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[via]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3cq8bqD7v1qewacoo1_400.jpg)
10 Technology Innovations Needed for Deep Space Exploration
By Patrick J. Kiger
10: Spacecraft Equipped With Giant Solar Sails
Conventional rockets can put astronauts into orbit, but try using one to travel the enormous distances between planets and stars and you’re likely to run out of fuel. That’s why scientists have been working to develop alternative methods of propulsion and energy sources for rockets.
9: Super-high-speed Optical Communication
We all chuckled at the notion that E.T. was having trouble phoning home, but for interplanetary explorers, maintaining communication with Earth could be a major challenge. “If you can’t communicate with the ship, then you don’t know what the results are of your mission,” Andreas Tziolas, a former research fellow at NASA who now heads Project Icarus, a private-sector effort to develop interstellar technology, told the Atlantic.
8: Atomic-powered Clocks for Navigation in Deep Space
If you’re going to travel in deep space, the last thing you want is to get lost along the way, crash on some strange planet, and have your robotic assistant running around wearing out its voice synthesizer, continually shouting “Danger, Will Robinson!” To avoid such a scenario, you need a really good a navigation system with a super-precise clock; this clock will be used to calculate distances.
7: Robotic Advance Teams
Founding a colony on a distant planet might be a daunting task for astronauts. They’d have to land in unfamiliar, possibly rough terrain, and then immediately set about erecting dwellings and a landing/launching pad to facilitate follow-up missions — all while searching for water, air and building materials. That’s why NASA engineers, in league with Canadian and European colleagues, are at work developing robotic advance teams that would land in advance of human explorers to scope out the available resources and lay the groundwork for a settlement. On Mars or another planet, for example, rovers equipped with bulldozer blades or plows could go to work clearing and smoothing a landing spot, while others might amass rocks and other materials and process them to make a concrete runway. (Remember that the Space Shuttle’s landing facility required 250,000 cubic yards of concrete, far too much to ever be transported from Earth.) Other robots might roam the surface, drilling and testing soil samples to look for usable oxygen and/or water, according to NASA.
6: Substitutes for Gravity
Watching Apollo astronauts hit golf balls fantastic distances might make microgravity look like great fun, but the truth is that it’s extremely hard on your body. In fact, scientists say that some of the biggest potential problems facing astronauts in deep space are the physiological changes caused by weightlessness. Astronauts’ muscles have a tendency to atrophy from lack of resistance, and they lose bone as well; in addition, weightlessness causes a loss of blood volume, so they feel lightheaded when they stand up. Additionally, it alters the human sense of balance, so that when space travelers return, they’ll feel as if Earth is spinning out of control beneath their feet.
5: Suspended Animation for Long Trips
One of the major problems with traveling vast distances in space is that trips could take a long, long time. In a lot of science fiction movies, such as “Alien” and “Planet of the Apes,” scriptwriters get around this problem by depicting astronauts slumbering for long stretches in suspended animation, like hibernating animals. Unfortunately, slowing the human metabolism and keeping a person alive for lengthy periods in that state is easier imagined than done. Surface-induced deep hypothermia — in layman’s terms, freezing — probably isn’t a good option, for example, since ice crystals begin to form inside the cells, and then destroy them as they grow, according to Michio Kaku, author of “Physics of the Impossible.”
4: Force Fields to Block Hazardous Radiation
Force fields are a staple of science fiction, in which they’re usually used to protect a spaceship or space station from attackers. In “Star Wars,” for example, the Death Star on which Darth Vader did his heavy breathing was protected by such a shield. But in actual deep space travel, scientists are looking to force fields to solve another problem — how to protect astronauts’ bodily cells from the continual radiation bombardment in space that might cause them to develop cancers and other health problems.
3: Warp Drives
In “Star Trek,” the Starship Enterprise travels enormous distances in weeks and months, even visiting other galaxies — a feat that would be impossible at the speeds that spacecraft currently travel. The Enterprise does this by using warp drive, in which the spacecraft basically takes shortcuts through holes caused by distortions of space-time. (This is a tricky concept to grasp; imagine space and time as a giant tablecloth, one that you can stretch, twist and poke pathways through.)
2: Growing Food on Spaceships
Like everybody else, astronauts in deep space would need to eat, and finding room inside a spacecraft to bring along the vast quantities of supplies needed to sustain them on trips lasting multiple years would be a major headache. That’s why NASA scientists are looking for ways for astronauts to grow their own food while en route to other planets, without using soil or large amounts of water.
