
Aerospace America: A Survey of Possible Interstellar Propulsion Methods [pdf] - Osiris30
http://www.aerospaceamerica.org/Documents/Aerospace_America_PDFs_2016/April2016/Feature1_Proxima_AA_April2016.pdf
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superkuh
An interesting partial survey but I'm confused. If it's going to include
future tech like anti-matter and fusion I'm really surprised they'd leave out
currently feasible propulsion systems like electrostatic sails or fission
fragment rocket engines.

And ultra dense deuterium? That's not even verified peer-reviewed science.
That's fringe.

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blisterpeanuts
2099? Maybe my daughter (b. 2004) will live to see it; in fact there's every
reason to believe she and her cohort will live well into the 22nd Century,
barring accidents, apocalyptic wars, terrorism, etc.

I would hope they could get from 20% of light speed to 40%, and get one of
those Coke cans to A. Centauri twice as fast, so more of us will live to see
it.

If you can send one such object, you can send a swarm of hundreds, and when
they get there, those that survive will be able to do some interesting imaging
and data gathering work for those eagerly waiting back home.

Of course, by 2100 it's possible that vastly superior propulsion techniques
(or the highly desirable wormhole technique described in the article) will
have been developed that will blow right past these primitive tin cans.

But you have to crawl before you can walk, and walk before you can run. The
bottom line here is that humanity, or at least some significant and affluent
chunk of it, needs to _want_ to do this badly enough to commit the resources.
If not Euro-U.S.-Japan, perhaps eventually China or India.

Or our robotic successors....

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IndianAstronaut
>If not Euro-U.S.-Japan, perhaps eventually China or India.

Competition seems to be one of the main drivers of space exploration.

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al2o3cr
Seems like the problem the "Coke Can" launch vehicle would have would be
debris in the path - sure, there's only a couple dozen atoms per cubic meter
out there, but when those atoms are coming straight at you at 10km per
_second_...

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bemmu
Also it would be a shame to whiz by your destination at 20% speed of light
without being able to stop and look at the planets.

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cowardlydragon
Antimatter catalyzed/enhanced fission?

