Interstellar flight. Ivan Korznikov: The realities of interstellar flights. Flight on hydrogen
Flight to the stars
From the very beginning it was clear that the space of the solar system, its planets are within the reach of spacecraft and ships that can be created with the modern level of technology and knowledge, and, therefore, people will be able, if not to land, then, in any case, to reach or reach any of its planets.
But at the same time it became clear that at home, in the solar system, we would be able to obtain data about planets, asteroids, comets, about their features, perhaps about their origin, but nothing more. Most likely, we will not learn anything unexpected or fundamentally new in the solar system. It is unlikely that data obtained from travel through our solar system will make significant progress in our understanding of the world in which we live.
Naturally, the thought turns to the stars. After all, it was previously understood that flights near the Earth, flights to other planets of our solar system were not the final goal. Paving the way to the stars seemed to be the main task. It is not for nothing that, although somewhat prematurely, the Americans called their cosmonauts astronauts, that is, astronauts.
This gave rise to thoughts about starships, and therefore the name “spaceship” arose. We, the creators, called it a spaceship. Korolev did not accept this name. Now I don’t even remember when and which of us suggested calling our future car a ship. But I remember well how one day I was shown a photo montage reprinted from some foreign magazine: a caravel against the backdrop of the Horsehead Nebula, flying away in full sail into the distance! Ship! This is exactly what corresponded to our aspirations.
Sooner or later, human thought had to return to starships. What should they be? What problems need to be solved for star flights to become a reality?
If we talk about automatic spacecraft sent to the nearest stars, then in principle this problem does not seem insurmountable.
But reflections and simple estimates of the parameters of ships for human flights to the stars show that, trying to solve the problem of carrying out stellar flights, we are faced with fundamental difficulties.
The first problem is time. Even if we managed to build a starship that could fly at a speed close to the speed of light, the travel time in our Galaxy alone would be calculated in millennia and tens of millennia, since its diameter is about 100,000 light years. And flights outside the galaxy will require many times more time. So, when considering the problem of traveling to the stars, we will limit ourselves to our Galaxy.
Let’s imagine that science will be able to freeze astronauts for a certain number of years so that they “come to life” when they arrive at their destination, or send human embryos on a journey. And even if this problem is solved not only technically, but also morally, then after the trip they will return to a world completely alien to them. It is enough to remember the changes that have occurred over the past 200 years (and here we are talking about tens of millennia!), and it becomes clear that after returning, the astronauts will find themselves in a completely unfamiliar world: a flight to the stars will almost always be a one-way flight. For those around us, relatives and friends of space travelers, this will be something like seeing off a loved one on their last journey.
The second problem is the dangerous flow of particles, gas and dust. The space between the stars is not empty. Everywhere there are remnants of gas, dust, streams of particles. If they attempt to travel close enough to the speed of light, they will create a stream of high energy particles that will impact the ship and be nearly impossible to defend against.
The third problem is energy. If the most efficient thermonuclear reaction is used in the ship’s rocket engine, then to travel in both directions at a speed close to the speed of light, even with an ideal design of the rocket system, the ratio of the initial mass to the final mass is required to be no less than ten to the thirtieth power, which seems unrealistic .
As for creating a photon engine for a starship that uses matter annihilation, there are still a lot of problems looming here (storing gigantic reserves of antimatter, protecting the structure of the ship and the mirror of the photon engine from the released energy and from that part of the antimatter that will not undergo annihilation in the engine, and etc.), and no solution is visible to any of them.
But let’s even assume that we manage to make a photon engine. Let's try to imagine a galactic photon ship capable of flying at a speed close enough to the speed of light to remove the problems of time. The actual flight time of astronauts back and forth on a journey over a distance of the order of half the diameter of our Galaxy with an optimal flight schedule (continuous acceleration and then continuous deceleration) will be (according to the clock on the ship) about 42 years when flying with an acceleration (acceleration or deceleration) equal to Earth's acceleration due to gravity. According to clocks, about 100,000 years will pass on Earth.
Let's assume that we managed to obtain an ideal process in a photonic engine, make an ideal design with zero mass of tanks (which, of course, cannot be, but this only means that in reality the results will be much worse), and let's try to estimate some parameters of such an ideal ship to fly approximately half the diameter of the Galaxy. It turns out that the ratio of the initial mass of the ship to the final mass will be about ten to the nineteenth power! This means that with the mass of living and working premises and equipment (that is, everything that the ship is carrying) equal to only 100 tons, the launch mass will be greater than the mass of the Moon. Moreover, half of this mass is antimatter. Where can I get it from? How to transfer force to it for acceleration?
From today's ideas about the world, one gets the impression that it is impossible to solve the problem of transporting material bodies over galactic distances at speeds close to the speed of light; it is pointless to break through space and time with the help of a mechanical structure.
