|
Project Valkyrie
The Valkyrie is a theoretical spacecraft designed by Charles Pellegrino and Jim Powell (a physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory). The Valkyrie is theoretically able to accelerate to 92% the speed of light and decelerate afterward, carrying a small human crew to another star system. Design The Valkyrie's high performance is attributable to its innovative design. Instead of a solid spacecraft with a rocket at the back, Valkyrie is built more like a cable car train, with the crew quarters, fuel tanks, radiation shielding, and other vital components being pulled between front and aft engines on long tethers. This greatly reduces the mass of the ship, because it no longer requires heavy structural members and radiation shielding. This is a considerable advantage because in a rocket every extra kilogram of payload (dry mass) will require a corresponding extra amount of propellant or fuel. The Valkyrie would have a crew module trailing 10 kilometers behind the engine. A small 20- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spacecraft
A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, planetary exploration, and transportation of humans and cargo. All spacecraft except single-stage-to-orbit vehicles cannot get into space on their own, and require a launch vehicle (carrier rocket). On a sub-orbital spaceflight, a space vehicle enters space and then returns to the surface without having gained sufficient energy or velocity to make a full Earth orbit. For orbital spaceflights, spacecraft enter closed orbits around the Earth or around other celestial bodies. Spacecraft used for human spaceflight carry people on board as crew or passengers from start or on orbit (space stations) only, whereas those used for robotic space missions operate either autonomously or telerobotically. Robotic spacecraft used to support scientific re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Pellegrino
Charles R. Pellegrino (born 1953) is an American writer, the author of several books related to science and archaeology, including ''Return to Sodom and Gomorrah'', ''Ghosts of the Titanic'', ''Unearthing Atlantis'', and ''Ghosts of Vesuvius.'' Pellegrino falsely claimed to have earned a PhD, and errors in his book ''The Last Train from Hiroshima'' (2010) prompted its publisher to withdraw it within a few months of publication. Early life During the mid-1970s, Pellegrino earned bachelor's and master's degrees at Long Island University. Controversies Ghosts of the Titantic In a scathing review of ''Ghosts of the Titantic'' (2000) in ''The New York Times'', Michael Parfit wrote: "If Charles Pellegrino weren't so shamelessly self-promoting, it might be O.K. to let this book drift into oblivion past the icebergs that it ought to hit. But he quotes himself in epigraphs, invents friendships with famous people and claims scientific authority for a work that flouts most principles of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brookhaven National Laboratory
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Upton, Long Island, and was formally established in 1947 at the site of Camp Upton, a former U.S. Army base and Japanese internment camp. Its name stems from its location within the Town of Brookhaven, approximately 60 miles east of New York City. It is managed by Stony Brook University and Battelle Memorial Institute. Research at BNL includes nuclear and high energy physics, energy science and technology, environmental and bioscience, nanoscience, and national security. The 5,300 acre campus contains several large research facilities, including the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and National Synchrotron Light Source II. Seven Nobel Prizes have been awarded for work conducted at Brookhaven Lab. Overview BNL is staffed by approximately 2,750 scientists, engineers, technicians, and support personnel, and hosts 4,000 guest investigators every year. The laboratory has ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cable Car (railway)
A cable car (usually known as a cable tram outside North America) is a type of cable railway used for Public transport, mass transit in which rail cars are hauled by a continuously moving Wire rope, cable running at a constant speed. Individual cars stop and start by releasing and gripping this cable as required. Cable cars are distinct from funiculars, where the cars are permanently attached to the cable. History The first cable-operated railway, employing a moving rope that could be picked up or released by a grip on the cars was the Fawdon Wagonway in 1826, a colliery railway line. The London and Blackwall Railway, which opened for passengers in east London, England, in 1840 used such a system. The rope available at the time proved too susceptible to wear and the system was abandoned in favour of steam locomotives after eight years. In America, the first cable car installation in operation probably was the IRT Ninth Avenue Line, West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antimatter
In modern physics, antimatter is defined as matter composed of the antiparticles (or "partners") of the corresponding particles in "ordinary" matter. Antimatter occurs in natural processes like cosmic ray collisions and some types of radioactive decay, but only a tiny fraction of these have successfully been bound together in experiments to form antiatoms. Minuscule numbers of antiparticles can be generated at particle accelerators; however, total artificial production has been only a few nanograms. No macroscopic amount of antimatter has ever been assembled due to the extreme cost and difficulty of production and handling. Theoretically, a particle and its antiparticle (for example, a proton and an antiproton) have the same mass, but opposite electric charge, and other differences in quantum numbers. A collision between any particle and its anti-particle partner leads to their mutual annihilation, giving rise to various proportions of intense photons (gamma rays), neutrin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liquid Droplet Radiator
The liquid droplet radiator (LDR) or previously termed liquid droplet stream radiator is a proposed lightweight radiator for the dissipation of waste heat generated by power plants, propulsion or spacecraft systems in space. Background An advanced or future space mission must have a power source or propulsion that will require the rejection of waste heat. Disposing large quantities of waste heat must be considered in order to realize a large-space structure (LSS) that handle high power such as a nuclear reactor or a space solar power satellite (SPS). Such space systems require advanced high-temperature thermal control systems. Liquid metal heat pipes with conventional radiators are considered ideally suited for such applications. However, the required radiator surface area is huge, hence, the system mass is very large. The liquid droplet radiator (LDR) has an advantage in terms of the rejected heat power-weight ratio. The results of the studies indicate that for rejection te ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solar Panel
