Interstellar Space Travel End of Exams Presentation Group J Saeed Ascroft, Charlotte Nedd, Anna Pearson 11 th June 2013

Where do we want to go? -Habitable Planets, Charlotte Nedd What is stopping us? -The limitations of the human body, Anna Pearson What does it take? -The Spacecraft of the Future, Saeed Ascroft Talk Overview

Habitable Planets

Habitable Planets Why interstellar travel? ● Hope for a better future ● Curiosity ● Revolutionary advancements ● Social issues; population limits, sustainability, governance etc ● Long-range thinking on goals before need for solution is here. ● More career options that benefit humanity.

Habitable planets Criteria for living. Star’s luminosity + T Planet’s distance Planet’s mass and radius Planet’s mass, radius, distance Star’s luminosity

Habitable Planets Criteria for living Planet’s radius, density, escape velocity, surface T Surface T Relative humidity ● Planetary Class ● Habitable Class

Habitable Planets How far are we talking? ● Nearest star Proxima Centauri – 4.3 light years ● not a likely host to planets ● Few possibilities within roughly 10 light years ● Walking – 2.3 billion years ● Driving – 30 million years ● Fastest spacecraft – 100,000 years Don't judge me.

Habitable Planets Catalog

Habitable Planets Tau Ceti e ● Distance – 11.9 ly ● Mass (Earth masses) – 5 ● Radius (Earth radii) – 1.9 ● Surface T (degrees C) – 68 ESISPHHZDHZCHZApClasshClasss warm superterranthermoplanet

The Limitations of the Human Body

Obvious Problems Food Water Waste Lack of Sunlight Pressure Difference - 6.3kPa boiling point of water at body temp

ionized atoms ranging from a single proton up to an uranium nucleus Outside the shielding of the earth’s magnetic field this would become a problem Galactic Cosmic Radiation Between the Apollo 16 and 17 missions a solar proton event occurred that produced radiation levels of sufficient energy that the astronauts outside of the Earth’s magnetosphere would have absorbed lethal doses within 10 hours after the start of the event

Microgravity Muscle atrophy Loss of proprioception Fluid redistribution – leads to ‘moon-face’ Loss of bone density – 1.5% bone tissue lost per month – the loss of bone density of 3-4 months in space takes 2- 3 years to regain on earth

Acceleration

A Solution?

The Spacecraft of the Future

Project Orion

Rocket performance