX team is not stopping from here cause recently the tech billionaire just leaked a new rocket engine that will get us to Mars in as fast as 39 days what could this be let's find out hello everyone welcome back to Elon Musk Evolution where we bring you the most recent news about Elon Musk and his multi-billion dollar companies space news and the latest science and technology but before we begin make sure you subscribe to our Channel and click the Bell icon so you don't miss any of our amazing videos even the Journey to Mars our nearest neighbor is expected to take seven months according to NASA this is why science fiction authors frequently designed strong propulsion systems for their spacecrafts such as warp drives Epstein drives and hyperdrives that enable people to travel great distances in days or minutes as opposed to months or years due to the limits of conventional rocketry these typical flight times are necessary yet cutting-edge technology that seems like it belongs in a science fiction movie is now emerging and could eventually replace traditional Rockets entirely these month-long flying periods might be reduced to a matter of days thanks to its increased efficiency there are several examples of this technology being used in space missions right now even if the technology is still in development what kind of technology is this ionized engines and with them the future may be far closer than you realize to start with what exactly is an ion engine for those who are unfamiliar and how do they differ from the traditional Rockets we are familiar with today the conservation of momentum is the guiding concept for all rocketry if you want to move higher you must launch something else with sufficient downward momentum to match your desired upward motion rocket fuel is burned in conventional chemical Rockets to accomplish this a chemical like liquid methane gets heated and expanded when oxidizer is mixed with it similar to releasing the air from within a balloon to send it zooming about the room the bottom of the rocket shoots out this stream of Highly energetic exhaust which sends the top of the rocket flying upwards in these situations momentum is conserved in our balloon example the Air's momentum leaving the balloon is equal to the momentum of the balloon's motion with the rocket the upward force of the rocket is equal to the momentum of the exhaust theoretically all you would need is a very enormous balloon that you could just blow up to go into space yet using this approach would provide a challenge very shortly you would exhaust all of your air rendering you unable to continue producing thrust rocket propulsion with balloons is not particularly effective this is a part of the issue with our chemical Rockets right now as well chemical Rockets are not particularly effective since there is a maximum speed at which exhaust material can be accelerated by burning fuel even though burning the fuel does give it more kinetic energy than merely squeezing it out of a balloon with such a rocket burning more fuel is the only way to go quicker rather than burning it hotter nevertheless this results in a larger and heavier rocket that uses more fuel as well as a need for more fuel to be carried and after you run out of that fuel there is nothing else you can do to continue producing thrust the NASA Mission to Mars will take seven months because of fuel conservation it is impossible for them to develop a rocket that is big enough and fuel efficient enough to speed people to Mars think about some of the Rockets being launched right now like the Artemis 1 SLS rocket that recently sent a spacecraft to the Moon a much closer Target that are over 60 meters in size there were 2.8 million liters of fuel in its primary core stage which was completely full only the first 10 minutes after takeoff did the entire fuel get used up a ship that is absurdly big and requires an enormous amount of thrust just to lift off the ground is required to carry enough fuel to speed all the way to Mars very simply it is ineffective mass times velocity are the components of momentum chemical Rockets attempt to go more quickly by merely launching more mass out the back of their engines what if we however accelerated the speed at which that bulk was thrown you would have additional push as a result of the increased momentum ion engines can help in situations like this ion engines try to provide their propellant with electrical thrust instead of burning fuel to produce rapid expansion they try to produce ions or charged particles which are subsequently driven through electromagnetic fields occasionally reaching speeds of 146 000 kilometers per hour depending on the model the more momentum you could give such a particle depends on how much electricity you have the more speed your rocket gains to fly forward the quicker it will leave the back of your rocket hence if you could generate enough electrical energy to accelerate your particles you could travel using much less fuel ion engines are a lot more effective than chemical Rockets which is the main lesson ion engines could handle 90 efficiency whilst chemical rocket fuel efficiency could only reach 35 percent although the efficiency of the various versions varies they all accelerate with a lot less propellant they can accelerate for years in fact due to their extreme speed the NASA space shuttles can travel at a top speed of 29 000 kilometers per hour so this acceleration adds up ion thrusters are able to travel at 11 times that speed the maximum is the amount of electricity you are capable of producing not the amount of fuel in the tank then why haven't we already started using ion engines if they are so Superior the question is a little bit misleading they've been put to use by us in case it's conventional thrusters failed the recent NASA Dart mission was outfitted with a next gridded ion thruster Deep Space 1 used an n-star ion engine to get to far off comets in order