Project Daedalus: Our 1970s mission to the stars
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ค. 2024
- In the 1970’s the British Interplanetary society devised a theoretical plan to send a spacecraft to a nearby star. The plan was named Project Daedalus.
Project Daedalus was to design a spacecraft using current or near future technology which could reach a nearby star within the working life of a scientist or roughly 50 years.
The star chosen for this endeavour was Barnard’s star. At 5.96 light years away, it isn’t the closest star, but it was still within the parameters of a 50 year flight time.
The fusion engines would fire for a total of nearly 4 years accelerating the craft up to 12% of the speed of light. The craft would then cruise for the remaining 46 years until it reached the star.
Once it reached the star, a series of probes would be launched to survey the star system and search for signs of extraterrestrial life or the conditions suitable for the development of life. - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
Imagine that you’re just an alien chilling at home, and suddenly this thing just rams into your planet at 12% the speed of light
ehhh, that'd be quite rare on a multiversal level (chances rival 50 standard deviation type stuff)
@@omaki82036 Only if there is nothing outside the observable universe
@@c_n_b there's definitely something outside of the observable universe lol otherwise we would be in the exact center which is unlikely.
It's just not observable because of the expansion and the limit of light speed.
_Planet-Killer Weapon Scenario._
Ouch. Definitely file that one under, "Days that suck."
It is absolutely insane that a project this forward thinking, would have been devised in the 1970's. Windows 95 was 20 years AWAY.
This project should be revived, with current, infinitely better technology.
Meh, a bunch of old guys who have never touched a computer control NASA, Boeing, Lockheed and ULA. They are as backward as you could think for America. IDK about other countries in the EU.
If Project Daedalus does become a reality, I suspect the engineers behind it will find a way to decelerate the craft so it can stay in the star system it was sent to explore. Undoubtedly, it would also have a propulsion capability to allow it to enter and depart from planetary orbit in that system. With the onboard instruments, telescopes and a fleet of probes, the ship will be able to survey the star system in detail instead of a single ultra high speed flyby as the 1970's design concept envisioned.
This is the most detailed video I've seen on Project Daedalus. I didn't know that it had probes for research and shielding. This is a really good video.
Thank you very much, I'm glad you enjoyed it. It is a fascinating story, and to be honest I enjoyed making the models.
Forst time I heard of Project Daedalus was on Magnus Archives podcast, never knew it was a real project, though with different aims to the one in the podcast haha.
This focuses on fuel acceleration. What about gravitational slingshot assist?
@@thepagecollective it's good but it doesn't get you nowhere near as fast as you need to go.
Eg voyager 2 did gravity assist with pretty much every planet it passed and now it only traveled only about one light day away from solar system
@@gistasbanaitis473 I agree. It would still be utilized IN ADDITION. I certainly didn't mean exclusively.
Good and detailed video, please more!!! Greetings from Germany
Excellent video. Many thanks.
great video thanks . Got the report on this the day it was published as a geeky young kid. Suspicious looks from the postman on my council estate when delivering this and other aerospace related publications!
Pls can u make a special playlist on optical illusion? it would be really helpful if u do that. thank you. and yes, u teach very well. u deserve more than a million subs. I regret, that I found this channel this late😔 but still late is better than never 🥰🥰
Thank you for the suggestion and the lovely comment. Here it is th-cam.com/play/PLwhSAHWfDxghBfrcXY0eOsx8PJutsJr4I.html I'll be doing another optical illusion video in the near future (mainly because they're fascinating)
First I've heard of this, amazing 👏
My late brother designed the fuel system
FYI: The "planet" that they thought was around Barnard's Star back in the 1970s _is not_ the planet that we've demonstrated, in the 21st Century, is _actually_ around Barnard's Star.
I interned with Dr. Wulf Dieter Heinz as an undergrad, back in 1990. He was the one who found …well, see, the telescope that was used to observe the wobble in Barnard's Star back in the 1970s had a bit of a mechanical problem with it. Dr. Heinz was using that same telescope, but to perform astrometric-measurements on the orbital-characteristics of binary stars. And that telescope was giving him bad measurements for binary stars with known characteristics.
In short, Dr. Heinz found a wobble being introduced by the telescope's drive-mechanism.
Removing the effects of the drive-mechanism eliminated the errors in his own measurements of the binary stars he was researching. But it removed something else: the wobble in Barnard's Star that was thought to be a planet. ☹ Caused _quite_ a kerfuffle at Swarthmore College, where the aberrant telescope in question is located.
Thank you. I love it when people have stuff to add to my videos. It really adds to the video.
@@LearningCurveScience Glad to contribute a personal experience that I thought would never be relevant to anything in my life! 😆
Also, Dr. Heinz really did get tons of flak from the Swarthmore upper-administration for doing what science is supposed to do: self-correct. Wasn't fair to him, at all, and I don't like politics or prestige getting in the way of science, even when I wasn't personally involved.
[I also have a story about a Nobel laureate being a real azzhat to one of his grad-students, in a really "Yikes" way. But that's off-topic.]
