Flying Through the Basics of Space Tech
The Basics: Space Technology
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Welcome back to the second article in the article series, The Basics. The Basics is a series of articles where you can learn the basics of an up-and-coming technology field. Last week I talked about AI (https://meerasinghal.medium.com/the-basics-ai-89cf4d4886bb ), highlighting my dear friend Aditya Mittal. This week, I'll be discussing Space Technology! Are you ready for the adventure of a lifetime? Well, I hope you are because the blast of is in 3…2…1… get ready to learn!
Is Space Worth it?
Coming from the author of this article, of course, it is worth it! But I will let all of the inventions that have come from space do the talking for me. It provides quite a few tools and common household items like weather satellites, GPS, led lights, water purification, home insulation, wireless heating, freeze-dried food, smoke detectors, computer mouses- do I really have to go on? As you can see, the number of space technologies already created have impacted billions of people's lives and will continue to impact so many more! Now that you understand why space tech is so amazing, let's get into different technologies!
Chemical Rockets
Chemical rockets have four major systems. First, there is the structural system. The structural system is like the frame of the rocket. This frame includes the body, nose cone, and fins of the rocket. The second portion is the propulsion systems. As you can see by the name of this system, this portion powers the rocket. Nevertheless, the propulsion system includes the engine, fuel, and oxidizer. The third major system of a chemical rocket is the payload system. The payload system essentially includes the spacecraft itself, satellites to help guide it, and finally human beings! The fourth and final system is the guidance system which simply includes radars and computers.
When launching a chemical rocket, there are a couple of major stages to consider. First, they must power up the thrust. To successfully mark off this stage, the thrust’s power must be stronger than its own weight. Once that stage is complete, the rocket moves on the powered ascent. In the powered ascent stage, the weight of the rocket continues to change, so the thrust will be adjusting then as well. The third is the staging process. This is my favorite and hardest portion of this process. This is when the rocket breaks into multiple pieces shedding extra weight at different stages of the process. Finally, we have the cut-off. During the cutoff, the engine cuts off, and the rocket design changes depending on what they are.
Ion Thrusters
Chemical rockets are only 35% efficient, whereas ion thrusters are 90 % efficient. Ion thrusters can also eject at 90 km/s which allows them to approach higher speeds. This often begs the question, why do we just use ion thrusters instead of chemical rockets? Well before I get to that, let's go over how an Ion thruster works.
Ion thrusters are electrical propulsion systems that work by ejecting positive Ions Since Ion thrusters work by using solar panels, they can run out of “fuel” slower and can go for much longer distances at a time. NASA’s new project, X3, is an Ion thruster rocket that can, theoretically, be able to speed up to 500,000 miles!
Back to my question, why don’t we just use Ion thrusters instead of chemical rockets? The problem with Ion thrusters is that they do not have as many thrusters (initially of course), as a classic rocket. NASA is working hard every day to avoid this problem with X3. The acceleration is slow, but overall, they are so much faster.
Nuclear Propulsion
Nuclear propulsion works by using a nuclear reactor to propel hydrogen. We can get to 10% of the speed of light! Unfortunately, it is so much harder to land rockets fueled by nuclear propulsion due to its incredible speed!
To get to mars, chemical propulsion simply is not enough. Its fuel and design are not sustainable enough to fly humans (or even land there). Thankfully, NASA came up with the notion of nuclear propulsion which fills in all the gaps in chemical propulsion.
Other benefits of nuclear propulsion include the fact that nuclear fuel is much lighter than chemical fuel. This makes it so that a lot more nuclear fuel can fit in a tank, accelerating its chances to go farther. Alongside its increased speed and gas tank capacity, nuclear propulsion is cleaner for the environment!
Solar Sails
Solar sails offer practical solutions to problems outside space travel, such as monitoring the sun for solar weather that can affect our satellites and communication systems. Solar sails were also the first space technology that did not require gas or fuel (causing it to be the first eco-friendly space technology!). This technology helped more on the earth side than the exploration portion of it!
