Space Travel NASA scientists think they might have figured out how to get to Mars in 45 days. I always welcome more speed for space travel. They want to use a nuclear rocket, but not just use a ordinary nuclear powered rocket which while much faster than a chemical one, would still take about 100 days to reach Mars. There is a new nuclear concept on the drawing boards of NASA, and it is a bimodal nuclear system using a wave rotor topping cycle which reduces the time to get to Mars by more than half. It is said this will allow us to travel to Mars in 45 days. That is far better than the 6 to 9 months it would normally take. This increased does a lot for us besides shortening the journey. It cuts down on the number of supplies needed for the flight. It also cuts down on any radiation the crew might be exposed to. One of the things no one talks about very much is the effect on humans when they are cooped up together for long periods of time. It is a lot easier to bear 45 days than 274 days in a confined space. While I would like to see more speed, this is only the first step. It will certainly be worth it to get to the Red planet. Mars has been mystifying the imaginations of humans for thousands of years. When the ancients saw the red glow in the sky, they were probably scared and that is why they equated the planet with the god of war. NASA has been accepting all sorts of proposals for what they call their Phase 1 Plan. Some small grants were also given out. For example, the idea on how to increase the speed of our space travel was suggested by Professor Ryan Gosse. He received a $12,500 grant. NASA has been accepting suggestions not only on how to speed up a spacecraft, but on other things connected to different areas of technology where all or some of these suggestions could be applied. It seems we could have had nuclear propulsion perfected a lot earlier, but has we were trying to develop it, the funding was cut back and at the same time the Apollo program was cancelled. I believe the big question is why? It seems to me it might have been cut, because we had it already in our secret space program or found something better. I have no way of proving this however. I have always been suspicious of why we cancelled Apollo and never bought into the reason nobody was interested in the moon and flights there anymore. One of the things I find really strange is the wave rotator topping cycle would be provided by a device which is similar to one used in a cars internal combustion engine. In cars it collects the pressure waves by reactions to compress the intake air. This was truly a unique idea for the nuclear rocket. It is almost like attaching a supercharger to the rocket. When we think about it, the average time to Mars now is said to be about 7.5 months. This means the trip using the new system would be about 4.73 times faster than a chemical rocket. I think one of the reasons we are so intent on getting to Mars is many people think there might have been an ancient civilization there and some even believe remnants might still exist. It does seem, and rumors abound, proof of past intelligent life on Mars was found and kept secret. It has seemed to me, there were times when NASA tried to cover up objects in photos taken of Mars and I am certainly not the only person who felt this way. Maybe it is time to reexamine all our technological advancements to see if anything from them can be used in space travel. Using a part which is similar to a car part has made me think there could be other things which may not be appropriate to increasing speed for spacecraft, but might be useful in other ways for making our flights better. Electronics’ technology is increasing in leaps and bounds. We know a new way to navigate on earth has been invented which needs no satellites to locate your position on earth. Could this also be useful for space navigation? I haven’t seen an answer to this question yet, but there could be one. It is said the system is resistant to jamming. The system is said to be far more advanced than what we have now. The system we have now is dependent on the time it takes a signal to reach you and how far apart the satellites are. This system uses triangulation to locate your position. All we know about the new system is it is completely different and there are a lot of different elements to it, like self-calibrating gyroscopes, accelerometers, clocks, pulsed laser enabled atomic clocks, cold atom interferometry and microwave sources. If this system could work for space travel, it could solve a lot of our positioning problems which multiply once we get out of the solar system. Once manned space travel starts, things will change. One of the reasons is we will become colonists, just like our ancestors did. This changed our world, and so will it change again. There will come a point where Mars will become a beautiful earth like planet due to terraforming. Some people will go there to start a new life, and others to work there. Archaeologists will descend on the planet looking for signs of prior civilizations and we will eventually need an organization to replace the U.N. or the U.N. will have to probably change its name to United Planets. Going further down the road, earth might have to unite, because it is almost inevitable we will meet extraterrestrials. Hopefully, we will get along, but before that happens we have to solve our earthly problems. People will look back at us today and if we manage to survive wars and such, they may classify today as the beginning of the age of manned space travel. Yes, going to the moon could also be considered the start, but I believe we are going to make manned flight a regular occurrence and soon we will be traveling to planets, moons, asteroids and other bodies. Once that happens there will be no stopping the human race. If our past advances in the last hundred years are any indication, we are going to make some incredible discoveries in the next hundred and these discoveries may allow us to even go to other solar systems and eventually other galaxies.
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