The Stars Our Destination
The Stars Our Destination
forward, accelerating past the Suns escape velocity, eventually reaching seven per cent of the
speed of light. At this point the crafts first stage
fuel tanks would be empty so the first stage
would be jettisoned, allowing the comparatively
small second stage to accelerate to 0.12c (c, it
should be explained, is the accepted symbol for
the speed of light hence 0.12c means 12 % of
the speed of light).
The craft could cover the six light years to
Barnards Star chosen as a destination as it
was believed to have a planetary system at the
time of the study - in fifty years and would have
burned 50 000 tonnes of fuel in the process. Fifty
years cruising through emptiness is of course
useless were the starship to have carried a crew
but is acceptable for a robotic vehicle. Daedalus
would be controlled by a sophisticated computerised artificial intelligence with an intellect approaching (or quite possibly exceeding) human
level
existed.
The Daedalus vehicle would be enormous; some
190m tall and with a mass of about 52 000
tonnes at engine ignition. In contrast the mighty
Saturn 5, still the largest operational launch
vehicle every constructed stood 110 m tall and
weighed a mere 3 000 tonnes. Like modern
launch vehicles, used the staging approached.
When the fuel in the vehicles first stage was exhausted it would be released, allowing the much
lighter second stage to dart ahead unhindered.
A Daedalus craft would be assembled in space
and its fuel tanks filled with deuterium (heavy
hydrogen) and helium 3 fuel extracted from the
atmosphere of Jupiter. This sounds fantastic
but imagine how unbelievable todays routine
off-shore oil and gas drilling would sound to
our Elizabethan ancestors. The deuterium and
helium would be brought together in the vessels
engine to be ignited to fusion by a powerful
beam of electrons. Directed by a magnetic nozzle, the resulting plasma would thrust Daedalus