Solar sails work by taking advantage of the fact that light has momentum and no mass; it reflects off a big “sail” and propels the rocket forward. An initial push from the sun is enough to propel the rocket out of the solar system. Instead of using solar sails, we could also potentially use Laser Sails, which work using the same concept but instead of being propelled by the sun, they are propelled by a laser back on earth.
Space Elevators
In the space elevator's original design, it had a ground station, a carriage, a tether, and a geostationary platform. Even though this seemed like a novel idea and creation, there were quite a few challenges besides the cost. To make this a reality would revolutionize every bit of our lives as we know it! However, we still must overcome the challenges listed below…
These challenges include:
- Weight collapse. Ensuring that the space elevator does not fall under its own weight is a trouble that has been haunting space engineers for almost a decade now! Ever since this novel idea came out, this has been one of the greatest problems to arise.
- Cost. To pay off the incredible debt that we would have gained from the construction of the space elevator, we would have to pay 20,000 dollars to put a kilo into space. If we do the math, to put the average human into space, it will cost 1.3 million dollars!
- Tether. Forget all those other problems for a moment, we do not even have a tether! No material on earth is strong enough to hold the space station down. The only material remotely close is diamond- and we obviously do not have enough diamonds.
3D Printing Rockets
For the past 60 years, NASA, SpaceX, and other big companies have been paying through their nose to build and afford rocket parts. However, a new company called Relativity has been playing around with building rockets in space! Building in rockets in space is so much better because:
- Reliability. There are 100x fewer parts involved while building this rocket!
- Speed. There is a 10x faster production rate!
- Flexibility. There is no fixed tooling, only a simple supply chain!
- Optimization time. The quality and time are so much better and quicker!
For example, take the Electro rocket. This is completely made from 3D components (one of the first rockets ever to be made like this!). Its benefits include reduced weight, newer designs, and specialized printed parts!
Space Manufacturing
The microgravity experienced in space can unlock a whole new method of manufacturing that is much more efficient and for some industries, more practical (e.g., 3D Printing). The health industry has many applications in space. The elimination of gravity can help us perform more experiments and 3d print organs better. We can manufacture solar panels in space with 10,000x higher quality than those made on earth. The vastly different environment of space can allow us to discover new materials and help us develop already existing materials. The main barrier for space manufacturing is funding and distance. People like investing in things that are guaranteed.
Antimatter
Everything in the world is made from matter. Matter itself is made from electrons and other rare particles like means, tauons, and neutrinos. Remember that for every particle there is an equal and opposite particle reaction.
We need to have better methods of space travel if we wish to travel beyond our solar system and anti-matter propulsion is one great potential method. Antimatter rockets are big moonshot ideas (literally) but if realized one day, it could take us beyond our solar system much more efficiently. The problem with using antimatter for fuel is that it is extremely expensive to make (trillions of dollars for 1 g) and it is hard to contain.
Antimatter is the same as regular matter, except all charges, are reversed. For example, an anti-electron (or “positron”) has the same characteristics + features as an electron, but the charge is positive. Antimatter-matter collisions are the most efficient energy conversions in the universe; when an electron and positron collide, they annihilate each other, and all their mass gets converted to energy (as per E = mc²).
Summary
- Is Space Worth it? Space is totally worth it! Without exploring space, our world would not be the same. You do not have to trust me, trust the inventions that were inspired from space! The list keeps on going…
- Chemical Rockets. The first type of rocket was created! The parts and process of the launch are fascinating, as you can see!
- Ion Thrusters. So much more efficient than chemical rockets! Through statistics and facts, you can see how the process of space tech is completely changed with ion thrusters!
- Nuclear Propulsion. Like Ion thrusters, nuclear propulsion has revolutionized chemical rockets!
- Solar Sails. Not for space travel, but instead to improve conditions on earth! Using solar technology, solar sails are changing the way of GPS and satellites!
- Space Elevators. A dystopian future for sure but it's interesting to think about its challenges!
- 3D Printing Rockets. Instead of spending fortunes on parts that are semi efficient, imagine spending a quarter of that price on better quality materials!
- Space Manufacturing. Performing surgery, building cars, cooking food? It can all be done in space now!