1: Recycling Air and Water in Deep Space
Another thing that astronauts will need in space is supplies of both breathable air and drinkable water, and obviously they can’t haul Earth behind them to provide a continuously refreshed supply. That’s why NASA scientists are working to develop air recovery systems that will filter, extract and restore to a ship’s internal atmosphere as much oxygen as possible. By 2014, researchers expect to have the ability to recover as much as 75 percent of the oxygen from the carbon dioxide that astronauts breathe out, and by 2019, they hope to achieve 100 percent recovery, according to Space.com.
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Warped Physics: 10 Effects of Faster-Than-Light Discovery
1. Special relativity
The speed-of-light rule represents the backbone of Einstein’s 1905 special theory of relativity. This law does away with the concept of absolute velocity, and instead says that motion is relative. Except for light, that is. All observers, no matter what their own speed, will measure the speed of light at a constant 299,792,458 meters per second (about 700 million miles an hour). This speed represents the fastest that anything can travel, an absolute upper limit on motion.
The new findings threaten to overturn this trusted law. “According to relativity, it takes an infinite amount of energy to make anything go faster than light,” said physicist Robert Plunkett of the Fermilab laboratory in Batavia, Ill. “If these things are [moving faster than light], then these rules would have to be rewritten.”
2. Time Travel
Special relativity states that nothing can go faster than the speed of light. If something were to exceed this limit, it would move backward in time, according to the theory.
The new finding raises all sorts of thorny questions. If the neutrinos really are traveling faster than light, then they should be time travelers. The particles could theoretically arrive somewhere before they departed. Physicists suggest such an ability, if it really existed, could be used to send neutrinos back in time to deliver messages.
3. Cause and Effect
A fundamental law of physics, indeed of all science, is causality: that cause always precedes effect. This was accepted in classical physics, and the special theory of relativity took pains to preserve the rule, despite the relativity of an object’s motion.
But if something can travel faster than light, it can travel backward in time, according to the theory. In this case, an “effect” could travel back to a point before its “cause” had occurred — for instance, a baby swinging before he gets a push. Such a result would be scientific heresy, surely requiring some hasty rewriting of laws to make sure causality is preserved.
“Most of the theoretical structure that’s been erected in the 20th century has relied on this concept that things have to go slower than the speed of light,” Plunkett said. “As I understand it if you have anything traveling faster than the speed of light you can have things happening before their causes.”
4. E=mc^2
Einstein’s famous equation E=mc^2 states that energy (E) and mass (m) are equivalent, and can be converted from one to the other by the ratio “c-squared,” where c represents the constant speed of light.
The status of the speed of light as the ultimate cosmic speed limit is the reason for its presence in the seminal formula. But if c is not in fact the fastest possible speed in the universe, and things can go faster, this may have to be adjusted in special situations. Perhaps the special speed of neutrinos deserves to win the title of ultimate speed limit instead.
5. The Standard Model
The Standard Model is the name of the reigning theory of particle physics, which describes all the known subatomic particles that make up our universe. [Countdown: The Coolest Little Particles in Nature]
But if the speed of light rule, and the theory of relativity are rewritten, this model too may need adjusting.
“One of the foundations of the Standard Model is special relativity,” said Stephen Parke, head of the theoretical physics department at Fermilab in Batavia, Ill. “If you start tweaking with the foundation you have to start tweaking with the house on top.”
6. String Theory
String theory is the cutting-edge idea that all fundamental particles are actually tiny vibrating loops of string. This assumption turns out to have broad-ranging implications, including the possibility that our universe has more dimensions than the known three dimensions of space and one of time.
String theory is incredibly difficult to test, and there is no proof that it’s correct. But if the neutrino measurements are correct, some physicists say string theory may offer the best bet of explaining them.
Perhaps, some physicists have suggested, the neutrinos are not traveling along the straight line we thought they were, but instead were hopping into one of the extra dimensions predicted by string theory, and taking a shortcut to their destination. If they traveled a shorter distance in the measured time, then their actual speed may not have been faster than light.
7. Neutrinos
Perhaps the new discovery doesn’t mean that just anything can travel faster than light, but merely neutrinos. If that’s the case, then there’s definitely something special that scientists didn’t know about these particles.
Neutrinos are already understood to be oddballs. They are neutral, nearly massless particles that hardly ever interact with ordinary matter. They come in several kinds, called flavors, and they strangely seem to be able to change from one flavor to another. So it’s possible that their faster-than-light abilities are unique features as well. (Above, a photo of the Gran Sasso Laboratory detector in Italy, the final destination of the neutrinos sent from the Swiss laboratory CERN.)
8. Tachyons
In the 1960s physicists suggested that particles may exist that can travel faster than light. These particles, dubbed tachyons, have only been theorized, never detected. Because of tachyons’ troubling properties, including the possibility that they would violate the rule of causality, many physicists have considered them a fringe notion.
