I designed a crewed interstellar spacecraft

[alfa015]

Hi everybody,

I would like to share with you a crewed interstellar spacecraft which I have designed and called Solar One.

It employs a combination of 3 propulsion methods: nuclear fusion, beam-powered propulsion , and photon propulsion.

Basically, several compact fusion reactors power a laser system that propels a huge light sail.

Physicist Robert Forward already proposed in 1983 to use a 26-TW laser system to propel a 100-km light sail, a fresnel lens to focus the beam of the laser, and decelerate the spacecraft with a secondary light sail.

I propose something a bit different, which is to use to use for example a 60 TW-laser to propel a 5-km light sail that would deploy from the spacecraft after the acceleration stage, use parabolic mirrors that gradually change their orientation in order to focus the laser beam, and finally use a photon rocket to decelerate the spacecraft.

In theory, it could be possible to achieve 25% the speed of light, reaching the closest potentially habitable exoplanet in less than 20 years.

There are of course many challenges, like building high-energy continuous-wave lasers, reducing the weight of the nuclear fusion reactors (and of course achieving effective nuclear fusion first), and minimizing the effects of zero gravity during such a long trip.

What do you guys suggest to overcome these challenges?

This is my paper (https://engrxiv.org/qcrxa) and a short video that summarizes all:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEf7Z_TLmgU

[xelasnave]

Interesting and who knows who may be inspired and contribute such that at some point in the future what seems fantasy today can become a reality.
I applaud you for working on the matter.
Good luck.
Alex

[Imme]

Really impressive video....well done, today’s ideas are tomorrow’s reality.

[Kal]

On a related topic, anyone else here heard of the Breakthrough Starshoot (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakthrough_Starshot) project? It was founded in 2016 by Stephen Hawking, Mark Zuckerberg, and Yuri Milner.


The goal of the project is similar to this one, albeit using spaceships that weigh just a few grams, literally. With a much more modest 100GW laser, and a small solar sail of just 5 square meters, they plan to launch these probes to speeds of 15-20% the speed of light in just 10 seconds at 10,000 g-force :eyepop:

[alpal]

Hi Alberto,
can I book a window seat on your spacecraft?


cheers
Allan

[alfa015]

haha yes, but 15 years in a small spacecraft will be hard :D



Yes, they are conducting research on several of the issues mentioned for Solar One, such as protecting the spacecraft from dust and micro-asteroids.



Thanks a lot !



Thank you very much.

[alfa015]

I hope you enjoyed the video :)

[alfa015]

As some of you might know, I have designed a crewed interstellar spacecraft that I call Solar One.



Basically, large flexible mirrors placed near the Sun would propel a one-mile light sail with a 4–crew spacecraft of 300 tons.



To decelerate, an on-board compact fusion reactor would power a photon rocket placed at the front of the spacecraft that would 1) help decelerate and 2) ionize space hydrogen for the nuclear reactor.



A Bussard scoop also placed at the front of the spacecraft would 1) collect those protons (ionized hydrogen) and 2) decelerate the spacecraft.



Solar One would achieve an average of 22% the speed of light, which would allow the crew to reach the closest potentially habitable exoplanet in less than 19 years.



Of course cryo-sleep and artificial gravity must be achieved first.



Here is my paper in arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.11474



And here a short movie of Solar One: https://youtu.be/JEf7Z_TLmgU



Feedback is appreciated!