A solar cell panel, solar electric panel, photo-voltaic (PV) module, PV panel or solar panel is an assembly of photovoltaic solar cells mounted in a (usually rectangular) frame, and a neatly organised collection of PV panels is called a photovoltaic system or solar array. Solar panels capture sunlight as a source of radiant energy, which is converted into electric energy in the form of direct current (DC) electricity. Arrays of a photovoltaic system can be used to generate solar electricity that supplies electrical equipment directly, or grid-connected photovoltaic system, feeds power back into an alternate current (AC) electric grid, grid via an solar inverter, inverter system. History In 1839, the ability of some materials to create an electrical charge from light exposure was first observed by the French physicist Edmond Becquerel. Though these initial solar panels were too inefficient for even simple electric devices, they were used as an instrument to measure light. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fusion Reactor
Fusion power is a proposed form of power generation that would generate electricity by using heat from nuclear fusion reactions. In a fusion process, two lighter atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus, while releasing energy. Devices designed to harness this energy are known as fusion reactors. Research into fusion reactors began in the 1940s, but as of 2022, only one design, an inertial confinement laser-driven fusion machine at the US National Ignition Facility, has conclusively produced a positive fusion energy gain factor, i.e. more power output than input. Fusion processes require fuel and a confined environment with sufficient temperature, pressure, and confinement time to create a plasma in which fusion can occur. The combination of these figures that results in a power-producing system is known as the Lawson criterion. In stars, the most common fuel is hydrogen, and gravity provides extremely long confinement times that reach the conditions needed for fusion energ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Project Daedalus
Project Daedalus (named after Daedalus, the Greek mythological designer who crafted wings for human flight) was a study conducted between 1973 and 1978 by the British Interplanetary Society to design a plausible uncrewed interstellar probe.Project Daedalus Study Group: A. Bond et al., ''Project Daedalus – The Final Report on the BIS Starship Study'', JBIS Interstellar Studies, Supplement 1978 Intended mainly as a scientific probe, the design criteria specified that the spacecraft had to use existing or near-future technology and had to be able to reach its destination within a human lifetime. Alan Bond led a team of scientists and engineers who proposed using a fusion rocket to reach Barnard's Star 5.9 light years away. The trip was estimated to take 50 years, but the design was required to be flexible enough that it could be sent to any other target star. Concept Daedalus would be constructed in Earth orbit and have an initial mass of 54,000 tonnes including 50,000 tonnes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Project Orion (nuclear Propulsion)
Project Orion was a study conducted between the 1950s and 1960s by the United States Air Force, DARPA, and NASA for the purpose of identifying the efficacy of a starship directly propelled by a series of explosions of atomic bombs behind the craft—nuclear pulse propulsion. Early versions of this vehicle were proposed to take off from the ground; later versions were presented for use only in space. Six non-nuclear tests were conducted using models. The project was eventually abandoned for multiple reasons, including the Partial Test Ban Treaty, which banned nuclear explosions in space, and concerns over nuclear fallout. The idea of rocket propulsion by combustion of explosive substance was first proposed by Russian explosives expert Nikolai Kibalchich in 1881, and in 1891 similar ideas were developed independently by German engineer Hermann Ganswindt. Robert A. Heinlein mentions powering spaceships with nuclear bombs in his 1940 short story "Blowups Happen". Real life propos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Avatar (2009 Film)
''Avatar'' (also marketed as ''James Cameron's Avatar'') is a 2009 epic science fiction film directed, written, co-produced and co-edited by James Cameron, and starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, and Sigourney Weaver. It is set in the mid-22nd century when humans are colonizing Pandora, a lush habitable moon of a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri star system, in order to mine the valuable mineral unobtanium. The expansion of the mining colony threatens the continued existence of a local tribe of Na'vi – a humanoid species indigenous to Pandora. The title of the film refers to a genetically engineered Na'vi body operated from the brain of a remotely located human that is used to interact with the natives of Pandora. Development of ''Avatar'' began in 1994, when James Cameron wrote an 80-page treatment for the film. Filming was supposed to take place after the completion of Cameron's 1997 film ''Titanic'', for a planned release ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Project Prometheus
Project Prometheus (also known as Project Promethian) was established in 2003 by NASA to develop nuclear-powered systems for long-duration space missions. This was NASA's first serious foray into nuclear spacecraft propulsion since the cancellation of the SNTP project in 1995. The project was planned to design, develop, and fly multiple deep space missions to the outer planets. The project was cancelled in 2005, due to other demands on NASA's budget. Its budget shrank from $252.6 million in 2005 to only $100 million in 2006, $90 million of which was for closeout costs on cancelled contracts. Namesake Originally named the "Nuclear Systems Initiative", Project Prometheus was named for the wisest of the Titans in Greek mythology who gave the gift of fire to humanity. NASA said the name ''Prometheus'' indicates its hopes of establishing a new tool for understanding nature and expanding capabilities for the exploration of the Solar System. Motivations Due to their distance from the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.svg "Click for more on -> Liquid Droplet Radiator")