Yet if the new discovery is borne out, scientists may want to take a closer look at the theory of tachyons. [Read: What Would It Be Like to Travel Faster Than Light?]
9. Supernova 1987A
One of the most contradictory pieces of evidence to the new findings comes from observations of the supernova SN1987A, which lies about 168,000 light years from Earth in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Observations of this dead star from the Kamiokande II experiment in Japan found that light and neutrinos that departed the supernova arrived at Earth within hours of each other. Over such a long distance, this means that light and neutrinos travel within 1 part in 100,000,000 of the optical speed of light.
This observation was a seminal achievement in astronomy, and won physicist Masatoshi Koshiba the Nobel Prize. [Gorgeous Supernova Photos]
Yet the new findings don’t agree with this result. They suggest, instead, that neutrinos actually surpass the speed of light by 60 nanoseconds over 730 kilometers, which corresponds to 2 parts in 100,000.
It seems a revision of either the supernova measurement, or the neutrino findings, is in order. (Above is an image of a remnant of supernova 1987A encircled by a glowing gas ring known as the “String of Pearls.”)
10. Evolution of the Early Universe
Many other aspects of astronomy could also stand to be affected if the new discovery holds. Some important ideas about the history of the universe, in fact, are based on neutrino measurements and theories.
“Neutrinos are abundant in the early universe and if they behave differently, this affects calculations of the evolution of the early universe, nucleosynthesis and the seeds of structure formation,” astronomer Derek Fox of Pennsylvania State University wrote in an email to LiveScience.
Furthermore, neutrinos are produced in the fusion reactions that power stars, so if these particles behave differently than thought, star models may need to be revised. (Above, an artist’s conception of the history of the cosmos.)](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_luweg923E71qe649zo1_400.jpg)
Warped Physics: 10 Effects of Faster-Than-Light Discovery
1. Special relativity
The speed-of-light rule represents the backbone of Einstein’s 1905 special theory of relativity. This law does away with the concept of absolute velocity, and instead says that motion is relative. Except for light, that is. All observers, no matter what their own speed, will measure the speed of light at a constant 299,792,458 meters per second (about 700 million miles an hour). This speed represents the fastest that anything can travel, an absolute upper limit on motion.
The new findings threaten to overturn this trusted law. “According to relativity, it takes an infinite amount of energy to make anything go faster than light,” said physicist Robert Plunkett of the Fermilab laboratory in Batavia, Ill. “If these things are [moving faster than light], then these rules would have to be rewritten.”
2. Time Travel
Special relativity states that nothing can go faster than the speed of light. If something were to exceed this limit, it would move backward in time, according to the theory.
The new finding raises all sorts of thorny questions. If the neutrinos really are traveling faster than light, then they should be time travelers. The particles could theoretically arrive somewhere before they departed. Physicists suggest such an ability, if it really existed, could be used to send neutrinos back in time to deliver messages.
3. Cause and Effect
A fundamental law of physics, indeed of all science, is causality: that cause always precedes effect. This was accepted in classical physics, and the special theory of relativity took pains to preserve the rule, despite the relativity of an object’s motion.
But if something can travel faster than light, it can travel backward in time, according to the theory. In this case, an “effect” could travel back to a point before its “cause” had occurred — for instance, a baby swinging before he gets a push. Such a result would be scientific heresy, surely requiring some hasty rewriting of laws to make sure causality is preserved.
“Most of the theoretical structure that’s been erected in the 20th century has relied on this concept that things have to go slower than the speed of light,” Plunkett said. “As I understand it if you have anything traveling faster than the speed of light you can have things happening before their causes.”
4. E=mc^2
Einstein’s famous equation E=mc^2 states that energy (E) and mass (m) are equivalent, and can be converted from one to the other by the ratio “c-squared,” where c represents the constant speed of light.
The status of the speed of light as the ultimate cosmic speed limit is the reason for its presence in the seminal formula. But if c is not in fact the fastest possible speed in the universe, and things can go faster, this may have to be adjusted in special situations. Perhaps the special speed of neutrinos deserves to win the title of ultimate speed limit instead.
5. The Standard Model
The Standard Model is the name of the reigning theory of particle physics, which describes all the known subatomic particles that make up our universe. [Countdown: The Coolest Little Particles in Nature]
But if the speed of light rule, and the theory of relativity are rewritten, this model too may need adjusting.
“One of the foundations of the Standard Model is special relativity,” said Stephen Parke, head of the theoretical physics department at Fermilab in Batavia, Ill. “If you start tweaking with the foundation you have to start tweaking with the house on top.”
6. String Theory
String theory is the cutting-edge idea that all fundamental particles are actually tiny vibrating loops of string. This assumption turns out to have broad-ranging implications, including the possibility that our universe has more dimensions than the known three dimensions of space and one of time.
