Science fiction has long been a source of inspiration for science fact. Things like tablets from 2001: A Space Odyssey share many similarities to iPads, and Star Trek has gadgets bearing similarities to everything from Bluetooth to cell phones to translation software. In this article, I’ll be looking at some technologies currently being developed that are found in popular science fiction. RailgunsRailguns are a technology that are essentially in their infancy now. The US military has some working prototypes, and China just confirmed its own railgun project. A railgun works by using either chemical fuel or electromagnets to propel an object of high mass at several times the speed of sound. Two rails of magnets push the object forward, and with strong enough magnets, the object can hit incredible speeds. In tests, railguns have fired projectiles at over 8,000 feat per second and can deliver 50 megajoules of force. For reference, 50 megajoules of force is roughly equal to a 5 ton school bus hitting you at over 300 miles per hour. Right now, railguns are mostly experimental. A test ship for the Navy is equipped with one, and the Army has its own version, but it’s uncertain whether they will see actual combat. However, railguns have theoretical uses that are very plausible. In Halo, human ships use versions of railguns called Magnetic Accelerator Cannons, or MAC guns (which is a much better name if you ask me), and warships from The Expanse also use railguns for close range combat. It’s also possible to use railguns for space mining or as a way to launch things into space because they can launch objects at such a high velocity. The main reason why railguns are so popular for use in space is because they produce no recoil. In a zero-gravity environment, any sort of recoil would launch you off into the void because there is nothing that can stop your motion. Railguns solve this problem. Laser WeaponsThe US Navy is once again leading the charge in creating Sci-Fi weaponry, this time with lasers. Unfortunately, this won’t be a hand-held death ray like something from a 1950s movie. The Navy’s laser is ship-mounted and is designed to shoot down missiles and drones. It is low maintenance and has a long lifespan. The only problem is that it requires more power than can reasonably be put on a ship. However, the idea is being seriously developed. The main advantage of lasers is similar to those of railguns: they have no recoil and therefore can fire in space. We are obviously a long way from that happening, and there are lots of practical issues that must be considered too. How will space lasers be powered? Would they really be more effective than missiles or railguns? Nevertheless, it is an exciting new technology. Deflector ShieldsWhile we’re on the topic of warfare, let’s talk about shielding. A pretty essential part of a warship is its ability to take a hit and stay functioning, but in space, where a single hole can be a death sentence, this becomes much more important. According to University of Leicester students, building Star Wars-esque shields against laser weapons is possible. It requires strong magnetic fields to hold dense, super hot plasma in place, which then deflect incoming laser frequencies. Like many things in this article, as of right now it’s only theoretically possible. All the science behind it works, and we have magnets strong enough to do this, but there are several practical problems. First, the power source for something like this would be massive. Second, the plasma barrier would also block incoming light, so a shielded ship wouldn’t be able to visibly see anything. Still, this technology could be used today as shielding for fusion reactors to prevent exposure to massive doses of pesky radiation. TricordersStar Trek fans will recognize the tricorder as the versatile tool used to scan life forms, make medical diagnoses, and cure patients, all with a hand-held device. As it turns out, this device is closer to reality than you may think. A Pennsylvania-based team has developed a wearable device that can diagnose various diseases and ailments by noninvasively analyzing body chemistry and vital signs. It uses artificial intelligence to compare data gathered from the patient and compares it to data gathered from a massive pool of clinical data from hospitals and ER’s. The team says their tricorder will be particularly useful in remote areas and urban environments that can’t access medical help. Making tricorder a reality would be incredibly useful today, not to mention on future exploration missions, especially after encounters with dangerous lizard aliens. Generation ShipsGeneration ships are massive theoretical spacecraft that are designed to travel slower-than-light and sustain several generations of passengers until they reach their destination. Such ships have been featured in the 2009 sci-fi horror movie Pandorum, which isn’t as bad as its review scores make it seem, and The Expanse, which I will continue to plug and there’s nothing you can do to stop me. The idea behind generation ships is that if you can’t travel faster-than-light, then we’ll build a giant mobile home to get us where we want to go. With NASA making breakthroughs in ion propulsion, a faster and more efficient method of travel than rockets which could take humans to Mars in just 39 days, the possibility of a long-term interstellar flight isn’t all that far fetched. There are, of course, problems that come with generation ships. Current propulsion methods would still take a long time, and building a sustainable, long-lasting environment is a major obstacle. We currently don’t have the capacity nor the resources to build a ship of this magnitude either. Even if we did, how could we prepare for space radiation or other unforeseen dangers? And would we be able to prevent a societal collapse over the course of the voyage? While there are obviously many problems with it, if humanity is going to interstellar space any time soon, it will most like be on generation ships. Faster-then-light TravelYeah, I know, it sounds crazy. Just stick with me for a second. It is impossible to travel faster-than-light according to Einstein’s Theory of Relativity— think of it like the universal speed limit. Any object that has mass requires more and more energy to accelerate it faster and faster, until it reaches near-light speed, where nearly infinite amounts of energy are required. However, something called an Alcubierre drive could theoretically exploit a loophole in the Theory of Relativity. An Alcubierre Drive would compress the space in front of it while expanding space behind it. In theory, this could cause a spacecraft to change its position in space without actually requiring the ship to move. The math behind Alcubierre drives works, and there is a fair amount of research into it, some by even NASA, but this device is practically impossible right now. First of all, the amount of energy an Alcubierre drive needs is still unfathomably large— greater than the mass of the entire universe, in fact. Secondly, the ship would be unable to steer or stop since no signals could be sent in front of the ship due to the compression of space. Finally, even if the ship could be stopped, the drive would produce massive amounts of gamma radiation that could kill anything nearby when the ship stops. Despite seeming to be impossible, that’s no reason to count out some method of faster-than-light travel, especially with the technology we have now. Circumnavigation of the globe was impossible until someone did it. So was landing on the moon, then we did it, and suddenly it wasn’t impossible anymore. Science has the sometimes wonderful, sometimes nasty habit of pushing the envelope of what is possible until it finds its limits, then tries to go a little further. Only time will tell if this habit gets us to the stars. I, for one, believe it will.
2 Comments
3/30/2018 06:02:37 pm
Wow! Amazing article Logan, I love the research and time that obviously went into making this! I wonder, how will some of this technology change the world for better or worse? Also, you mention some of these item’s usefulness in space, mostly usefulness in areas we have no need for usefulness in as of now. Do you believe we will see legitimate deep space exploration and possible combat in our lifetime? Especially considering that every year we surpass previously unsurpassable barriers.
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Logan
3/30/2018 06:36:35 pm
I’m optimistic in believing we’ll see a few of the technologies put into use during our lifetime. Railguns, for example, would be excellent for things like asteroid mining which promises to be an insanely profitable market once we have the capability to safely travel to and from the asteroid belt. On a related note, space combat is most likely something we won’t see in our lifetimes, unless space exploration explodes in the near future and there becomes something valuable enough to fight for. I just can’t see there being enough ships and competing interests within the next 50 or so years for space combat to be a common thing. Perhaps some major nations may have small navies, but probably not much more than that in our lives. In my obviously expert opinion, I expect space exploration to be mostly by private companies for mining and science missions, which will eventually pick up, possibly towards the end of our lives. Unfortunately, most of the things I mentioned most likely will benefit our great-great-great-great grandchildren— maybe. However, technology is advancing faster and faster, so there’s still reason to be optimistic.
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AuthorIf you value the opinions of a 17 year old kid on all things Sci-Fi and Fantasy, you’ve come to the right place.
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