With such pacing going around with Private companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin and other private sectors. This would definitely happen within 10 or 20 years. What an exciting century! Honestly :3
Yes I absolutely agree. I'd love to see someone take on this project, that would be amazing.
No it wouldn't.
Wow, amazing video.
I totally Subscribed.
After the probe has passed through Bernard's system, 40 years or so later the first stage will also pass through the system.
I'm glad I am so young because i might live to see this mission complete
I don't think that it was ever taken super seriously by the US though. It was a great idea with tonnes of potential in the day imho, but doubtful that we'd happily work together as a species to fund such a project.
Even if it was built and launched today, it will take over 45 years of cruising at 12 percent of the speed of light to reach Barnard's star. In other words, many of the scientists, engineers and technicians who build and launch it won't live to see it reach it's objective.
Interesting video!
Thank you very much. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Now, something that may slow the craft down so we wouldn't have to worry about it crashing would be the "M-drive" or the "Impossible drive" assuming that the trust it creates is real. In doing so, the counter-thrust would be minuscule, but over the course of over 30 years, it may slow down to the neccessary point.
Sounds really similar to what some recent papers on ʻOumuamua say about interstellar objects crossing our system, that even the Pentagon are publicly considering might be doing, when it came to dropping off telescopes, probes and research equipment in the Barnard's Star system as it sails past. Brilliant video about this project.
The 1st stage should be packed with communication equipment since it will just be floating in space for decades after separation it could be a communications relay back to earth.
Wow its very intresting
Thank you I'm glad you enjoyed it. Your Epsilon Eridani video is coming up in the not too distant future. I'm just in the process of making one on DNA and then the Eridani one is after that.
Ok
Fun. Thanks. There is a helium-3 race to the Moon
I'd like to see the device that can drop tons of pellets without maintenance for 2 years without wear and tear affecting performance. How would you test it? Big ideas but it would take some time to get off the drawing board, I think. Still, we should be thinking about diversifying our long term risks for the future of humanity, perhaps?
😲Speed test space
Why don't they just use a Hyperspace engine and make the calculations for the jump to light speed via the Navicomputer.
Dufus.
That ain't like dustin' crops, boy!
why not use that magnetic field as bursts of propulsion for unexpected course corrections???
Accelerating up to 13,000 miles per second's OK till you hit something.
Well detailed video about unrealistic project at this moment.
Theoretical don't you know.
The music in the background… I’ve heard it in another TH-camrs video. It’s bugging me that I can’t think of who
How would the efficiency of this "Daedalus's engines compare theoretically with an Orion system? What about the possibility of building a true Bussard style ramjet driven space vehicle? How would it compare with a nuclear powered ion drive? It wouldn't have the acceleration of the Daedalus engine (I think it wouldn't) but it should be able to run the whole way there and include a flip in mid flight to decelerate to a reasonable speed to spend some good amount of time looking around and sending back data.
In the science fiction area, Larry Niven came up with a drive that might be theoretically feasible, a pure laser drive capable of pushing a starship with 0.1 G of acceleration. It would make a great long distance communication system too, stress the LONG distance. Don't want to fry the receivers.
We've had some long running ion driven spacecraft for quite awhile now but I haven't heard anything about them lately. Nor the idea of a solar sail, apparently not really feasible?
edit: Oh and by the way, what happens if it runs into an asteroid or a planet. If the planet was inhabited it could be far worse than the Chicxulub impact, orders of magnitude worse. It could destroy the planet. Someone who's better at math than I am can figure the impact energy of a body like that second stage hitting a planet at 12% of the speed of light. Ouch. We might be able to see the flash of light from here.
I know a lot about space physics and rockets if you can give me a shortened version of the description of the engine I could probably tell you if it would work or not
I'm bad at reading that's why I'm asking for a shortened version
If you are talking about a ramjet/scramjet using ion engines
It wouldn't work since ramjets and scramjets use the air in the atmosphere as oxidizer for fuel and you can't ignite fuel using ionized xenon.
I gotta say though neat idea for an engine.
Also we probably would see some display if not only through telescopes If deadalus would hit a planet or an asteroid.
you have significantly more of a chance dying from an asteroid on earth than getting hit by an asteroid in deep space
1/2mv^2, so for a ship weighing say 10E9 grams (1000 tons) moving at 30E6 meters per second squared (900E12) (10% of c), so a lot, (10x900)E21, so 900 Zettajoules, or 0.9 Yottajoules (0.9 x 10^24 J), or just under 0.25% of the thermal output of the Sun in one second. I may be wrong, I am not a physicist and would be happy for someone to check my working out.
I'd be super impressed if we could even achieve mining helium 3 from Jupiter's upper atmosphere with floating mining balloon type devices.
Hello There
Fantacy
Seemed feasible until we got to the Jupiter cloud mining requirement...
we are 2022.. anything new?
I'm not an expert but I wouldn't say mining Jupiter is the near future!I reckon fission engines and not fusion since we know more about fission and building space ship engines using fission might be the near future but then again they may not be?
They failed to take into account that the data transmissions would take years and years as well to get back to Earth. And it makes more sense to do like The Expanse; burn to speed up to half way there, then flip the ship around and burn to decelerate the other half.
