Finding Kepler 22b in 2011was a pleasant surprise for all
astronomers. The details of this
discovery were covered in my essay Goldilocks
where I reviewed the efforts of the United States, both government and private
organizations, to locate such exoplanets and exomoons as may exist and to
determine whether the found exoplanets and exomoons were in the Goldilocks zone
and habitable. My earlier essay discussed
the possibility that this first of over 500 planetary bodies currently found
may meet this requirement, but It was
reluctantly concluded that the information in hand was too preliminary and that
much continuing research was needed before conclusions could be drawn. In the meantime, reading and writing about
Kepler 22b generated some speculative thoughts in my mind which I have made the
subject of this essay Goldilocks – II.
Now that astronomers have found Kepler 22b they will spend
endless hours over many years studying the planet in an attempt to pry loose
its secrets. At the moment, there is
little that we know. Until our
technology makes some extraordinary advances in space travel, our methods of
study will be limited to Earth-bound and orbiting telescopes from which we will
attempt to broaden our knowledge. What
is really needed is a robotic spacecraft capable of traveling to Kepler 22b and
returning to Earth with photos and scientific evidence in a reasonable period
of time – a greatly advanced version of the probe that is currently orbiting
and studying Vesta. Unfortunately, such
a craft is not possible even if one could be designed.
Kepler 22b is 600 light years from Earth. If it were possible to design a spacecraft
capable of light speed, it would take 600 years to fly from Earth to Kepler 22b
and an additional 600 years to return for a round trip total of 1,200 years. In reality, a one-way trip would take more
than 600 years since the craft could only accelerate for 300 years after which
it must decelerate for 300 years in order to be able to enter an orbit around
Kepler 22b to collect data. That means
the average speed must be light-speed, but an average speed of light is
impossible since it would require averaging speeds both slower and faster than
light-speed and nothing can exceed the speed of light. This inability increases the time of flight
from 1,200 years to something substantially greater than 1,200 years by a
factor not under consideration in this essay.
To this flight time must be added the time in orbit needed to collect
data. In addition, the relativistic
effects on time must be added to the flight time. It is clear that the described robotic mission
to Kepler 22b is out of the question.
One might suggest that the spacecraft could be left in orbit, never to
return to Earth, and the collected data be transmitted. There would be no benefit to such an
arrangement since in this example both the returning craft and the transmitted
data would function at light-speed.
There is one additional option available. On the return trip to Earth, the spacecraft
could be allowed to continuing travel at light-speed and when it approaches
Earth, continue past Earth at light speed while burst-transmitting the
collected data to an Earth station, similar to what was done with our
satellites when spying on the Soviet Union during the cold war. Of course, the vehicle would be lost and only
the data recovered. There would be
little gained by this option since a period of in excess of 1,200 years would
still be necessary, as would happen with all such options, with more than 1,200
years passing before completion of the mission.
So, where does that leave us?
Imagine that time has passed and it is now a date in the far
future – possibly centuries from now.
Man has expanded his knowledge exponentially and, among his
achievements, has developed a means of super-position for long distance
travel. My essay Stranger than Fiction
discusses this concept and the state of progress in today’s research
laboratories. While there has been
progress, we are ages away from developing a practical, usable system. Never-the-less, assuming that the program is
successful, in application, a device would replace the spacecraft. This device would not include engines or fuel
or any equipment needed by the spacecraft for its flight. It would have a cargo bay filled with
instruments for recording Kepler 22b data.
Because of these changes the device would be substantially smaller than
the spacecraft. In operation, using the
super position concept, the device would be transported to the orbit of
Goldilocks where it would function as would have the spacecraft. Collected information would be transmitted to
Earth. Alas, the problem of light-speed
suffered by the spacecraft would apply equally to the device and it still would
take in excess of 600 years for the return trip to accomplish its tasks.
What now?
Well before the discovery of the Goldilocks planets, NASA
was keenly aware of man’s inability to reach the stars within a lifetime. Chemical power plants were totally out of the
picture, not having power enough to remotely approach the required speeds. Nuclear and ion power systems were not much
better. What was needed was a new,
possibly radical concept to achieve the obvious goals.
Different teams broadly discussed and compared options that
appeared to be available with little success primarily because present day
technology wasn’t sufficiently advanced.
It was like using 19th century and earlier knowledge to solve 20th
century problems. A second “blue sky”
review was conducted which led to two options that were then considered in more
detail.
