| INTERSTELLAR SHUTTLE IDEAS |
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| Interstellar Shuttle Concept The concept of interstellar shuttle beamriders comes to me from Orion's Arm but it may actually originate with author Karl Schroeder. Instead of braking a star ship in the interstellar medium, a maneuver that will be time consuming, and then reaccelerating the star ship up to 0.5c, passenger and supply pods will stop at the destination while the ship races onward to another star farther out. Pods from the first destination star will be accelerated up to rendesvouz with the star ship. The pods will not be nearly as massive as the star ships; certainly less than 1% or 0.1% the mass of the star ship which has voluminous living areas, radiation shields, a closed ecosystem, fusion reactors, ablation shields and magnetic sails of substantial mass, thus it will require much less energy to brake and accelerate pods. The pods will have fusion engines and magnetic sails ( superconductor loops or magnetoplasmic sails). Passengers will hibernate in the pods to reduce living space and LSS requirements therefore the pods can be very small and low mass, about the size of today's airliners. The star ships will be built at major nodes in the beam rider network and propelled by mass beams up to 0.5c onto trajectories that make fly-bys of many stars during their operational lifetime. Some ships might complete a great arc through the galaxy that takes them back to their point or origin. Others might leave major nodes, construction and mass beam complexes orbiting hot blue-white stars perhaps, and follow a winding course through the galaxy that ends at another distant major node where they brake and are reaccelerated back to 0.5c and retrace their path through the galaxy, thus two way travel between the stars will be possible with large numbers of beam riding starships traveling the strands of the network. Since stars are rarely if ever located in nice straight rows, mass beams will be used to alter the course of ships. As illustrated above this will not take as much energy as braking and reaccelerating the ships. Stellar energy powered mass beam drivers at various stars won't need to be as enormous as they would be to propell ships up to 0.5c. Even in the future of replicating robots there will be a need for efficiency and economy. While major nodes where ships begin and end their voyages might have huge stellar energy complexes in orbit, it will not be necessary to defile the galaxy with partial Dyson spheres or rings of energy complexes around every human, android and/or robot inhabited star! Red dwarfs comprise 80% of the stars in the galaxy and offer limited amounts of energy. By using that energy more efficiently, merely deflecting instead of propelling star ships up to full speed, we can make use of red dwarfs without blotting them out with vast solar collectors. We don't want to do as the critics of interstellar travel say and become a plague of locusts in the galaxy. Some ships will travel for centuries before completing great arcs in the galaxy or stopping at distant major nodes. After many centuries in space they will reach the end of their operational lifetime and be rebuilt if possible or cannibalized for parts and exotic materials to build brand new ships. If a star ship has a 1000 year operational lifetime it could cross 500 light years of space. It's crew would consist of AI computers that do the navigation and androids that take care of other tasks. Everything will be recycled on the ship. There will be chambers where food for humans is grown and perhaps plants like hemp to make paper and other products. Animal cells could be cultured to produce meat without the trouble of keeping livestock. Leakage will be mimimized but there might always be some. Supply pods could replenish leakage losses. Harvesting interstellar gases with ram scoops has been determined to be ineffective but perhaps some of the propulsion/deflection mass beam elements can be captured. Replicating Robots It's always possible that androids could become the true inheritors of the galaxy. Androids could travel in mere pods at 0.5c instead of large ships and power down for years at a time. Androids, macrobots, microbots, nanobots and biologicals could be propelled to other star systems where they engage in replication and the detailed surveying of other star systems, mining, refining, construction of industrial infrastructure, habitat for humans, stellar energy complexes, mass beam "cannons" or "projectors," and interplanetary ships for exploration of the system by humans later on and multitudes of vehicles for planetary surface exploration. The mass of the robotic "seed" will not be very great. Once a system is developed to the point at which mass beams are working more robotic seeds could be launched out to farther stars. A wave of AI robots could sweep out into the galaxy. To quote Gerald David Nordley, "The point is that a million beam drivers for an interstellar propulsion system is not unreasonable for a civilization that made ten million automobiles a year before robotics." See: article We might sent the robots by "hot" beam riders at 0.9c to speed things up. Waves of robots would expand throughout