String theory is incredibly difficult to test, and there is no proof that it’s correct. But if the neutrino measurements are correct, some physicists say string theory may offer the best bet of explaining them.
Perhaps, some physicists have suggested, the neutrinos are not traveling along the straight line we thought they were, but instead were hopping into one of the extra dimensions predicted by string theory, and taking a shortcut to their destination. If they traveled a shorter distance in the measured time, then their actual speed may not have been faster than light.
7. Neutrinos
Perhaps the new discovery doesn’t mean that just anything can travel faster than light, but merely neutrinos. If that’s the case, then there’s definitely something special that scientists didn’t know about these particles.
Neutrinos are already understood to be oddballs. They are neutral, nearly massless particles that hardly ever interact with ordinary matter. They come in several kinds, called flavors, and they strangely seem to be able to change from one flavor to another. So it’s possible that their faster-than-light abilities are unique features as well. (Above, a photo of the Gran Sasso Laboratory detector in Italy, the final destination of the neutrinos sent from the Swiss laboratory CERN.)
8. Tachyons
In the 1960s physicists suggested that particles may exist that can travel faster than light. These particles, dubbed tachyons, have only been theorized, never detected. Because of tachyons’ troubling properties, including the possibility that they would violate the rule of causality, many physicists have considered them a fringe notion.
Yet if the new discovery is borne out, scientists may want to take a closer look at the theory of tachyons. [Read: What Would It Be Like to Travel Faster Than Light?]
9. Supernova 1987A
One of the most contradictory pieces of evidence to the new findings comes from observations of the supernova SN1987A, which lies about 168,000 light years from Earth in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Observations of this dead star from the Kamiokande II experiment in Japan found that light and neutrinos that departed the supernova arrived at Earth within hours of each other. Over such a long distance, this means that light and neutrinos travel within 1 part in 100,000,000 of the optical speed of light.
This observation was a seminal achievement in astronomy, and won physicist Masatoshi Koshiba the Nobel Prize. [Gorgeous Supernova Photos]
Yet the new findings don’t agree with this result. They suggest, instead, that neutrinos actually surpass the speed of light by 60 nanoseconds over 730 kilometers, which corresponds to 2 parts in 100,000.
It seems a revision of either the supernova measurement, or the neutrino findings, is in order. (Above is an image of a remnant of supernova 1987A encircled by a glowing gas ring known as the “String of Pearls.”)
10. Evolution of the Early Universe
Many other aspects of astronomy could also stand to be affected if the new discovery holds. Some important ideas about the history of the universe, in fact, are based on neutrino measurements and theories.
“Neutrinos are abundant in the early universe and if they behave differently, this affects calculations of the evolution of the early universe, nucleosynthesis and the seeds of structure formation,” astronomer Derek Fox of Pennsylvania State University wrote in an email to LiveScience.
Furthermore, neutrinos are produced in the fusion reactions that power stars, so if these particles behave differently than thought, star models may need to be revised. (Above, an artist’s conception of the history of the cosmos.)
Two of a kind
Enigmatic Titan
Titan’s golden, smog-like atmosphere and complex layered hazes appear to Cassini as a luminous ring around the planet-sized moon. The world beneath that haze has become slightly less mysterious under the gaze of Cassini and its Huygens probe, but many new discoveries await.
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Enceladus: A Tectonic Feast
The Cassini spacecraft has been studying Saturn and its moons since it entered orbit in 2004. This image, taken on Oct. 5, 2008, is a stunning mosaic of the geologically active Enceladus after a Cassini flyby.
Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Sifting through Dust near Orion’s Belt
A new image of the region surrounding the reflection nebula Messier 78, just to the north of Orion’s Belt, shows clouds of cosmic dust threaded through the nebula like a string of pearls. The observations, made with the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope, use the heat glow of interstellar dust grains to show astronomers where new stars are being formed.
Curling Physics Unraveled
Researchers know why ribbons and hairs curl, but few have examined the dynamics of an object going from straight to curled up. A study in Physical Review Letters looks at the simple case of a curved metal strip that is straightened and then released. Using a combination of experiments, numerical simulations, and mathematical analysis, the research team has performed a complete study on the shape and speed of the strip as it curls. The work provides a basic framework for explaining curling in future micromachines or in the splitting open of a red blood cell.
Image by P.-T. Brun & B. Audoly/CNRS
(Source: broken-barricades, via takemetoinfinityandbeyond)
Solar Eclipse
A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Sun and the Earth so that the Sun is fully or partially covered. This can only happen during a new moon, when the Sun and Moon are in conjunction as seen from the Earth. At least two and up to five solar eclipses can occur each year on Earth, with between zero and two of them being total eclipses.
