Future Spaceships and Interstellar Travel - Part 1

Hungary-based space illustrator Adrian Mann is a graphical engineer for the Project Icarus, an effort to research the possibilities for interstellar travel. When scientists conceive of spaceships for travel to another star, most proposals require advanced and exotic propulsion mechanisms, including nuclear power and antimatter power. The following illustrations by Mann show some of the proposed concepts for vehicles to take us beyond the solar system.

Saturn Rockets:
During the Apollo program, NASA investigated many options for up rating the Saturn V, from stretching the 1st stage to adding enormous solid rocket boosters, and even a nuclear powered upper stage - NERVA - that could be used for missions to Mars.

NERVA Spacecraft:
Two nuclear powered NERVA spacecraft being assembled in orbit, with the crew being ferried with an early design space shuttle, for the journey to Mars.

Orion Spacecraft:
The Saturn V could also have carried an Orion spacecraft to orbit. Powered by nuclear explosions, the Orion spacecraft leaves orbit for Mars.

Orion Mars Spacecraft:
The Orion Mars spacecraft shown here has a crew accommodation section, 2 Mars Landers in the form of lifting bodies, and enough small nuclear devices to propel the ship to and from Mars.

Super Orion:
Given the colossal power of nuclear explosions, enormous Orion ships were envisaged, to be launched from remote desert areas such as Jackass Flats in the Nevada Test Range.

Bussard Funnel:
The major problem with trying to devise a ship to travel between the stars is that of fuel. Robert Bussard devised a ship that would use a huge magnetic funnel to collect hydrogen from space to use as fuel in an interstellar ramjet.

Bussard Funnel Thrust:
While Bussard's spacecraft concept looks appealing, calculations have shown that the thrust of the engine may not be enough to overcome drag caused by the magnetic funnel.

Credit for the images and description goes to: Adrian Mann

Thanks a lot for reading and viewing this post. Click the links below to read other posts about the Spaceships of the Future and about the Interstellar Travel.

Future Spaceships and Interstellar Travel - Part 2

Future Spaceships and Interstellar Travel - Part 3

Future Spaceships and Interstellar Travel - Part 4

Future Spaceships and Interstellar Travel - Part 5

read other related posts:

Commercial Space Transportation - Crew Program
Commercial Space Tourism or Travel

NASA's Mars mission with Rover Curiosity
Little about our own Solar System
NASA's Kepler Mission Discovers Earth-Like-Planet
NASA's Cassini Equinox Mission and the Saturn
Largest Earth-Based Telescopes in the World
Space-Based Telescopes in the World
Space Stations in the Earth Orbit
Little about the Hubble Space Telescope
James Webb Space Telescope
Ten Fastest Supercomputers in the World
Little about the LHC - Large Hadron Collider
Bangladeshi Robots in NASA's Lunabotics Mining Competition
Real Picture of Black Hole