to stabilize its satellites Soviet Satellites employed hall effect thrusters a type of ion propulsion between 1972 and the late 1990s today's satellites continue to employ this feature also using half effect thrusters our spacex's starlink satellites via the use of these Rockets entire space stations have been propelled four hall effect thrusters are also employed to alter and maintain the orbit of the Chinese Tian gong space station which is propelled by propellant according to reports there have been no issues with 8240 hours of continuous operation of these thrusters ion thrusters of the current generation do however have a flaw which prevents them from being fully prepared to take the place of all conventional Rockets as you may have guessed their Achilles heel is their deadly fault the oomph of ion thrusters currently available is awful to demonstrate this idea imagine holding out your palm in front of an ion Thruster while attempting to stop it from moving the force you would experience would be roughly equivalent to the weight of a single sheet of paper the requirement of doing so is that ion thrusters are capable of sustained acceleration they are very safe because they typically use chemically inert gases as fuel particles can be driven to extremely high speeds but because there aren't many of them being moved at once the push is minuscule for a spaceship to escape the Earth's strong gravitational field more propulsion must be generated by means other than an ion engine naturally this little push can mount up in space because there is no air resistance to contend with and there is ample time if there is nothing in your way even a slight acceleration will bring you there for comparison it may take a few days for some space ion engines to propel a spacecraft to a speed equivalent to that of a moving car ion thrusters thus have a specific application in Long Distance missions one that can sustain orbits with only a modest amount of force or for moving incredibly small objects such as Tiny satellites yet they have a long way to go before they can transport mankind very far we must also solve other issues ion engines function by building circuits which are networks of moving electrons that can carry charge and produce magnetic and electrical forces the delicate equilibrium of these circuits however can be disturbed by ions from the atmosphere the engine loses its ability to produce the proper fields which prevents it from constantly accelerating if the circuit malfunctions due to excess negative charges entering the system when they shouldn't or abruptly leaking out in addition chemically inert Xenon the finest fuel source for ION engines is extremely expensive and difficult to come by one thousand dollars per kg all of these issues must be solved for ION engines to replace Rockets as the main means of space travel in the future yet various initiatives are being made to fulfill that goal the European space agency and the Australian National University are working together to build a brand new form of ion Thruster called a Helicon Thruster ion thrusters are becoming even more well suited to those lengthy space missions thanks to advancements that increase Thruster efficiency even further reduce part wear and make it possible some in development ion thrusters are constructed in a way that enables them to employ a considerably larger variety of fuel sources the confusingly called magnetoplasma Dynamic Thruster can be set up in a variety of ways to use hydrogen argon ammonium or nitrogen as fuel it may even be able to use the ambient gas in low earth orbit in some circumstances imagine a spacecraft using air as its only fuel source and air alone serving as its sole waste output the ever-improving vasmir variable specific impulse magnetoplasma rocket possesses this quality as well the rocket is particularly exciting because it can run on nearly any fuel source albeit prefers argon argon is a considerably more practical fuel source than its rival Xenon since it is 200 times less expensive vassimir is more powerful than other ion thrusters astronauts might travel to Mars in just 39 days according to vassimir's creators there are still some issues with the technology though it consumes a ton of energy because the plasma it contains must be heated to a temperature of 1 million degrees Celsius or 173 times that of the surface of the Sun even when we do it will be difficult to get rid of the extra heat this makes because there is nothing in space to send it to because we do not yet have power sources that are effective enough to feed this engine at the levels required for that 39-day Journey ion thrusters are a promising new class of propulsion but they are a long way from being able to completely replace traditional Rockets although extremely efficient their weak thrust leaves much to be desired yet even if an ion engine is never created with the thrust required to escape a planet's gravity well this potential to drastically cut the amount of time needed to reach far-off worlds and its benefits will still be available ion thrusters have already found a place in the satellite Transportation industry as an effective mode of movement the technological problems with ion thrusters are still being researched for short Burn High thrust missions conventional chemical Rockets are still the sole viable alternative yet if those difficulties are resolved one day this might no longer be the case ion engines may end up being the only kind of engine that is viable for deep space exploration the solar system as a whole will thereafter become completely accessible to mankind one day perhaps it will be able to take a short trip to Mars This may be just another instance of how science fiction can eventually become reality meanwhile the new NASA nuclear rocket plan aims to get to Mars in just 45 days recently NASA just revealed that a nuclear thermal and nuclear electric propulsion is a top contender