the Oort Clouds of other systems also to chart the dangerous territory with optical, radio and radar telescopes built from cometary materials. Naturally, asteroids, comets and moons of other stellar systems would be used for raw materials. The AI 'bots would be programmed to avoid interference with alien life forms and to study them and transmit data back to our solar system or neaby systems inhabited by human scientists. We don't want the nano-bots and microbots that sample and study large numbers of celestial objects ( myriads of asteroids, comets and surface locations on moons and planets) to breed out of control. Perhaps some kind of planned obsolesence and immunity 'bots that deactivate or destroy 'bots that have gone cancerous with replication will be necessary. I favor the social insect model with a queen that does the replicating and worker off spring that is not burdened with the machinery of reproduction. Thus most of the 'bots can't breed like an infection and if necessary the queens can be shut down or destroyed. One queen could beget two queens and thousands of workers. Two queens four, four eight, eight 16, 16 then 32, 32 then 64, etc. As the replicating robots chart, analyze, prospect and build outwards into the galaxy with exponential speed it will become possible for humans to travel out to waiting habitat, food, drink, vehicles and perhaps even people grown from frozen human gametes. The interstellar shuttle system is no good if there's nothing at the destination. We tend to think that we must take our whole environment with us in the form of a giant star ark in which we can live for years at destinations while having families and raising kids to do more work in the destination system. This is the human colonization model. Humans are slow to grow and don't work nearly as fast as robots can. Better to launch small seed ships with replicating robots to do the work before humans get there. This means we will need some highly intelligent robots. They will be programmed to serve humans and might not have feelings of their own, but they will also have self preservation programs. Asimov's Rules of Robotics might apply. Foresight is always a wonderful gift. It will soon be possible to study the planets of nearby stars with large telescopes. Eventually, enormous compound space telescopes will study other star systems, analyze the spectra of light from planets orbiting those stars, even locate asteroids and moons in other systems and study our own Oort Cloud in detail. We don't want our starships or robotic seed ships crashing into any comets, rogue planets or brown dwarfs! It will be possible to program the 'bots with data on the target systems and instructions for projects in those systems. There are certain to be many rogue planets and brown dwarfs out there that we have not detected presently. Some of these could be seeded with miniature artificial black holes. Perhaps we could propell some tonnages of iron up to near light speed and slam them right into those objects and the impact compression with the cores of these bodies could form little black holes that ignite the objects and create human made stars. This would increase the number of places in the galaxy where there is energy to support humans and machines. It would also add stars to the beam rider network possibly in ideal locations for multiple fly-bys. Putting People in the Picture Humans will follow the advancing wave of robots into the galaxy. If we catch a beamrider starship from the Sirius node on it's way to Vega and destinations in between will it not be wasteful to just let the ship careen out into space to some distant terminus? Some early ships might be braked at nearer star systems and kept for various purposes. Others might go out into the beamrider network into star systems where humans have not arrived yet, unless we grow some people from gametes ( perhaps the gametes of famous entertainers...some flesh and blood welcome wagons) out there. This seems like a waste of starships, but it need not be. Unmanned ships of various designs would be real-world tested. Design flaws could be discovered before humans endure catastrophe. Actual operational life times would be demonstrated. The integrity of the entire two-way beam rider network would be tested out by these early ships that carry humans to stars within ten or twenty light years and then race outwards to parts inhabited only by robots and nodes where the ships are turned around. If cyrostassis is possible then it will be possible for humans to travel dozens, even hundreds of light years at a time. If not, then the first waves of humans will travel out 10 or 20 ly, explore the nearby systems, head back home or travel out even farther. Of course, there will have to be ships that complete the great arc and return to their points of origin or travel all the way out to terminus on a winding path, making many flybys, and then return after refurbishment or cannibalization and erection of brand new ships if there is to be return travel. I guess early ships will not go as far out before braking in the interstellar medium and reaccelerating back at 0.5 c, but I really like the idea of testing the network out to its greatest extent with unmanned ships