What you see on the left is the surface of planet Venus. On its surface it features as much atmospheric pressure as you’d feel 910m underwater, an atmosphere 50 times thicker then air and consisting mainly of carbon dioxide, temperatures of around 460°C and a view of beautiful sulfuric acid clouds in the sky. Russia is planning to return to the Morning Star with the first (unmanned) mission since 1985, launching a “multi-front scientific assault on the mysteries of Venus with an orbiting spacecraft, multiple air balloons, a surface lander and – possibly – an innovative ‘wind-flyer’” [BBC News].
And since we’re talking space, something a little more far out: hyperdrive propulsion. The proposed spaceship drive uses particles flying at more than half the speed of light, which “deliver a specific impulse that is greater than [their] specific momentum”. Do I look like I could make this up? The MIT says so!
1 response so far ↓
Thorben // October 11, 2009 at 12:26 |
Did you read the paper? It is pretty hot stuff if you skim over the more formal parts:
“This new means of `antigravity’ propulsion addresses the major engineering challenges for near-light-speed space travel of providing enormous propulsion energy quickly without undue stresses on a spacecraft. By conventional propulsion, acceleration of a 1-ton payload to 0.9c requires imparting a kinetic energy equivalent to about 30 billion
tons of TNT. In the `antigravity beam’ of a speeding star or compact object, however, a payload would draw its energy for propulsion from the repulsive force of the much more massive driver. Moreover, since it would be moving along a geodesic, a payload would `float weightlessly’ in the `antigravity beam’ even as it was accelerated close to the speed of light.”
My eyes are clouding over right now and I will spend the rest of the day dreaming of exoplanets…