One program that was funded was the study of an unmanned
“one-way spacecraft” for interstellar travel.
While this program is currently under consideration through the design
stage, no craft will be built. It is not
expected to be anything more than an effort to advance technology that would be
made available for future programs. It
definitely isn’t expected to solve the problem of time in travel to the
stars. This program is in progress and
is expected to be funded through completion.
The second program has less to do with interstellar devices
and is concentrated on existing concepts in the astrophysical sciences. Investigators planned Initial reviews to
study gravity and gravity waves and apply the results to a means of warping
space time to overcome the restrictions on interstellar space travel caused by
light speed limitations and increase the speed of a spacecraft beyond light
speed without violating relativity. Why
choose gravity for this study? Of all
the known forces acting in our universe, gravity is the weakest by several
magnitudes. Being the weakest force it
should be the one most capable of being manipulated. However (there always is a
however), there is much going on in our universe that we know little about that
could have a bearing on these and future studies – dark energy, for example. This second program is at a very preliminary
stage and has yet to be funded beyond initial review, but the first part, that
of studying gravity, will start in early January 2012 with twin satellites
orbiting our Moon to measure the strength of Moon gravity through to the
central core.
In the pre-Einstein era gravity was simply the attraction of two or more objects in space: The larger
the mass, the greater the attraction.
Enter Einstein and his general theory of relativity where he noted that
while a body moving through an undisturbed plane would continue in a straight
line in the plane until acted upon by some force, such as would be caused by
another body entering the plane, space in the plane would become curved by the
entering body and the first body would be attracted to the entering body by the
curved space in a manner similar to that of a whirlpool in a body of water or
think of the plane as a rubber sheet which bends under the mass of the
object(s) placed upon it. Studies of
gravity to date have been unable to detect what is currently referred to as
gravity waves. Never-the-less, it is the
intent of NASA to conduct the proposed study of gravity in their effort to find
a means of warping space time for possible interstellar travel.
The concept being considered by NASA is so preliminary that
it is doubtful, assuming success, that what NASA achieves will even remotely
resemble what is proposed in these early stages of research. Only with the
success of the gravity study or some similar parallel study effort and the
production of positive information supporting the development of the proposed
warping device, will the research and design of the device be undertaken. When these early goals have been achieved and
the device completed, what will we have?
For purposes of this example, the device would be carried on
an advanced form of spacecraft capable of light speed or speeds approaching
light speed. In operation, the craft
would approach a region of space devoid of physical objects with the device turned
off. See Sketch (a). In the sketch, five horizontal lines
represent normal space.
At a chosen moment, when the craft is at 5 in Sketch (a),
the device would be turned on and space-time would be warped so that space
being entered by the craft would be compressed.
See Sketch (b). The five lines of
space, dotted lines in Sketch (b), are now shown curved and compressed due to
the action of the warping device. The
spacecraft is shown at position 5 as it enters warped space and at position 4
as it reaches the maximum limit of compressed space. The distance 1-5 in sketch (b) is shown to be
less than originally shown in sketch (a), about less than half in this example.
Warped Space
Sketch (a) – Normal
Space
_______________________________1________________________________
_______________________________2________________________________
_______________________________3________________________________
_______________________________4________________________________
_______________________________5________________________________
Sketch (b) – Warped
Space
.
. . .
. 1 . .
. . .
.
2 .
. 3 .
. 4
.
\-5-/
After having traversed compressed space, the craft would be
at 1 in Sketch (b) and the device would be turned off permitting compressed
space to return to normal space with the craft remaining at 1. In effect, the craft would have traveled the
distance 1-5 in sketch (b) in less than half the time necessary in sketch (a) and the
craft would have achieved, in this example, an effective speed in excess of light speed without violating relativity. The
numbers used in this example were only chosen to illustrate the concept and
should not be considered real nor should the concept be considered as anything
more than a theory currently under consideration.
Whether or not NASA will be successful is a big question,
but if one considers the progress of science over the past century or even the
past decade, how can you say they will fail?
Bibliography
http://www.planetary.org/
http://astrobiology.nasa.govt/
http://www.seti.org/
http://www.einstein-online.info/elementary
http://science.howstuffworks.com/dictionary
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-12-habitable-exoplanets-online-database
http://news.yahoo.com/planet-found-orbiting-habitable-zone-sun-star-0419
SETI: The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
Kepler: About the Mission.
Notable Exoplanets: The Planetary Society.
NYTimes.com.
USATODAY.com.
November 2014
LFC
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