It is necessary to find a way of interstellar travel that is not associated with the need to transport a material body. This idea has long been used in science fiction literature (which in itself should not be confusing, since more than once global scientific goals were first formulated in fairy tales and science fiction literature) - the idea of the travel of intelligent beings in the form of a package of information.
Electromagnetic waves propagate virtually losslessly throughout the observable Universe. Perhaps here lies the key to unraveling the mystery of interstellar travel.
Without falling into mysticism, we must admit that the personality of a modern person cannot be separated from the body. But it is possible to imagine a specially designed individual in which the personality can be separated from the body, in the same way that the software can be separated from the design of modern electronic computers.
Personality is an individual complex of characteristics of a given person in his perception of the outside world, in his information processing algorithms and reactions to received information, in his imagination, likes and dislikes, in his knowledge.
If a package of information, which is a complete description of a person, can be rewritten from its fields of operational operations and storage devices, then this package of information can be transmitted via a communication line to the destination receiving station and there rewritten into a standard tangible medium (either selected according to the price list, or ...), in which the traveler can already live, act, move, and satisfy his curiosity.
At the time of transmission of the identity information packet, such individual is not alive. In order for him to exist and act, his personality (a package of information) must be placed in a material medium. His personality, if you like - his spirit, can only exist on the material fields of operations and storage devices.
Such a method of solving the problem of flying to the stars would be the realization not only of the plots of modern science fiction, but also of ancient myths, fairy tales, legends about ascension to heaven and overthrow into hell, about flying vessels and about worlds where people appear and disappear, oh transmigration of souls. Perhaps then philosophical disputes about man, about the frailty of his bodily shell and the essence of being would be resolved. What is a person? What is truth?
It is interesting that outstanding philosophers in different historical periods, from antiquity to our time, through logical analysis (based, by the way, not on knowledge) came to completely modern ideas about the relationship between the inner essence and the human body. The life of a person is the life of his soul, it is the thought of oneself beating in helpless efforts (what am I?), about the world outside oneself and within oneself, aesthetic pleasure in beauty and rejection of the primitive and untruth, this is freedom of thought and analysis. We are here, we live, as long as we are able to think, evaluate, process information and generate it. The rest of me, my body, is for maintenance.
Our brain is a field of mathematical operations with symbols, numbers, concepts, rules and algorithms. These operations provide synthesis of incoming information and its analysis. The algorithms that have developed in a particular person for processing, analyzing and evaluating information determine his aesthetics and self-perception, his sense of his own existence. Of course, these operations are performed according to rules specific to a given person. These rules are gradually formed in the brain of the individual (as a result of his experience in receiving and processing information, experience of his own activities and its evaluation) and are written on the fields of mathematical operations and on the storage devices of his brain. Moreover, over the course of life, these rules can improve, change (as a person himself changes over time), and deteriorate. Recorded on a material medium, they seem to become material. But these operations, thoughts, experiences themselves are something that cannot be seen or “touched.” Man has always tried to materialize this something in the form of sounds, words, colors. But always an attempt at self-expression turned out to be only a shadow, a weak echo of this something.
The body is the servicing systems of the field of mathematical operations (nutrition, cleaning, movement, means of communication with the outside world, etc.). But the vast majority of people, almost all and almost always, did not distinguish between their “I” and their body. And they always strived to better arrange their body.
There is logic in this: without nutrition, the brain dies, the field of operations disintegrates, and personality disappears. In a healthy body, a “computer” works with fewer failures, at a higher speed (due to parallel operations, and generally due to better algorithms), and provides greater internal resistance to external threats and complications. And most importantly, it provides clarity of thinking.
Perhaps that is why the desire to please one’s body from generation to generation remained the main driving force of the human race. It determined predatory campaigns, the creation of new technologies, and the desire for a better organization of social life (including the “let’s rob the rich” method, disguised with the slogan “down with exploitation”). Houses, cars, airplanes, gas, electricity, computer technology were born from this desire. The desire to provide maximum comfort to the body has been and remains the main driver in people's lives.
But in fact, this is secondary. Our “I”, our individuality, our essence, our being is not a material shell. And there is nothing contradictory to our perception of the world in the idea of the fundamental possibility of separating individuality and its material carrier.
Therefore, from an engineering point of view, it seems possible to construct a person whose soul can be separated from the body, and perhaps to construct a world where a person can almost instantly (say, within the solar system) move from one planet to another.
Is it permissible to create such a creature? Do we have the right to do this? What life incentives can we offer him? It is these issues that are the main problem.
We are most likely a product of organic evolution. The instinct of life, the instinct of procreation, is deeply embedded in us. When this instinct dies with age, health, and living conditions, a person loses the desire to live. And what stimulus of life can we offer our creation? Curiosity? The desire to be useful to the people who created his body (perishable and replaceable) and raised his personality and soul? The desire to develop yourself in world exploration, in ultra-long-distance travel, in the creation of transceiver stations for travel, in the construction of circumstellar space bases?
