10 Technology Innovations Needed for Deep Space Exploration
This has things that we feel, as a society on a slightly more scholarly level than usual, are needed to go into "deep space." You know, that place passed the moon.
The first, well tenth, and most laughable, suggestion are giant solar sails. While that may be fantastic as a backup source of relative movement, we still would have no real control over its movement, especially backward or laterally which can be very important when moving out of the way of things like...planets. Also, if that does succeed in getting us passed the Neptune and Uranus and the solar energy that was powering it dies out, does it just float out there? Unless it's a robotic mechanism or the energy we gain is much greater than needed throughput, we'd be dead in space, asking astronauts (or whatever) to die for a little information. Naturally, something else may occur passed the planets...more than one energy source moving in different directions. How could a unilateral sail handle two contradicting source of movement or one that pushes from the side instead of relatively dead on? Laughable attempt at primary propulsion.
The ninth is "Super-high-speed Optical Communication"which is a technology we already, technically, have accomplished at FERMA. We don't need to necessarily use purely optical technologies, just patterned arrays of energy shot across on different bandwidths of light, speed, much like a strobe combined with Morse code with a dash of how they had been talking computer hard drives operate by now; pulses of light going from one side to another, the speed, color, bandwidth all being an indication of data that's being moved. Optical communication can be compressed and decompressed; asserting a purely optical form is the only or best way is the best way to kill long distance, timely communication.
At least the eighth suggestion is much more reasonable, finally finding and using a way that truly centralizes time measurement, but it would still be too parred with earth's atomic time and not necessarily the atomic time that the various elements in space (especially lack of gravity) could cause...not to mention time doesn't quite indicate direct unless I've been mistaught about the functionality of a compass. Star Trek probably had the best solution for navigation in space; charts, maps, just like we used when sailing the ocean black...I mean blue.
Seventh is robotic advance teams. I don't know how good of an idea it is to robotize everything, especially with the robots having the ability to learn, to evaluate. We can sense various elements by their colors using different modes on our interstellar telescopes; I feel harnessing that in a smaller module, for smaller distances, is a much more logical course, not to mention one that can be more easily carried around with you than a drone that just looks for good places to land. Things can change in the atmosphere that it may not detect in time relative to yourself. That robot just did you no good.
Sixth - substitutes for gravity. I know I have an article that touches on this somewhat, and on this whole deep space exploration stuffs needed. Gyration is our answer, maybe with a touch of magnetic field manipulation.
Fifth is suspended animation. Generational ships maybe be better suited as too much can go so wrong with minimal, at most, of the crew, not suspended. There may also be a better solution to our life span, anyway. Assuming suspended animation causes things to be in the same state they were in when induced and as when they are reassumed, I'm sure a system of some measure could be applied only during sleeping hours on the crew of the ship. That should add, what, 8+ hours/day to their ability to operate the craft?
Fourth - force fields to black hazardous radiation. I believed that I have touched on this subject as well in one of my previous articles. Gyrational and magnetic forces that are constantly revolving should provide a sufficient initial shield.
Third is warp drives, another that has been touched upon both briefly in this but most assuredly in other articles, answers to all of the questions posed in the article.
Second, and in my opinion, most important part - nutritional sustenance to keep the travelers alive. I guess I sort of agree with the article's method, though figure it would be cumbersome in a ship that isn't pretty much the size of the moon. We can artificially grow, and speed up growth, of various plants, which may be our best bet; all travelers with basic knowledge of botany, each with its own food storage supply that can quickly regenerate more from seeds (I believe 10 day cycles is what is needed at this point). The other idea would be stem cells...of plants.
The article lists water and air as the most important things that need to be accomplished, but these have been accomplished to a reasonable level, on a much larger scale, that we don't need an upgrade, though one would certainly be good to have. Keep in mind, the spacefarers would not be using and going through the kind of waste we do here, so the system we have now that purifies so much extra crap would sufficient for a more clinically clean environment as a well-run space ship.