They can't carry enough fuel to accelerate/decelerate for the entire trip duration. Not by a long shot. This design has enough fuel to run the engine for 4 years, out of a 50 year trip. To reserve fuel for stopping in the destination system would double the trip time (plus a year due to decelerating early).
I agree we'd get much better obesrvations if the ship and its probes become permanent residents, instead of just passing through the system quickly. But it didn't fit within the goals of the Daedalus Project, which required them to arrive within ~50 years.
Considering the enormous costs of building such a ship, I personally think getting the most return possible outweighs getting there in 50 years. I've seen estimates of 100 billion dollars, NOT including the costs of acquiring 30,000 tonnes of helium-3 somehow. Right now, that'd cost infinity because we only have vague ideas of where there might be some. We also can't make helium-3 fuse yet. But when we get there, it'll make one heck of a rocket fuel.
@@CromemcoZ2 then burn half as much. There's no point in doing a flyby at 0.07C and getting a few *hours* of data for a 50 year trip. That sucker needs to stay in situ to pay for itself
@@CromemcoZ2 realistically, there isn't enough fuel on Earth to give them 4 years of delta-V
@@CromemcoZ2 Burn, coast, flip ship around, burn.
Why was 1970s added to the title?
Because it was conceived in the 1970's. I try to change up my titles every now and then
What happens when you hit a spec of dust going 12% the speed of light? This will never come to be. It would be destroyed on the trip.
The propulsion tech for this doesn't exist yet..not in my lifetime. (I'm 66)
Ahh now i see why every second shipbin sci fi is called daedalus
Space interstellar 🤔
Nop. The name was indeed Daedalus.. But it was in "1960"!!
Thank you. I think you might be thinking of Project Orion. Project Daedalus was definitely in the 1970's
@@LearningCurveScience I know it was because I was there.
@@LG123ABC You were part of the project?
So that's why it wasn't built yet... fusion technology.
Rudimentary plan like in old sf movies.
It's technologically possible, but you would need at least 200 Saturn 5-like rocket launches and 100 shuttle missions to assemble it in low orbite (or maybe dozens of more efficient nuclear rockets and automatical assembly, but development, construction and launch would still be very very expensive, Apollo was cheap in comparison). And 50 years of travel (plus 6 years before recieving data), and it can completely fail, and if you need to correct a problem by remote control during the travel, you wait years bcz communication times, and problems WILL occur, even the most successful interplanetary missions had serious problems that almost caused failures (Cassini, Galileo, Pathfinder...) Not very motivating to work on it as an enthousiastic scientist, imagine you worked on it a part of your career, now you are 95 years old and no data come from the close flyby... I would have a heart attack :-D
Even with anti-matter, which converts 100% of matter in energy, a calculation shows that 360 tons of anti-matter will allow to send 500 tons of payload to the nearest star in 40 years, but antimatter cannot be found in nature, and to produce 360 tons yourself you have to use the amount of energy required for the flight from other sources, for 360 tons you will need 100 years of whole humanity's energy production... And even much more, it's utopic to do it without losts...
So forget about this kind of project, not realistic...
I completely agree. That's why it was a theoretical project. I suppose just to show what is theoretically possible if we put our minds to it. It would be completely unfeasible to mine the Jovian clouds at the moment, but by working theoretically at the edges of what is possible, one day they may become possible. We would never have got into space by playing it safe.
It's either we're doing our calculations wrong based on formulas we discovered, or we lack a technology, or we lack a budget for this type of project, or we need more advancement or discoveries, or we should change with our lifetime frame, why a tree can live up to 500 and 1000 years, or simply human consciousness isn't meant to explore outer stars. But i guess our innovations are primitive yet even though we've not been long time on earth developing our civilization.
"for 360 tons you will need 100 years of whole humanity's energy production", Yeah, thats could be with our current methods to produce it in hadrons collider, which we know is extremely primitive. Frome where did you get that calculation? If you gonna need 300 tons of antimatter is very obviously we gonna (should) find less energy-expensive methods to produce it. Fussion is one of them, but we are a few decades before that, and a few more for even try to use it a an antimatter prodcution method, but definitely not impossible. The containement of antimatter is also a real problem, not only for security reasons, but because is energetical expensive too. BTW there isnt currently any "realistic" way to reach the stars in human lifetimes, and following that logic we will never gonna do it, but is even much more impossible due our nature, that we dont try anyways...
@@garogaryvoskorian2619 I believe God put the stars so far apart that any chance of us interacting with any alien races is totally beyond any possible methodology.
If we had listened to naysayers like you, we would still be living in caves. I'm glad we didn't.
It's a suicide mission.
There aren't any living people on board.
With what ? A fantasy propane torch ?
Why can't we just admit that interstellar travel is beyond our abilities
Just like sailing beyond the horizon? Or flying in the sky? Or breaking the sound barrier? Or orbiting the earth? Or landing on the moon?
@@leonjohansen1818 All of that is just around the corner.. not lightyears away
Because we're not all a bunch of defeatist losers?
we wouldn't have landed on the moon with that mindset
I ponder when you will figure your tiny universe is inside a hollowed out planet ...
I feel your 10 years behind me ... catch up .