Are these incentives convincing? Where does he get affection and love for his neighbors? How to raise him so that he does not turn out to be a monster with absurd and senseless aspirations for power, for the opportunity to give instructions, educate and be known as a benefactor? Or vice versa, so that he does not turn out to be an infantile, uninitiative being, indifferent to the world, to his neighbors and to himself?
And of course, enormous technical problems stand in the way of creating such a creature. How do we think? How are stereotypes of our reactions, behavior, assessments created, how is our individuality born? Most likely, algorithms for perceiving the surrounding world, analyzing, and thinking arise anew in every person and, to one degree or another, in a different way. Their character is determined by genes, environment, the structure of society, the joys and sorrows of their childhood. In a society of slaves, slaves grow up; in a society of free people, independent individuals who respect their own dignity grow up. From this point of view, standardized methods of education: nurseries, kindergartens, schools are very dangerous. This is the worst thing you can do for your future. Humanity can only be strong through diversity and individuality. Of course, some basic covenants, commandments should be common to everyone: love your neighbor, do not steal, do not kill, do not covet... But to form a person according to the standard is to prepare for your own death.
How can you start creating artificial intelligence without understanding all these things? Inevitable tragic mistakes and failures await us on this road. But this idea has already entered the consciousness of the most curious and enterprising. We must assume that this matter will develop.
More understandable difficulties will appear.
If you “transmit personality” over galactic distances, you will have to create antennas with dimensions of the order of kilometers and transmitters with a power of the order of hundreds of millions of kilowatts. But to implement this method of galactic travel, it is necessary not only to create a new cosmic person, whose personality can be separated from the body, from a material carrier and transmitted in the form of a package of information through a communication channel, but also to create receiving and transmitting stations (for example, in the radio range) , transport them (for example, using automatic spacecraft) to possible destinations (located, as a rule, not far from any star to provide transceiver stations with energy). In this case, you can transport transceiver stations, or you can only transport the technology, a minimum set of tools and robots for their manufacture at the destination.
But delivering stations at speeds of the order of hundreds and even thousands of kilometers per second to stars located at distances of tens of light years from us will require millennia and tens of millennia. During this time, interest in the enterprise itself may be lost.
Nevertheless, this path lies within the framework of the possible.
One can imagine another way for space man to carry out stellar travel: through contact with other civilizations.
In fact, all of humanity will participate in establishing the exchange of information during the trip. Information received from another world about it, about its inhabitants, their life, and information transmitted there about our life will be the journey of all humanity to the stars.
And again the same eternal question arises: how to get in touch with other civilizations?
The logical path: declare yourself, create and turn on a beacon, receive a request and begin communication. If we proceed from the idea of creating a pulsed radio beacon emitting in all directions (for example, along the plane of the Galaxy), receiving energy from the Sun using solar panels with a capacity of a billion kilowatts (the assessment was carried out in relation to a beacon with a frequency band of only 100 hertz), then from subscribers looking for beacons, it will be necessary to create receiving antennas with diameters from 1 to 10–20 kilometers for searching at distances, respectively, from one to fifty thousand light years. A billion kilowatts of power can be obtained from solar panels with dimensions of about 100 by 100 kilometers. Gigantic in size, but quite visible. The design of such solar batteries can be imagined as a truss platform with film solar batteries stretched on it.
If we talk about communication with civilizations that are thousands or tens of thousands of years distant from us, then the time frame for contacting other civilizations will be, respectively, thousands and tens of thousands of years. Not millions anymore, but still a very long time.
Could there be a shorter way? Maybe. If some other civilizations chose this path of establishing connections in our Galaxy, then they could have already created and turned on their beacons. This means that we need to look for these beacons, build receiving antennas capable of receiving signals from galactic beacons. Radio telescopes with antennas measuring kilometers in size can be built in near-Earth orbits and in the orbits of solar satellites in the coming decades.
The time it takes to receive signals from other civilizations will be determined by the time it takes to create large space radio telescopes and the time it takes to search for beacon signals. But where to look? Perhaps near the center of the Galaxy, perhaps along the midlines of the spiral arms of the Galaxy, perhaps in globular star clusters, close to the galactic plane. Or near stars with planetary systems. One way or another, this has already been decades, not thousands or millions of years.
Is there an easier way to communicate with other civilizations?
Let's assume that representatives of other civilizations were (or are?) already on Earth or in the solar system. How to find them, what could be the traces of their activities? Where might their transceiver stations be located?
There are two search directions here.
The cosmic beings themselves, what could they be? Dimensions, features of their life. They probably don’t need an atmosphere and organic matter for nutrition, and space is their natural habitat? How to find them? Why don't they contact us? The search for answers to these questions is the first direction.
The second direction is related to the search for their means of communication, the search for stations for receiving and sending travelers.
Reflections on the problem of flights to the stars allow us to identify several promising areas of work: the creation of larger and larger radio telescopes, the development of space robots, the development of the design and ideology of lighthouses in order to find the most effective method of searching for them, the study of the possibility of creating and developing artificial intelligence, the search for communication channels other civilizations in the solar system. These directions are fully consistent with the modern needs of humanity.
