Interstellar Travel: Propulsion, Life Support, Communications, and the Long Journey addresses the technical challenges that must be overcome to make such journeys possible. Leading experts in the fields of space propulsion, power, communication, navigation, crew selection, safety and health provide detailed information about state-of-the-art technologies and approaches for each challenge, along with possible methods based on real science and engineering. This book offers in-depth, up-to-date and realistic technical and scientific considerations in the pursuit of interstellar travel and will be an essential reference for scientists, engineers, researchers and academics working on, or interested in, space development and space technologies. With a renewed interest in space exploration and development evidenced by the rise of the commercial space sector and various governments now planning to send humans back to the moon and to Mars, there is also growing interest in taking the next steps beyond the solar system and to the ultimate destination – planets circling other stars. With the rapid growth in the number of known exoplanets, people are now asking how we might make journeys to visit them.
Author(s): Les Johnson (editor), Kenneth Roy (editor)
Edition: 1
Publisher: Elsevier
Year: 2024
Language: English
Pages: 440
Contents
Contributors
Introduction
1 Propulsion options • Michael R. LaPointe
2 Electrical power options for interstellar spacecraft • Gary L. Bennett
3 Crew health—Psychological, biological, and medical issues and the need for a systems approach • Mark Shelhamer and Jennifer Fogarty
4 Interstellar life support • Grant Allan Anderson
5 Timing relationships and resulting communications challenges in relativistic travel • David G. Messerschmitt, Ian Morrison, Thomas Mozdzen, and Philip Lubin
6 Prospects for human hibernation • John Bradford
7 Ship governance and culture • James E. Dunstan
8 Spare parts and additive manufacturing • Simon C. Patan e and Michael P. Snyder
9 Optimal crew size at both departure and arrival • Andreas M. Hein, Fr ed eric Marin, and Cameron M. Smith
10 Artificial intelligence: Useful crewman, terrible master, benign leader, or the actual payload, and do weget to choose? • Edward Chow
11 Maintaining communication with Earth during an interstellar flyby mission • David G. Messerschmitt, Philip Lubin, and Ian Morrison
Appendix
Index