by Dr Ugur Guven
International Astronautical Congress, 2011 Proceedings, South Africa
Our present space technology has just put its first step outside our heliopause. With 2012, Voyager will be the first... more
Our present space technology has just put its first step outside our heliopause. With 2012, Voyager will be the first
manmade object to exit our Solar System for the first time. As space technology develops and as the future of
humanity demands more and more; the only way that the humanity can expand would be toward the stars. Even
though this may seem to be a dream at this point, the continuing trend in the technology suggests that this will be
possible in the next century or towards the end of the 21st century. Thus, the modes of transportation for interstellar
distances need to be considered now, so that the necessary technology can be developed correspondingly. In terms of
specific impulse, conventional methods are totally useless for any distances that are outside our solar system. Thus,
more exotic means of space transport conditions need to be realized in order to make interstellar travel a reality. With
current technology, using advanced nuclear propulsion techniques seem to be the best way, as they possess the
ability to create high specific impulses in a short period of time. Continued acceleration will be a key to success in
such an endeavor and more importantly, with advanced nuclear propulsion, it can be possible to meet the necessary
power requirements for the mission. In addition, combination of antimatter propulsion as well as fusion propulsion
can be combined to give even a higher specific impulse, as well as an ability to meet power demands for decades,
which will be necessary for travelling even at those high speeds. This paper will examine the most probable
possibilities regarding interstellar travel based upon the available science and technology that we have today. In
addition, this paper will treat some advanced but hypothetical forms of interstellar travel by the utilization of space
curvature to some extent. In the end, the humanity has nowhere to go but to the stars. In this paper, we will try to
demonstrate with calculations, the most probable way of achieving these objectives.
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