Work on artificial intelligence involves solving the problem of creating sufficiently effective robots that could replace people in dangerous industries, save them from labor in mines, from routine work, which would help us in exploring the underwater world and in construction. The creation of large radio telescopes will make it possible to conduct the most effective studies of the Universe both at its borders and in the center of the Galaxy.
The purpose of such reflections at the level of science fiction is to look ahead in order to select the long-term prospects that face us, to determine the directions of search, to compare them with current problems of ecology and economics, the arrangement of human life on Earth, with today’s interesting tasks in the study of the Universe, and from This analysis will identify areas of work on which it is worth spending the total funds, energy and intelligence of people. This is worth doing in order to make balanced and reasonable decisions about your choice.
And what ideas and goals will we leave to our descendants? Don't let tyrants, adventurers and just crooks get close to power? But this was clear to people even in ancient times. True, it was usually not possible to realize this understanding. The idea of a clean land - without stinking dead rivers, without deserts (instead of forests), without radiation bald spots on the living body of the planet? People realized this at the end of the 19th century. Maybe our legacy to our descendants is to fly to the stars and search for connections with other civilizations? These ideas were born in the science fiction literature of the 20th century. To figure out how our world, our Universe, is structured - humanity has been preoccupied with this for many centuries. Or maybe everything has already been bequeathed to us, and our task is to try, in our temporary round of human development, to realize the goals set for earthlings?
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And left the solar system; Now they are used to study interstellar space. At the beginning of the 21st century, there are no stations whose direct mission would be to fly to the nearest stars.
The distance to the nearest star (Proxima Centauri) is about 4,243 light years, that is, about 268 thousand times the distance from Earth to the Sun.
Starship projects driven by the pressure of electromagnetic waves
In 1971, in a report by G. Marx at a symposium in Byurakan, it was proposed to use X-ray lasers for interstellar travel. The possibility of using this type of propulsion was later investigated by NASA. As a result, the following conclusion was made: “If the possibility of creating a laser operating in the X-ray wavelength range is found, then we can talk about the real development of an aircraft (accelerated by the beam of such a laser) that will be able to cover distances to the nearest stars much faster than all known currently rocket-powered systems. Calculations show that using the space system considered in this work, it is possible to reach the star Alpha Centauri... in about 10 years."
In 1985, R. Forward proposed the design of an interstellar probe accelerated by microwave energy. The project envisaged that the probe would reach the nearest stars in 21 years.
At the 36th International Astronomical Congress, a project for a laser starship was proposed, the movement of which is provided by the energy of optical lasers located in orbit around Mercury. According to calculations, the path of a starship of this design to the star Epsilon Eridani (10.8 light years) and back would take 51 years.
Annihilation engines
The main problems identified by scientists and engineers who analyzed the designs of annihilation rockets are obtaining the required amount of antimatter, storing it, and focusing the flow of particles in the desired direction. It is indicated that the current state of science and technology does not even theoretically allow the creation of such structures.
Ramjet engines powered by interstellar hydrogen
The main component of the mass of modern rockets is the mass of fuel required by the rocket for acceleration. If we can somehow use the environment surrounding the rocket as a working fluid and fuel, we can significantly reduce the mass of the rocket and thereby achieve high speeds.
Generation ships
Interstellar travel is also possible using starships that implement the concept of “generation ships” (for example, like O’Neill’s colonies). In such starships, a closed biosphere is created and maintained, capable of maintaining and reproducing itself for several thousand years. The flight occurs at low speed and takes a very long time, during which many generations of astronauts manage to change.
FTL propulsion
Notes
see also
Sources
- Kolesnikov Yu. V. You should build starships. M., 1990. 207 p. ISBN 5-08-000617-X.
- http://www.gazeta.ru/science/2008/01/30_a_2613225.shtml?4 Lecture on interstellar flights, on acceleration of 100 km/sec near stars
How can you start creating artificial intelligence without understanding all these things?
