Particle Accelerator Powered Spaceships
An engineer from NASA David Burns came up with a helical engine that doesn't need normal fuel and uses a particle accelerator to power the ship. While it may sound more science-fiction than science without similar ideas we will likely never travel to other stars.
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Classical rocket engines need fuel to travel through space. They just don't work without it. But the fuel for such engines has a few problems – it is expensive and hard to acquire in space. That is why scientists and engineers are searching for alternative engines that could get us at least to closest planets and celestial bodies of our Solar system.
David Burns from the American science center named NASA Marshall Space Flight Center that can be found in Huntsville, Alabama recently came up with an interesting idea. The thought-up a massive engine for spiral-shaped spaceships. This engine would be based on particle accelerators. He calls this engine “helical engine” and presented it to the public on the NASA website.
According to Burns, his engine could be used for, for example, permanent bases in space which wouldn't, in result, need to refuel large amounts of fuel in complicated ways. At the same time, the helical engine could be used to fly to the closest stars even if the journey would take decades. This is because the helical engine could feasibly get spaceships close to the speed of light.
The design of the helical engine is based on a simple principle. The third Newton's Law – for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Burns is convinced that if the spiral engine had enough time and energy it could reach relativistic speeds. Sadly, for the time being, it is just an idea and not an official NASA project. But, Burns himself acknowledges that the project would not only bring insane technological challenges but at the moment we aren't even sure if the helical engine would work.
To have the helical engine produce at least some reasonable thrust it has to be used in space in an environment where there is no friction. If it was used on Earth it would require about 125 MW of energy (about the energy used by a small city) to produce 1 N of thrust (about as much as it is required to push a key on your keyboard). Another problem is that the engine only works on large scales. Seriously large. It needs to be at least 200 meters long and 12 meters wide. In comparison, the ISS is about half the size. And that is just the engine itself.
Either way, maybe the helical engine is just a mad man's dream and it will never work. But we do need those crazy dreams and dreamers otherwise we will never get to other planets.
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