Exploring Spacecraft Propulsion: From Rockets to FTL

There are extreme distances that someone must transverse in their effort to get from one planet to another. This will be true regardless if that planet is in the same system or some other system. Consider this. In the Sol System’s Asteroid Field, the average distance between the asteroids will be a gap of millions of kilometers. The distances between the planets can make this look tiny. That is only within this one solar system. When considering the distances between stars, the distance will be measured in terms of light-years. Using conventional rocketry, humans have obtained a top speed of 39,937.7 km/h (24,816.1 mph) by the Apollo 10 crew. At this speed, it will need millennia to reach our nearest star, Proxima Centauri.

Doing Tradition?

One can use the conventional rocket engines. They have the advantage of being well-tested and durable. Using these rockets, the ship will be capable of executing a variety of maneuvers. These are akin to what is seen in the scifi programs. The complication will be that the rocket will need to be larger to make larger changes. Small changes can be amplified over time. Yet they will not lead to those wild moves expected from shows and movies. They will be simple to construct and keep. The greatest problem with them will be that they need huge amounts of fuel even for short trips. For example, the Apollo 10 rocket had a height of 122 meters and diameter of 10 meters. Only the last 5 meters was devoted to where the people would work. All the rest was dedicated to the fuel. As the human occupied size increases, the space required for fuel will need to increase in similar proportion. This means that the real size of vehicles seen in most scifi programs would need to be many times greater. This is mostly for the fuel that will be consumed in at most a matter of days.

Doing those Ions?

Another drive system that is highly tested today is the ion drive. This drive will work for making subtle alterations that occur over a long period. When it comes to more sudden changes, other drives would work better. Mostly, these drives will be used by probes and other craft. They will be sent on long, usually years-long missions. These missions are not expected to have many or any sudden changes in speed, course, or anything else. Thinking of that colony ship? Use the ion drive.

Make it Nuclear!

A working theoretical drive that has received some testing is the nuclear drive. The principle here is that the ship drops a nuclear bomb. Several seconds later, it explodes, propelling the ship at tremendous speeds. This sounds like it would be dangerous since one is using the most destructive weapon ever created. In reality, the time between the bomb being dropped and its explosion will lessen any harmful radiation created. Additionally, the pusher plate will be attached to the ship and placed between the bomb and the ship. Another important consideration is that space itself holds significantly more radiation per cubic meter than the bomb will produce. Actual testing of this drive has gotten it up to 0.1c (29,979245.8 m/s), where c is equal to light speed. Theory states that this drive actually reach a peak of 0.5c (149,896,229 m/s).

Ride the Light

Something that is between theoretical and tested is some form of light drive. Some will claim this is the best way since they offload the fuel to this other place. The way it works is some form of classic sail where the “wind” is made of the solar wind. Before claiming this only works close to the star, consider this: all forms of light will have this effect. It does not matter if the light is created naturally or artificially. If there is a strong enough generator, then that light will create the same pushing. This force is equivalent to the push created by solar-generated light.

Need, Need Fer Speed

Many different drives claim they can accelerate the craft to the speed of light. They will work in one of two ways. The first will be fantastical where the engine claim to manage to actually reach lightspeed without going past. These drives will often either skim or go entirely into some alternate reality where things are compressed. The other possibility would be more realistic. The drive comes close to lightspeed, say 99.9%, and then physics will not allow any more. Generally, these drives keep the ship in reality but uses some powerful energy that will allow such extreme speed.

Need it Today!

Even considering how fast light travels, getting from Earth to Proxima Centauri will take an immense amount of time. This is true even when traveling at light speed. With humans being the impatient creatures they are, the faster that something can be done the better. Scifi has developed two primary techniques for faster-than-light (FTL) travel. The first is warp speed. Using warp speed, the drive compresses space ahead then expands it back to normal behind. This is the method used primarily in Star Trek. While theorists claim warp has a limit of 10x lightspeed, there is strong disagreement. I have heard many claim that it has no real limit. The other primary FTL is hyperspace. In this, the drive will shunt the ship into some alternate reality that has compressed distance when compared to reality. The actual travel time will depend upon how compressed hyperspace is to reality. Both Star Wars and Babylon 5 used hyperspace as their FTL. One can ask about either wormholes or black holes. Both will work for FTL, but I don’t them since they need static entry and exit points. They also need immense energies to generate, assuming they can be. Wormholes are unstable and temporary, often leading to some random point every time they open. Black holes will be more permanent, but they will always be one-way and destroy everything that enters. For those reasons, they make poor FTL drives.

Humans are constantly attempting to find ways to travel both off-planet and faster. The first of these is rocketry. That is a powerful and effective drive that has been used for decades and is highly reliable. Then came the ion drive. It grants more consistent power over a longer time. Using nuclear bombs has proven to grant huge power to push the vehicle up to extreme speed. Those speeds though have not proven to be high enough for humanity. We want to have what is seen in Star Trek, Star Wars, Babylon 5, Firefly, FarScape among many others. That involves humans, with possible aliens, beings capable of travel from one planet and star to another at will. Using such FTL devices as the hyperspace and warp drive, they can obtain this. They allow the players to generate exciting and intense stories to tell over several years.

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@Datassette_User maybe you can shed some light on that topic?