But the thought of this had already entered my consciousness. Perhaps the most popular among the most curious and enterprising was the task of creating artificial intelligence. We have to think that this will work. More understandable difficulties will appear. If you transmit personality over galactic distances, you will have to create antennas with dimensions of the order of kilometers and transmitters with a power of about 100 million kW. Thus, to implement this method of galactic travel, it is necessary to create receiving and transmitting stations (for example, in the radio range), transport them (for example, using automatic spacecraft) to possible destinations (as a rule, not far from any star - to provide transceivers energy stations). In this case, you can transport transceiver stations, or you can only transport the technology, a minimum set of tools and robots for their manufacture at the destination. The speeds of spacecraft that are already flying in the solar system are tens of kilometers per second. It is possible to achieve speeds of the order of hundreds and even thousands of kilometers per second. But this means that the time for “distribution” of stations throughout the Galaxy will be millions and even hundreds of millions of years. Delivery of stations at such speeds even to the nearest stars, located at distances of tens of light years from us, will require millennia and tens of millennia. During this time, interest in the enterprise itself may be lost. One can imagine another way to carry out stellar travel: get in touch with other civilizations, transmit to them information about the construction of a transceiver station suitable for receiving “our” people, the information necessary to make a material carrier for “our” people, a package of information with “our” people. " traveler, establish an exchange of information with them. Reflections on stellar flights allow us to identify several promising areas of work that should be carried out in the coming decades. These include: the creation of larger and larger radio telescopes reaching dimensions of the order of kilometers, the development of space robots, the design and ideology of space “beacons”, research into the possibility of creating artificial intelligence, and the search for output communication channels of other civilizations in the Solar System. These areas of work correlate well with the modern needs of humanity. Work on artificial intelligence is related to solving the problem of creating sufficiently effective robots that could replace people in dangerous industries, would help us in the development of water areas and the underwater world, and in construction. The creation of space robots is a ripe task. They will be more effective when working in open space than a person in a spacesuit. And open space work is likely to expand in the coming decades. The construction of large radio telescopes will allow for the most effective exploration of the Universe.
What to do?
Without pretending to exhaustively cover the tasks of space work in the coming decades, I will make an attempt to present those goals on which, in my opinion, it makes sense to focus efforts: 1. Low-orbit systems of unified satellites for environmental control, natural resource research, meteorological observations with ground-based automated processing centers information and an automated system for delivering results to subscribers. 2. Orbital stations as bases for experimental and construction work created according to the station-cloud scheme. 3. Orbital factories for the production of ultrapure materials, biologicals and other production processes that will be cost-effective or practical in orbit. 4. Automatic spacecraft of the international satellite system for observing and monitoring the surface of land, seas, oceans, airspace and underwater conditions with a system for providing information to subscribers. 5. Systems of radio telescopes launched into near-Earth and near-solar orbits and operating in a single radio interferometric scheme. 6. Orbital astrophysical observatories operating in various spectral ranges. 7. Automatic devices for delivering samples of the soil and atmosphere of Mars to Earth (if as a result of these works it turns out to be necessary to carry out an expedition to Mars, then it will be necessary to develop and create appropriate means for a manned expedition). 8. Reusable, cheap (the cost of delivery to orbit is about hundreds of dollars per kilogram) transport ships for Earth-orbit transport operations. 9. Cheap reusable vehicles for transport operations low orbit - geostationary orbit - low orbit. 10. Space robots for work in open space in the orbits of Earth satellites.Right now, interstellar travel and colonization seem highly unlikely. The basic laws of physics simply don't allow this to happen, and many people don't even think of it as impossible. Others are looking for ways to break the laws of physics (or at least find a workaround) that will allow us to travel to distant stars and explore brave new worlds.
Anything called "warp drive" sounds more like Star Trek than NASA. The idea behind the Alcubierre warp drive is that it could be a possible solution (or at least the beginning of a search) for overcoming the universe's limitations on faster-than-light travel.
The basics of this idea are quite simple, and NASA uses the example of a treadmill to explain it. Although a person may be moving at a finite speed on a treadmill, the combined speed of the person and the treadmill means that the end will be closer than it would be on a regular treadmill. A treadmill is precisely one moving through space-time in a kind of expansion bubble. In front of the warp drive, spacetime is compressed. Behind him it expands. In theory, this allows the engine to propel passengers faster than the speed of light. One of the key principles associated with the expansion of space-time is believed to have allowed the Universe to rapidly expand moments after the Big Bang. In theory, the idea should be quite feasible.
It’s terrible when there is no Internet on Earth and you cannot download Google Maps on your smartphone. During interstellar flights without it it will be even worse. Getting into space is just the first step; scientists are already starting to wonder what to do when our manned and unmanned probes need to transmit messages back to Earth.
In 2008, NASA conducted the first successful tests of an interstellar version of the Internet. The project began back in 1998 as part of a partnership between NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and Google. Ten years later, the partners had a Disruption-Tolerant Networking (DTN) system, which allows them to send images to a spacecraft 30 million kilometers away.
The technology must be able to cope with long delays and interruptions in transmissions, so it can continue transmitting even if the signal is interrupted for 20 minutes. It can pass through, between, or through everything from solar flares and solar storms to pesky planets that might be in the data path, without losing any information.
According to Vint Cerf, one of the founders of our terrestrial Internet and a pioneer of the interstellar one, the DTN system overcomes all the problems that plague the traditional TCIP/IP protocol when it needs to operate over long distances on a cosmic scale. With TCIP/IP, a Google search on Mars will take so long that the results will change while the query is being processed, and some of the information will be lost in the output. With DTN, the engineers added something completely new - the ability to assign different domain names to different planets and choose which planet you want to search the Internet on.