in transporting humans to Mars throughout the space race NASA and the Soviet space program invested decades in the study of nuclear propulsion NASA has restarted its nuclear program in an effort to create bimodal nuclear propulsion a two-part system made up of an ntp and NEP element which would allow transits to Mars in only 100 days a nuclear concept was chosen by NASA for phase one development as part of the NASA Innovative advanced concepts program for 2023 with the use of a wave rotor topping cycle this new form of bimodal nuclear propulsion system might cut the time it takes to travel to Mars to just 45 days Professor Ryan gossey the hypersonics program Area Head of the University of Florida and a member of the Florida applied research and engineering team presented the idea under the title bimodal ntp NEP with a wave rotor topping cycle the NAIC chose gaussy's proposal as one of 14 for phase one development this year which includes a twelve thousand five hundred dollar Grant to help the technology and procedures involved to mature Innovative manufacturing processes Power Systems sensors instruments and other items were also proposed the fundamentals of nuclear propulsion can be divided into two principles Each of which is based on technology that has undergone extensive testing and verification nuclear reactors are used in nuclear thermal propulsion which uses them to heat liquid hydrogen propellant into ionized hydrogen gas which is then sent through nozzles to produce thrust this propulsion system has been built and tested in a number of attempts including project Rover a joint venture between the U.S Air Force and the atomic energy commission that was initiated in 1955. the program began a new phase devoted to space flight applications in 1959 after
NASA took control from the USAF in the end a solid core nuclear reactor called the nuclear engine for Rocket vehicle application or nerva was created as a result and tested successfully the program was terminated prior to conducting any flight testing because funding for it was substantially cut when the Apollo age ended in 1973. between 1965 and 1980 the Soviet Union created its own ntp idea rd0410 and before the program was discontinued it carried out one ground test contrarily nuclear electric propulsion uses a nuclear reactor to supply electricity to an ion engine known as a hall effect Thruster this type of Thruster uses an electromagnetic field to accelerate and ionize an inert gas such as Xenon in order to produce thrust NASA's nuclear systems initiative project Prometheus is one effort to create this technology 2003-2005. both methods outperform traditional chemical propulsion in a number of ways including better specific impulse ratings improved fuel efficiency and practically Limitless energy density the thrust level is quite modest compared to traditional rockets and ntp despite the fact that NEP ideas are notable for providing more than ten thousand seconds of ISP which means they can maintain thrust for about three hours gossy claims that the requirement for an electric power source also brings up the issue of heat rejection in space where Optimum conditions result in a thermal energy conversion of 30 to 40 percent furthermore even while ntp nerva designs are the favorite technique for crew trips to Mars and Beyond this technique still has difficulties supplying appropriate initial and terminal Mass fractions for high Delta V missions bimodal Concepts which would integrate the benefits of both propulsion Technologies are therefore preferred under agassi's plan a bimodal design based on a solid Court nerva reactor would be used to produce a specific impulse of 900 seconds which is twice as powerful as chemical rockets at the moment a pressure wave supercharger also known as a wave rotor is another component of the cycle suggested by gaussy this device is used in internal combustion engines to compress intake air by using pressure waves generated by reactions the WR would employ pressure generated by the reactor's heating of the lh2 fuel to further compress the reaction Mass when coupled with an ntp engine this will generate thrust levels similar to those of a nerva class ntp concept but with an ISP of 1400 to 2000 seconds as gaussy claims according to gaussy thrust levels are increased even more when combined with an NEP cycle coupled with an NEP cycle the duty cycle ISP can further be increased 1800 to 4000 seconds with minimal addition of dry Mass this bimodal design enables the fast transit for manned missions 45 days to Mars and revolutionizes the deep space exploration of our solar system a crude Journey to Mars might last up to three years with current propulsion technology every 26 months when Earth and Mars are closest to one another this is known as the Mars opposition these missions would be launched they would spend a minimum of six to nine months in transit the duration of the mission would be cut down to months rather than years with a Transit of 45 days as a result there would be a large decrease in the main hazards connected to trips to Mars including radiation exposure time spent in microgravity and Associated health issues there are suggestions for brand new reactor designs that in addition to propulsion would offer a consistent power source for lengthy surface missions where solar and wind power are not constantly available examples include the hybrid fission fusion reactor chosen for phase one development by NASA's neic 2023 selection and the kilo power reactor utilizing Sterling technology project crew Journeys to Mars and other planets in deep space may be possible in the future possibly even sooner than we believe thanks to these and other nuclear applications and that ends today's episode what do you think of this episode let us know your thoughts in the comment box below please subscribe and don't forget to like today's video we'll see you in the next video thanks for watching
2023-02-27