Category: Solar System

The Future of Space Travel – The Skyhook

On By Johann WestIn Solar System, Space Travel, Technology1 Comment

Infrastructure is everywhere. Most every way of transport that we consider using regularly has immense infrastructure. Cars have roads, trains have rails and stations, and airplanes have airports and runways. But with space travel, we take the brute force method, spending immense amounts of money and forcing a rocket to defy gravity and get itself into orbit. Organizations like SpaceX are currently trying to remedy some of the issues with this, with reusable rockets and other new technologies, but there is one technology that could massively accelerate the feasibility of space travel, the Skyhook

The Skyhook is a simple mechanism, basically consisting of a cable and a counterweight, placed in orbit. The concept of its use is as follows. A spacecraft would have to reach a height of 80-150 km by itself in order to attach to the Skyhook cable, and then the rotational force of the Skyhook would swing the spacecraft into space like a catapult, as shown below.

Photos Source

Of course like any technology there are hurdles to overcome, even though 150 km is much easier to reach than breaking a low orbit of say 1000 km, that is still quite a height to get to, and would require the invention of a new craft that is something of an airplane rocket hybrid. However, it still should be much cheaper, especially if these craft are reusable. Additionally, the Skyhook would not be able to be used permanently because every time it flings a spacecraft into space it would lose a little bit of altitude itself. There are many other potential obstacles, but in my opinion, none that are improbable or outweigh the potential benefits of eliminating the modern wasteful rocket.

Sources:

1,000km Cable to the Stars – The Skyhook

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The Fermi Paradox : Are We Alone?

On By Johann WestIn Class, Galaxies, Solar System, Space TravelLeave a comment

The Fermi Paradox Picture

The universe is magnificently huge, and hence should have countless opportunities for life to develop, but that then begs the question, where are all the aliens? Due to the expansion of the universe being faster than the speed of life, there may be life throughout many galaxies, or even most of them, but we would simply never really know for sure do to any signal sent being outpaced in speed by the expansion of the universe, at least with our current understanding of physics. So it is practically pointless to search for life outside of our galaxy, so then where are all the Milky Way aliens? Even narrowing our search area to just 1 of 100 billion galaxies, there still should be ample opportunities for life to develop in our galaxy, where communication, however still improbable, is possible. Different studies estimate there are anywhere between 300 million to 6 billion Earth-like habitable planets in the milky way, so what gives?

There are many theories as to why life seems to be missing from the Milky Way. Perhaps they are in hiding, and only the silent civilizations survive. Perhaps they have all died out, and we simply live in a time where no other near type 1 or type 2 civilizations exist alongside is. Perhaps we are the first, pioneering the concept of intelligent life. Or perhaps billions of chances for life simply is not that many if we truly knew how complicated and rare life developing is, and we sincerely are special in this galaxy. Only time and technology will tell.

Sources:

The Fermi Paradox Video

bbvaopenmind

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Asteroid Mining

On By Johann WestIn Solar System, Space Travel, Technology2 Comments

Picture of Asteroid

With the current rise of privatized space travel, one industry that may very well likely be popularized within our lifetimes is asteroid mining. However the initial investment cost of getting to a profitable asteroid will be enormous, the payoff of mining and bringing back the metals that these asteroids contain would be more than worth it. We are currently aware of 5 different asteroids that are worth multiple quintillion dollars at the current market rate of the metals that are contained.

However, to play devils advocate, the pure profit from these asteroids would likely be much lower if they were actually brought back to Earth, thanks to the laws of supply and demand. The price for the metals contained in these asteroids would plummet do to the massively increased supply.

Still, that does not mean it would not be fiscally worth it to go after these asteroids. It may be probable that industry would increase with the lowered price of these metals, allowing humanity to advance without resource limitation.

Source : Asteroid Mining

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Possibility of Life on Europa

On By Johann WestIn Moons, Moons, Solar System, Space Travel2 Comments

Picture from European Space Agency

As of now scientists believe there are three requirements for a planet to develop and sustain life. Liquid water, the appropriate chemical elements, and an energy source. Europa has more than enough water, as it is believed that below the roughly 15 miles of solid ice, lies twice as much water as in Earth’s ocean, even though Europa is a fraction of Earth’s size.

As of now the most likely way to get more information about possible life at Europa is to sample water from water vapor fumes shooting through the ice. We would have to send a spacecraft to Europa with capabilities of finding and sampling these fumes.

Europa is currently the best chance of finding life outside of Earth, and it is important to explore this possibility as it would significantly alter how we view the development of life in the universe. If life has developed on two separate bodies in the solar system, life may no longer be viewed as a freak of nature, but as a result of the right combination and not wholly uncommon features in nature.

Source – Europa : Ocean Moon

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Born from the Stars

On By Johann WestIn Class, Solar System3 Comments
Picture hyperlink

It may be hard to believe, but in all technicality, everything in the solar system, including humans, are born from star dust.

Let’s start at the beginning, at the big bang. The matter released from the big bang made up the first generation of stars, only containing the elements hydrogen and helium. Eventually, when the cycle of these stars living and dying and being reborn progressed, a small amount of matter in the universe was converted into other elements.

The current hypothesis on how our own solar system was created is the nebular theory, which starts with the idea that our solar system was created by the collapse of a solar nebula, which is a large cloud of gas. This nebula was formed by the cycle of stars living and dying producing recycled star material. At this point in time, science believed that the matter of the nebula still contained 98% helium and hydrogen, but 2% of other elements. Science believes that Earth, as well as the other planets in our solar system are mainly made up of this other 2%.

So in short, our entire solar system is made up of recycled star material, hence we are born from the stars. It may be strange to think, but in all technicality everyone on Earth is really just a descendant of the stars, and every atom in their body originated from one. Imagine if we could trace our individual atoms back to specific stars, and know which stars we are born from, now that would be a lot of fun!

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What makes the Tides happen?

On By Johann WestIn Class, Moons, Solar System2 Comments

This blog will be referencing information sourced from the Tides: Crash Course Astronomy #8 video. We know that mass has gravity, and more mass had more gravity. This raises the question, why does the moon have a greater impact on the Earth’s tides than the Sun, even though the Sun has such a greater gravitational force? This is because of the close distance to the Earth the Moon has. Think of the gravitational effect that causes the tides as the Earth stretching. As shown in the picture above, the side of the Earth the is closer to the moon gets stretched towards the moon because of the Moon’s gravity. This causes a bulge, making the Earth slightly football shaped. You may be wondering why in the picture both sides of the Earth appear to be bulging then, since the Moon is pulling on the near side of the Earth. This is because the center of the Earth is also getting pulled slightly, while the far side of the Earth stays in place. This creates the effect that makes it look like both sides are getting pulled on. This stretching is what causes the tides. The gravity stretches the oceans. When you are on the side of the Earth getting stretched, you experience high tide, you can visualize the oceans stretching farther onto shore. Then the Earth rotates, and you experience low tide, and the oceans recede because you are on the side of the Earth that is not getting stretched. Then high tide again, then low tide. This is why there are two high tides and two low tides everyday. This affect of the tide seems to only be meaningful on large objects, like the ocean. Humans and other small things are not affected. However, the Earth itself is as well. Each day the surface of the Earth rises and falls about 30 centimeters, with the tides, yet you are moving with it so you would never notice it.

Pictures both taken from the Tides: Crash Course Astronomy #8 video.

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