What about traveling to planets we are not yet familiar with? Scientific American suggests that there may be a way, albeit a very expensive and time-consuming one, to bring internet to Alpha Centauri. By launching a series of self-replicating von Neumann probes, it is possible to create a long series of relay stations that can send information along the interstellar circuit. A signal born in our system will travel through the probes and reach Alpha Centauri, and vice versa. True, many probes will be required, the construction and launch of which will cost billions. And in general, given that the farthest probe will have to travel its path for thousands of years, it can be assumed that during this time not only technologies will change, but also the total cost of the event. Let's not rush.
Embryonic colonization of space
One of the biggest problems with interstellar travel - and colonization in general - is the amount of time it takes to get anywhere, even with some warp drives up your sleeve. The very task of delivering a group of settlers to their destination gives rise to a lot of problems, so proposals are born to send not a group of colonists with a fully staffed crew, but rather a ship filled with embryos - the seeds of the future of humanity. Once the ship reaches the required distance to its destination, the frozen embryos begin to grow. Then they come out with children who grow up on the ship, and when they finally reach their destination, they have all the abilities to conceive a new civilization.
Obviously, all this, in turn, raises a huge pile of questions, such as who will carry out the cultivation of embryos and how. Robots could raise people, but what will the people raised by robots be like? Will robots be able to understand what a child needs to grow and thrive? Will they be able to understand punishments and rewards, human emotions? And in general, it remains to be seen how to keep frozen embryos intact for hundreds of years and how to grow them in an artificial environment.
One proposed solution that could solve the problems of a robot nanny would be to create a combination of a ship with embryos and a ship with suspended animation in which adults sleep, ready to wake up when they have to raise children. A succession of years of child rearing coupled with a return to hibernation could, in theory, lead to a stable population. A carefully created batch of embryos can provide the genetic diversity that will allow the population to be maintained in a more or less stable state once a colony is established. An additional batch can also be included in a ship with embryos, which will further diversify the genetic pool.
Von Neumann probes
Everything we build and send into space inevitably comes with its own challenges, and making something that will travel millions of miles without burning up, falling apart, or fading away seems like a completely impossible task. However, the solution to this problem may have been found decades ago. In the 1940s, physicist John von Neumann proposed mechanical technology that would reproduce itself, and although his idea had nothing to do with interstellar travel, it inevitably led to it. As a result, von Neumann probes could, in theory, be used to explore vast interstellar regions. According to some researchers, the idea that all this came to us first is not only pompous, but also unlikely.
Scientists from the University of Edinburgh published a paper in the International Journal of Astrobiology, which explored not only the possibility of creating such technology for their own needs, but also the likelihood that someone has already done it. Based on previous calculations that showed how far a craft could travel using different modes of propulsion, the scientists studied how this equation would change when applied to self-replicating craft and probes.
Scientists' calculations centered around self-replicating probes that could use debris and other space materials to build junior probes. The parent and daughter probes would multiply so quickly that they would cover the entire galaxy in just 10 million years - and that's if they were traveling at 10% the speed of light. However, this would mean that at some point we should have been visited by some similar probes. Since we haven't seen them, a convenient explanation can be found: either we are not technologically advanced enough to know where to look, or .
Slingshot with black hole
The idea of using the gravity of a planet or moon to shoot, like from a slingshot, was adopted in our solar system more than once or twice, most notably by Voyager 2, which received an additional push first from Saturn, and then from Uranus on its way out of the system . The idea involves maneuvering the ship, allowing it to increase (or decrease) its speed as it moves through the planet's gravitational field. Science fiction writers especially love this idea.
Writer Kip Thorne put forward an idea: such a maneuver could help the device solve one of the biggest problems of interstellar travel - fuel consumption. And he proposed a more risky maneuver: acceleration using binary black holes. It will take a minute of burning fuel to pass the critical orbit from one black hole to another. After making several revolutions around black holes, the device will gain speed close to light. All that remains is to aim well and activate the rocket thrust to set yourself a course to the stars.
Unlikely? Yes. Marvelous? Definitely. Thorne points out that there are many problems with such an idea, such as accurate calculations of trajectories and timing, which would prevent the device from being sent directly to the nearest planet, star or other body. Questions also arise about returning home, but if you decide on such a maneuver, you definitely do not plan to return.
A precedent for such an idea has already been established. In 2000, astronomers discovered 13 supernovae flying through the galaxy at an incredible speed of 9 million kilometers per hour. Scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne have discovered that these wayward stars were ejected from the galaxy by a pair of black holes that became locked into a pair during the process of destruction and merger of two separate galaxies.
Starseed Launcher
When it comes to launching even self-replicating probes, fuel consumption becomes an issue. This hasn't stopped people from looking for new ideas on how to launch probes to interstellar distances. This process would require megatons of energy if we used the technology we have today.
Forrest Bishop of the Institute of Atomic Engineering said he has created a method for launching interstellar probes that would require an amount of energy roughly equivalent to that of a car battery. The theoretical Starseed Launcher would be approximately 1,000 kilometers long and consist primarily of wires and wires. Despite its length, the whole thing could fit in one cargo ship and be powered by a 10-volt battery.
