People have always associated the most incredible discoveries and exciting adventures with space. And we can say that the current generation is lucky - at present, there is an active development of space technologies. Even today, some space concepts seem completely incredible, but this does not mean at all that they will not become reality in the coming years.
1. Rover ATHLETE from NASA
The rover or rover ATHLETE (All-Terrain Hex-Limbed Extraterrestrial Explorer), which is being developed by NASA, looks like an unusual mechanized spider. And this spider is intended for the colonization of the moon. The rover has six independently moving limbs to navigate uneven lunar terrain, and retractable wheels on each limb for smooth terrain. ATHLETE is also equipped with all the necessary tools, and its agile limbs can handle buckets, drills and grabs. The height of the rover is 4 meters, and it can carry 400 kilograms of payload (and this is with the earth's gravity).
2. A hitchhiker on a comet
NASA recently awarded a grant to develop the Comet Hitchhiker project, which literally means harpooning comets. The spacecraft, with the help of special harpoons on the ropes, will "tie" to comets and asteroids during its flight path and use their kinetic energy for acceleration.
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3. Solar probe
Like on Earth, the Sun has winds and storms. But, while the earth's wind can just ruffle your hair, the solar wind can burn anything in the blink of an eye. While this energetic phenomenon remains a mystery, NASA's solar probe should answer many questions in 2018 by getting closer to the Sun than any previous spacecraft.
The robotic probe will pass 8.5 solar radii (5.8 million km) from the sun's surface. To protect itself from destructive radioactive energy and temperatures of 1400 degrees Celsius, the solar probe will be “dressed” in special 12-centimeter heat shields made of foam carbon composite material. But NASA cannot send a probe directly to the Sun. To get to the star and go into the planned orbit, the probe will have to make 7 orbits around Venus. It will take almost seven years.
4. Martian outpost
The prospects for flights to Mars and Europe are more real than ever. NASA says that if some kind of global catastrophe does not happen, then a person will set foot on the Martian surface within the next two decades. The space agency has already developed a project for a future outpost on the Red Planet. Its construction is scheduled to begin in the 2030s.
The radius of the future colony will be approximately 100 kilometers, which will house living quarters, scientific buildings, a park for rovers, as well as mining equipment for the first four colonists. The power will be provided by many small nuclear reactors and solar panels (which, however, will be useless during the Martian sandstorms). Most, if not all of the required building ingredients are readily available for mining directly on Mars.
5. Startram magnetic space train
The proposed Startram launch system will be able to send about 300,000 tons of payload into orbit at a price of $ 40 per kilogram. That's 99 percent cheaper compared to the current $ 11,000 per kilogram. To achieve this, Startram will not need rockets, propellants, or ion storage devices. Instead, it is planned to use electromagnetic repulsion.
Similar technologies can now be found in magnetic levitation trains, which accelerate to 600 kilometers per hour. However, all modern Maglev vehicles (using the magnetic levitation effect) are limited by air resistance. As part of the Startram project, it is planned to build a vacuum tube-tunnel suspended by cables at an altitude of 20 kilometers. From such a tunnel one could literally "shoot" into orbit spacecraft, already accelerated to high speed. It will take about 20 years of work and $ 60 billion to complete such a project.
6.3-D-printed Martian houses
To speed up the flight to Mars, NASA has organized a competition for economically viable projects to create 3-D-printed Martian habitats. The main condition was the manufacture of buildings from local Martian materials. The winner was the Ice House project from Team Space Exploration Architecture and Clouds Architecture Office. In this project, ice is supposed to be used as a building material, since it is the cheapest material that provides the required level of radiation protection. Robots must collect material for the construction of houses, which will be landed on the surface of Mars on landing modules.
7. Coronograph
Now the study of the solar corona (the outer layer of the solar atmosphere of charged particles) is hampered by the Sun itself, since the star's radiance completely drowns out the corona's glow. A possible solution is a tennis ball-sized black Beach Ball coronagraph. It is mounted in front of a traditional spectrograph, thereby "creating a miniature solar eclipse." The effect should be similar to when the Moon covers the Sun, leaving only the corona visible.
8. HoneyBee Robotics: Forward to Asteroids
HoneyBee Robotics recently received funding from NASA to develop two new technologies for the Asteroid Redirect System program. The overall goal of this program is to study asteroids and predict possible threats from space in the future. The first technology is a kind of "space shotgun" that will fire a salvo of explosive pellets at an asteroid. This will allow chunks to be chipped off the asteroid, which are then collected using robotic arms and redirected to orbit around the Moon. The second technology is a nanodrill for collecting rock samples from asteroids. It weighs less than 1 kg and is about the size of a smartphone.
9. Solar power generator SPS-ALPHA
SPS-ALPHA is an orbital solar power generator with a galvanized coating of tens of thousands of thin film mirrors. The collected energy from the sun is converted into a microwave beam, which is "fired" towards receivers on Earth. In addition to the megawatts of power transmitted to Earth, the SPS-ALPHA system also opens up new opportunities for space exploration, an industry often constrained by the availability of cheap energy sources. However, several big challenges remain in the implementation of this project. For example, the SPS platform will be much larger than the International Space Station. Due to its gigantic size, it will have to be built directly in orbit.
10. Mission "Goal - Europe"
Target Europe is perhaps the craziest and most ambitious exploration mission ever proposed. Its goal is to send people to Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, where they will search for life in Europa's subglacial ocean on board a special submarine. A reasonable question arises: how the cosmonauts will return for the Earth. This is where the main crazy moment of the mission lies, since the answer is no way. In fact, they must consciously sacrifice themselves for the greatest scientific mission.
Separately, it is necessary to talk about the submarine, which should be equipped with the latest technologies: a powerful drill, multidirectional engines, searchlights, and possibly robotic manipulators. Also, the submarine requires unusually strong radiation protection, since the radiation from Jupiter is even greater than that of the Sun.