The Fuel of the Future?

CARSTEN COSTARD

Mikhail Eremets (left) and Ivan Troyan stand by the 

apparatus they used to create what they believe to be 

metallic hydrogen

Is metallic hydrogen the key to future space travel? Many believe this is so.  The fuel is very lightweight, powerful, and is theorized to be found on Jupiter and Saturn.  Water is the fuel's only after use by-product and the fuel creates up to five times the efficiency of liquid H₂/O₂, the fuel that the Space Shuttle previously used.  The only draw back to this source of power is that it has not yet been officially created.  In 2011 the men shown above, believe they created the metallic form of hydrogen by pressing the gas form between two diamond tips until the pressure reached 270 billion pascals (270 G Pa), or about 2 million times Earth's atmospheric pressure at sea level.  This amount of force caused the gas to turn into a metal for a brief moment, but this is still highly questioned.  If this form of hydrogen can be created on Earth it would be a huge advance for deep space travel because it would allow for deep space refueling at the giant gas planets.       

Finally Liftoff

The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket with NASA’s Orion spacecraft mounted atop, lifts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Space Launch Complex 37 at at 7:05 a.m. EST, Friday, Dec. 5, 2014, in Florida.

Image Credit: 

NASA/Bill Ingalls

The Orion crew module splashed down in the Pacific Ocean about 600 miles southwest of San Diego.

Image Credit: 

NASA TV

After much anticipation and a whole extra day of waiting Orion was finally launched into orbit around the Earth.  At 7:05 EST Friday December 5 Orion took off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on top of the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket.  The original launch date, December 4, was scrubbed after many difficulties with high winds, a boater, and a valve issue on the Delta IV Heavy Rocket.  The launch time was continuously pushed back until the two hour and thirty minute launch window starting at 7:05 was over.  Friday, however was a success all around.  Orion took off at the planned 7:05 and returned to Earth at 11:49.  The flight was seen as major success by all of the parties associated with the rocket and capsule.  The purpose of the mission was to test the separation systems, radiation shields, and return systems of the rocket.  By just watching the liftoff and return the separation and return systems worked like they were designed to.  The parachutes on the return of Orion slowed the module down from 20,000 mph to 20 mph before the rocket landed in the Pacific Ocean.  NASA is reporting good signs from the initial data they have received from the rocket so far for its radiation shields.  Overall this launch is another huge step for deep space exploration and for mankind.

Days Before Launch

United Launch Alliance engineers and technicians prepare to lift the Orion spacecraft for stacking atop the Delta IV Heavy rocket Nov. 12 at Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Image Credit: 

NASA/Radislav Sinyak

On November 11th NASA's Orion spacecraft moved to its launch area at Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.  It took one day and reached this area on November 12th and has been preparing for its December 4th launch date since.  In order to get Orion into space it will be connected to the United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket.  This rocket will take Orion 3600 miles above the surface of the Earth where the rocket will complete two full orbits of the Earth.  During these orbits the space module will travel through the high radiation zones of space in order to test its critical systems.  No humans will be on board this test flight, so every bit of information collected by the on-board computers will be important for future flights.  Orion will reenter Earth's atmosphere at 20,000 miles per hour and will land safely in the Pacific Ocean.  There the U.S. Navy will retrieve the spacecraft so that it can be reused.  The video below from NASA describes Orion's first flight in more detail.  

From the Stars We Came, So to the Stars We Must Go...

As stated from some of the greatest minds of all time, this video shows the vastness we as humans are apart of and call home.  The ideas stated by Lawrence Krauss, Neil Degrasse Tyson, and Carl Sagan are the reason every person should strive for the stars.  They all pose the question of what humankind can achieve from the stars and the knowledge we can gain.  The Final Frontier Project hopes to make the dream of reaching out towards the planets and stars a reality.  The motivation for this project comes from these men and the idea that mankind and every organism on Earth is part of a much grander home than we currently know.  We are all apart of the infinite universe that is made from the same materials that make us.

Take Off.....

When we look at the universe, Earth and everything that calls it home are but a minute fraction of everything that lies beyond our gravitational field.  Beyond our planet are other planets making up our solar system.  Beyond our solar system are other solar systems which make up galaxies.  Beyond these galaxies are more galaxies making up galaxy groups.  Beyond these galaxy groups there are more galaxy groups which make up super galaxy groups.  Beyond this point science does not yet know.  My senior project is the idea that this vast amount of space that surrounds everyone of us must be explored and the only way to accomplish this task is by building an extended-time spaceship.  What are the features, requirements, and costs of a ship that can travel to where we can no longer see.  This final frontier project will answer these three questions and provide an answer on how to explore the enormous system that we as a whole make up only a fraction.