Part of the plan involves launching probes that are little more than a microgram in mass and contain only the basic information needed to further build probes in space. Over a series of launches, billions of such probes can be launched. The main gist of the plan is that self-replicating probes will be able to combine with each other after launch. The launcher itself will be equipped with superconducting magnetic levitation coils that create a reverse force that provides thrust. Bishop says some details of the plan need to be worked out, like how the probes will counter interstellar radiation and debris, but overall construction can begin.
Special plants for space life
Once we get somewhere, we'll need ways to grow food and regenerate oxygen. Physicist Freeman Dyson has proposed some interesting ideas on how this could be done.
In 1972, Dyson gave his famous lecture at Birkbeck College, London. Then he suggested that with the help of some genetic manipulations it would be possible to create trees that could not only grow, but also thrive on an inhospitable surface, like a comet, for example. Reprogram a tree to reflect ultraviolet light and conserve water more efficiently, and the tree will not only take root and grow, but also reach sizes unimaginable by earthly standards. In an interview, Dyson suggested that in the future there might be black trees, both in space and on Earth. Silicon-based trees would be more efficient, and efficiency is the key to longevity. Dyson emphasizes that this process will not be a matter of minutes - perhaps in two hundred years we will finally figure out how to make trees grow in space.
Dyson's idea isn't that outlandish. NASA's Institute for Advanced Concepts is an entire department dedicated to solving the problems of the future, and among them is the task of growing sustainable plants on the surface of Mars. Even greenhouse plants on Mars will grow in extreme conditions, and scientists are trying different options to try to combine plants with extremophiles, tiny microscopic organisms that survive in some of the harshest conditions on Earth. From high-altitude tomatoes that have a built-in resistance to ultraviolet light, to bacteria that survive in the coldest, hottest and deepest corners of the globe, we may one day piece together a Martian garden. All that remains is to figure out how to put all these bricks together.
Local resource recycling
Living off the ground may be a new trend on Earth, but when it comes to month-long missions in space, it becomes necessary. Currently, NASA is engaged, among other things, in studying the issue of local resource utilization (ISRU). There is only so much space on a spaceship, and creating systems to utilize materials found in space and on other planets will be necessary for any long-term colonization or travel, especially when the destination is a place where it will be very difficult to deliver cargo of supplies, fuel, food And so on. The first attempts to demonstrate the possibilities of using local resources were made on the slopes of Hawaiian volcanoes and during polar missions. The list of tasks includes such items as extracting fuel components from ashes and other naturally accessible terrain.
In August 2014, NASA made a powerful announcement by revealing new toys that would go to Mars with the next rover, launching in 2020. Among the tools in the new rover's arsenal is MOXIE, an experiment for local resource utilization in the form of Martian oxygen. MOXIE will take Mars' unbreathable atmosphere (96% carbon dioxide) and split it into oxygen and carbon monoxide. The device will be able to produce 22 grams of oxygen for every hour of operation. NASA also hopes that MOXIE will be able to demonstrate something else - continuous operation without loss of productivity or efficiency. Not only could MOXIE be an important step toward long-term extraterrestrial missions, but it could also pave the way for many potential converters of harmful gases into useful ones.
2suit
Reproduction in space can become problematic on a variety of levels, especially in microgravity. In 2009, Japanese experiments on mouse embryos showed that even if fertilization occurs in non-zero gravity conditions, embryos that develop outside the normal gravity of the Earth (or its equivalent) do not develop normally. When cells must divide and perform specialized activities, problems arise. This does not mean that fertilization does not occur: mouse embryos conceived in space and implanted into female mice on Earth grew successfully and were born without problems.
This also raises another question: How exactly does baby production work in microgravity? The laws of physics, especially the fact that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, make its mechanics a little ridiculous. Vanna Bonta, writer, actress and inventor, decided to take this issue seriously.
And she created 2suit: a suit in which two people can hide and start making babies. They even checked him. In 2008, 2suit was tested on the so-called Vomit Comet (an airplane that makes sharp turns and creates minute-long conditions of weightlessness). While Bonta suggests that honeymoons in space could become a reality thanks to her invention, the suit also has more practical uses, like conserving body heat in an emergency.
Project Longshot
Project Longshot was compiled by a team from the US Naval Academy and NASA as part of a joint effort in the late 1980s. The ultimate goal of the plan was to launch something at the turn of the 21st century, namely an unmanned probe that would travel to Alpha Centauri. It would take him 100 years to achieve his goal. But before it can be launched, it will need some key components that also need to be developed.
In addition to communications lasers, long-life fission reactors, and inertial laser fusion rocket propulsion, there were other elements. The probe had to be given independent thinking and functions, since it would be virtually impossible to communicate across interstellar distances fast enough for the information to remain relevant once it reached the receiving point. Everything also had to be incredibly durable, since the probe would take 100 years to reach its destination.