of various designs before sending humans in cryostassis all the way to Rigel. It is also very likely that humans will travel to the stars in small one-way colony ships centuries before the beamrider network is built or a need for it is even percieved. Humans and their robots will probably spend centuries developing the Earth, restoring it by moving factories, fusion powerplants and transportation systems underground, and developing the solar system before large numbers of beings, biological and electronic, desire to travel to the stars in substantial numbers. We might reach far into space during those centuries in fusion powered vessels and mass beam propelled vessels, with perhaps only 50 to 100 colonists aboard. With multi-generation ships or biostassis they might reach great distances. While most people play and do business in the solar system the most intrepid pioneers could head for the stars. As their populations expand they may move out to more distant star systems. The human colonization model may precede the waves of robots that develop huge numbers of star systems and build the beamrider network. If nobody is out there the motivation to build the network won't even exist. It also depends on how far we want to travel at a time. I think in terms of ten or twenty year voyages by humans with extended life spans and possibly hibernation. People leaving the solar system would only desire to travel to Alpha Centauri, Barnard's Star or Sirius at this rate. Many would want to return so we wouldn't want the ships sailing to far into the galaxy before they were turned around and made available for flight back home. Early beamrider routes will fly-by only a few stars it seems. As populations expand and life spans increase, especially if long term biostassis is possible, there will be more and more people who wish to penetrate deeper into space. People with 1000 year life spans might dare to travel to the outer limits of the network. It seems likely to me that the stars will be inhabited by humans out to 50 ly perhaps before the network is created and then it will reach beyond this as the need or want for it arises. There are 1400 star systems and 2000 stars within 50 ly. There are 133 stars in this range visible to the naked eye from Earth. See:star map Of these 133 all are K, G, F and a few A type stars. Some of these G type stars like our Sun, F type stars like Procyon (7.6x more luminous than Sol) and few A type stars could serve as major nodes where ships begin and end their journeys to many other stars in between. About Money There is that magic substance known as money that controls most of our activities. Even in the age of AI and nanobots there may be money. Even the 'bots can only do so much work and provide for so many people. Those who own and control the 'bots will decide what resources are to be developed and where. While some people in the future might be able to program their own nano-bots to do amazing things and enrich themselves, we can't be sure that everybody will. Those who know how to make their 'bots do things will sell their software for what it is worth, and that might be plenty! So the beamrider network will only grow as much as there is a market for travel by way of it. Electromagnetic waves will be able to catch up with the robots, so the owners of the network will be able to stop or start their construction activities with some lag time of course. As populations grow and more travelers seek to voyage to the stars the network will grow. Until humans are surpassed by some kind of AI, there must be people in control of things, and those people will want financial compensation. Indolence is not healthy. Future humans might work fewer hours, but there must be some way to motivate them to produce something for their own good, and that usually means money. The bottom line is that the beamrider network will not even be created until there is a demand for it and that means people living amongst the stars willing to pay for a ride. With replicating AI it seems we could plant the seeds and let the network grow on its own to a vast extent, but when we confront the foolishness of building something bigger than anybody has any use for we realize that its growth must be controlled. There is the old "build it and they will come." Also, some builders might look at the thing as a long range investment, especially if they have 1000 year lifespans. First we get people to travel out to 10 or 20 ly. Some return home and others stay. Later, some of those who stayed at stars 10 or 20 ly away choose to go back to the Sol system and others choose to travel farther out, etc. Meanwhile there are lots of colonists who's ancestors homesteaded various systems centuries ago. They want to do some traveling, even travel farther out into the galaxy where the robots have built all kinds of habitat where they can stake out new claims as long as they have something to pay the network builders with. Or would the beamrider network be a big government mass transit and habitat project that anybody could have access to cheap? Frozen Sleep? Cryostassis might be possible. Cockaroaches do it. Perhaps humans could be genetically modified to produce glycerol that serves as anti-freeze for the blood