Shotwell noted SpaceX’s ambitious hopes for the future. “In 10 years we’ll see people start settling on other planets,” adding that, “people tell us we’re crazy every day, but we need to ignore that and push forward. We are trying to find a breakthrough in propulsion technology that allows us to go beyond the Moon, beyond Mars, beyond the entire Solar System. Certainly, within 50 years we’ll have a path that will allow us to fly to other worlds.”
Gwynn Shotwell spoke again about the prospects for interstellar travel: Quote from: Gwynn Shotwell Shotwell noted SpaceX’s ambitious hopes for the future. “In 10 years we’ll see people start settling on other planets,” adding that, “people tell us we’re crazy every day, but we need to ignore that and push forward. We are trying to find a breakthrough in propulsion technology that allows us to go beyond the Moon, beyond Mars, beyond the entire Solar System. Certainly, within 50 years we’ll have a path that will allow us to fly to other worlds.”https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3889710,00.html
Quote from: Valerij on 01/29/2021 06:03 pmGwynn Shotwell spoke again about the prospects for interstellar travel: Quote from: Gwynn Shotwell Shotwell noted SpaceX’s ambitious hopes for the future. “In 10 years we’ll see people start settling on other planets,” adding that, “people tell us we’re crazy every day, but we need to ignore that and push forward. We are trying to find a breakthrough in propulsion technology that allows us to go beyond the Moon, beyond Mars, beyond the entire Solar System. Certainly, within 50 years we’ll have a path that will allow us to fly to other worlds.”https://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3889710,00.htmlInteresting, I wonder who is the "we" in the highlighted sentence, is it humanity as a whole, or is it SpaceX? If it's the latter, that's super gigantic news.
A comparative overview of some rocket engine technologies and a description of a new spacecraft concept for fast interplanetary flights is available at the link:https://isulibrary.isunet.edu/doc_num.php?explnum_id=1658In his fusion engine, the reaction is triggered by positrons, the production and storage of which is fundamentally much easier than antiprotons. And here there is a mathematical model and simulation of the process of mastering the Solar System using such a ship:http://fast-transit.space I have no evidence that this has anything to do with Gwynne Shotwell or SpaceX, but this information is very useful for understanding the situation. For example, several trajectories of fast interplanetary flights.
Once cheap transit to LEO is available, the whole thing bootstraps up to an industrial economy capable of large projects. There are many cycles of expansion before asteroid mining, Mars, etc are ready though. At that point generation ships or sleeper ships of some kind become feasible. I think it better to plan for that then to plan on a breakthrough. I'm a massive booster and amazing people, everyone knows that. but to get to there in her lifetime is optimistic. But if so, what a ride!
Quote from: Valerij on 01/29/2021 09:25 pmA comparative overview of some rocket engine technologies and a description of a new spacecraft concept for fast interplanetary flights is available at the link:https://isulibrary.isunet.edu/doc_num.php?explnum_id=1658In his fusion engine, the reaction is triggered by positrons, the production and storage of which is fundamentally much easier than antiprotons. And here there is a mathematical model and simulation of the process of mastering the Solar System using such a ship:http://fast-transit.space I have no evidence that this has anything to do with Gwynne Shotwell or SpaceX, but this information is very useful for understanding the situation. For example, several trajectories of fast interplanetary flights.0.2g would be a wonderful velocity. It would easily open up travel to Mars and the asteroid belt.
I think continuous acceleration would solve the issue of human zero-g health degradation and eliminate the need for rotating spacecraft.
Joy Dunn, the head of manufacturing for Commonwealth Fusion Systems, shares the stories behind her rise from managing a team that built components the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to her current position, helping to build an innovative new fusion power plant. See more at https://www.toughtechsummit.com Visit Commonwealth Fusion Systems at https://cfs.energy/
Quote from: DigitalMan on 01/31/2021 02:22 amI think continuous acceleration would solve the issue of human zero-g health degradation and eliminate the need for rotating spacecraft. Fast interplanetary flights within the Solar System completely remove this problem, because the duration of such a flight is usually short, only a few days. Another thing is that the destination where people will stay for a long time may be a space station, and it is desirable to provide an imitation of gravity at such a station. I think that the discussion of the influence of gravity (or its imitation) is not for this topic.
https://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1187745445361180672QuoteShotwell: "I think we will have a propulsion breakthrough in my lifetime that we can then say we will build a ship and start the journey" to the next potentially habitable solar system.What kind of technologies could Ms Shotwell be referring to? People who have done the hard math on the rocket equation, energy densities, and efficiencies have shown that a fission based nuclear engine can achieve up to 0.05c, fusion engines can achieve up to 0.1c, and antimatter engines could hit up to 0.9c. Unprecedented developments in reliability engineering are required for any of these propulsion schemes, and fission based rocketry doesn't strike me as providing interstellar voyages on a useful time scale. What could Gwynne have in mind?
Shotwell: "I think we will have a propulsion breakthrough in my lifetime that we can then say we will build a ship and start the journey" to the next potentially habitable solar system.
Quote from: RotoSequence on 10/26/2019 06:37 amhttps://twitter.com/thesheetztweetz/status/1187745445361180672QuoteShotwell: "I think we will have a propulsion breakthrough in my lifetime that we can then say we will build a ship and start the journey" to the next potentially habitable solar system.What kind of technologies could Ms Shotwell be referring to? People who have done the hard math on the rocket equation, energy densities, and efficiencies have shown that a fission based nuclear engine can achieve up to 0.05c, fusion engines can achieve up to 0.1c, and antimatter engines could hit up to 0.9c. Unprecedented developments in reliability engineering are required for any of these propulsion schemes, and fission based rocketry doesn't strike me as providing interstellar voyages on a useful time scale. What could Gwynne have in mind?How do we know Shotwell has said anything on those lines..as it is not her account ?