Longshot was going to be sent to Alpha Centauri with various tasks. Basically, he had to collect astronomical data that would allow accurate calculations of distances to billions, if not trillions, of other stars. But if the nuclear reactor powering the craft runs out, the mission will also stop. Longshot was a very ambitious plan that never got off the ground.
But this does not mean that the idea died in its infancy. In 2013, the Longshot II project literally got off the ground in the form of the student project Icarus Interstellar. There have been decades of technological advancements since the original Longshot program that can be applied to the new version, and the program as a whole has received an overhaul. Fuel costs were reviewed, mission duration was cut in half and the entire Longshot design was revised from head to toe.
The final project will be an interesting indicator of how an unsolvable problem changes with the addition of new technologies and information. The laws of physics remain the same, but 25 years later, Longshot has the opportunity to find a second wind and show us what the future of interstellar travel should be like.
Based on materials from listverse.com
Generations of people looking at distant stars could only wonder about the existence of planets there and the conditions for the life they knew. Over the past 25 years, there has been a revolution in the search for planets; thousands of them are already known, their presence has been confirmed, and among them there are even potentially habitable worlds similar to Earth. But can we get there? A reader asks:
Do you think interstellar flights are possible (for any civilization). For me, all possible solutions are one-way tickets.
I definitely think interstellar travel is possible. But there are also limitations, depending on the method we choose. 
Shuttle main engine during test launch, 1981
1) Conventional technologies.
Using today's advances, we could theoretically reach another star. Build a ship large enough to support the life of a mini-civilization - a ship of generations - reach speeds of tens or hundreds of km/s, grow your own food and recycle water. An alternative is to develop cryogenic freeze-thaw technology, by which people, plants and other living beings can be transported in a suspended state and revived upon arrival.
TV series “Lost In Space”, 1965-1968
Ordinary problems like collisions with interplanetary and interstellar objects, asteroids or planets are actually practically unimportant. Although there are many such objects, their density is so low that even stellar collisions are extremely rare, even on scales of millions of years. Such a journey would take hundreds of thousands of years to reach the nearest star system, and appears feasible.
But this is truly a one-way ticket, and the solution is unsatisfactory.
Home fusion reactor, www.tidbit77.blogspot.com
2) Future technologies based on known physics.
If we want to consider other technical possibilities, we will find better ways. For example:Fuel improvement. Instead of chemical rockets, which convert 0.001% of mass into energy used for acceleration, you can use nuclear fuel (with an efficiency of 1%), or even antimatter fuel, with an efficiency of 100%.
Improved traction. If large amounts of matter and antimatter could be carried on board as fuel, it would be possible to continue accelerating the journey. Since humans can withstand, and even prefer, thrust similar to gravity on Earth, we can steer the ship towards our target, start the engines at 9.8 m/s 2 , and halfway turn the engines around and start them again, reducing the speed until arrival.
Temporary improvements. Such movement will bring us closer to the speed of light in just a few years of acceleration; we will be able to fly to almost any star in just 20-40 years of travel.
It would be cool and wouldn't require building a generation ship. Of course, the ship needs to survive traveling at very high speeds through the interstellar medium, but a sufficiently strong magnetic field and a map of gas clouds that must be avoided will help us with this. And if we also master cryo-freezing technology, we won’t even need to take resources with us other than seeds for planting and eggs for growing.
Bussard interstellar ramjet
What if we wanted to expand the possibilities of humanity: something like what they show in Star Trek?
Bohmian trajectories for an electron passing through two slits
3) Speculative technologies.
Can we build a transporter? Is a space deformation engine possible? What about subspace communications? So far, these are all dream technologies based on modern theoretical physics, but the possibility of their existence in our Universe has not yet been determined.In theory, a transporter can use quantum entanglement to transport any quantum system from one point to another, as long as the system's wave function has a non-zero probability of being somewhere else. But it is not yet known whether a macroscopic system can have this property.
The space warp engine and instant communication rely on the curvature of space-time and the ability to send a signal or matter through that space without distortion or destruction. In principle, for general relativity it is possible to find a solution in which this happens. However, it is unclear whether this can be achieved in our Universe to:
You did not require energy comparable to that stored in the entire Sun;
Tidal forces wouldn't destroy the matter you're trying to send through curved space;
Do not destroy matter by creating curved space and straightening it;
In general, it was possible to connect two very distant points in space.
Mathematical graph of a Schwarzschild black hole
For now, as unpleasant as it may sound, it is best for us to focus on making the one-way journey possible. It's better to fly somewhere than just sit and wait for new technology to appear, if it is even possible in our Universe. But don’t close yourself off to new ideas - because what seems unlikely today can lead to the fulfillment of our interstellar dream. Demand physical precision and be skeptical of extraordinary claims, but don't close yourself off to the possibilities. Our greatest journey into the Universe is sure to happen.