and body fluids. The liver manufactures cholesterol from saturated fat. Perhaps the consumption of glycerol percursors could stimulate genetically modified human's livers to make their own antifreeze and their livers could remove the glycerol when coming slowly out of deep freeze. Alcohol would not make good biological antifreeze because of it's destructive effects, so forget about tying one on real good before going into suspended animation!! What follows is not bragging. My Dad, Dr. David N. Dietzler who's obituary might still be on the web, was a biochemist (although you could call him a molecular biologist or officially a clinical pathologist, labeling his job was always kind of a challenge). He performed an experiment (One amongst many. The only thing he won any fame for was a blood test for heart attack damage. However, he spent most of his years studying carbohydrate metabolism in bacteria; real technical stuff.) once in which he increased the salt concentrations of a bacterial culture medium. The salts blocked transport of nutrients across the bacterial cell membranes and the cells shut down completely. It was as if the little natural nano-machines stopped running when their fuel supply was cut off. This is not the same as lyphollization-that's freeze drying and microbes are routinely preserved for years that way, so it was no surprise to us that viable bacteria were found in the Surveyor probe. He restored the cells with betaine which removed the salts from the membranes. Don't ask me if this could be done to humans or if betaine is toxic in the bloodstream or not. He received research paper reprint requests in large volume. He even got one request from the Soviet Institute for Cyrogenic Research (I'm not that certain on the precise name, but you get it) in Novosibirsk. So there might be all sorts of possibilities. Comsuming gads of salt seems like it would be hard on the kidneys and might do strange things to the nerves. Lithium salts are used to treat manic depression and are toxic in large doses over a long period of time. A boy in Iran once took several grams of zinc in some form of salt (otherwise it would not be soluble) and went into a coma for several days. Perhaps a little salt of rubidium, some glycerol from the liver, and chilling one down to a few degrees below zero Celsius after a thorough cleansing of the body inside (enemas) and out, and a nice sterile mold, fungus and bacteria free stassis chamber with filtered air could do the trick safely. It still seems like all this will be murder on one's kidney's and one would need to be hooked up to an artificial kidney to remove all this stuff once the body was warmed to a point at which the fluids flowed well and the heart was starting again. An air mask and ventilator could get the lungs going again. However, kidney disease horrifies me, I hate CPAP machines and I don't even give blood. I'd rather chant some mystic mantra and go into a state of suspended animation if you beleive in that sort of thing! And if mystic powers are real, why can't we just teleport into the universe? Well, I won't go that far out on the limb! If cyrostassis is not possible or just downright dangerous and unpopular, hibernation or estivation might be possible and passengers could make use of rotating hibernation, a few months asleep followed by a few months awake, etc. to pass the time away and reduce LSS requirements. Humans could be genetically modified to make hibernation possible and extend lifespans. If cryostassis and hibernation are both no good, there's always large starships filled with hedonic amenities including android maids and real girls too. As much time as I and others spend surfing the web or watching TV, with VR I am sure star farers could kill time in VR for years and years and sleep a lot also. This could mean a real strain on the LSS if you consider the massive quantities of beer and pizza that might consumed ( a wee joke, capitain). Perhaps we could even establish relativistic universities aboard star ships. During many years en route to another star system passengers could learn from android professors and computers and devote themselves to study without too much distraction by the world around them. Talk about sending your kid away to college! |
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| Pods accelerating at just 1.5 G with sleeping passengers aboard will take about four months, 120 days, to reach 0.5c. Deceleration at 1.5 G likewise. The pods will have fusion engines to assist their maneuvers. |
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| Pods could also be configured like small star ships. The size of the plasma bubbles, or toroidal clouds actually, that form the magnetoplasmic sails would be much larger and the separation distance between the passenger pod and the small payload pod greater. Mass beam particles pulled through the central superconductor solenoid propell the SPP during accel and "brake it in" during decel. The plasma sail gas, perhaps helium, is replenished at space stations after each manuever because it leaks away or is blown away after a few months of travel. Alternately, pods could use mag-sails with cable loops made of superconducting carbon nanotube fiber perhaps. |