The spacecraft would be modular, and the main living area would be three identical 300 feet (91m) wide and long cylindrical modules. [3] The Enzmann could function as an interstellar ark, supporting a crew of 200 but with space for expansion. [1] newcommand{\vecs}[1]{\overset { \scriptstyle \rightharpoonup} {\mathbf{#1}}}\) \( \newcommand{\vecd}[1]{\overset{-\!-\!\rightharpoonup}{\vphantom{a}\smash{#1}}} \)\(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \(\newcommand{\id}{\mathrm{id}}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\) \( \newcommand{\kernel}{\mathrm{null}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\range}{\mathrm{range}\,}\) \( \newcommand{\RealPart}{\mathrm{Re}}\) \( \newcommand{\ImaginaryPart}{\mathrm{Im}}\) \( \newcommand{\Argument}{\mathrm{Arg}}\) \( \newcommand{\norm}[1]{\| #1 \|}\) \( \newcommand{\inner}[2]{\langle #1, #2 \rangle}\) \( \newcommand{\Span}{\mathrm{span}}\)\(\newcommand{\AA}{\unicode[.8,0]{x212B}}\) Working off the Enzmann specs as per kelvin Long, the starship would reach Alpha Centauri in 60 years, traveling most of the way at 0.09c. If that was really possible, that seems to me to be starting to get into the realm of the possible, rather than fantastic. A 60 year flight, in 1 g. might be survivable. A few tons of food and O2 per crew member/year might be an easier way to go than full recycling, if food can be made shelf stable for a century or more. NASA officials announced Wednesday, May 15, that the Kepler space telescope — the agency’s primary instrument for detecting planets beyond our solar system — had suffered a critical failure and could soon be shut down permanently. Certificate of Appreciation from the Muscular Dystrophy Association, January, 2003: For artistic contribution

Another question – if the deuterium is frozen, dies it even need to be enclosed in a “tank”. Would a lightweight mesh do? I assume the deuterium acts as a shield. Would it also not be better to have the crew compartment contained within the tank to act as a cosmic radiation shield, or is the crew compartment mass sufficient for that already? I mentioned at the outset of this series on 1970s starship projects that among some designers, at least, it was a time of immense optimism. We saw that in Bob Forward’s aggressively ambitious plan for exploration as presented to a subcommittee of the U.S. House. We also see it in spades in Stine’s thinking, making this theme a good note on which to close. Stine believed interstellar travel was possible through the laws of known physics and that it would not involve one-way trips but continued waves of exploration with frequent return to Earth. He goes on: Sedjak “Its just a thought, and probably thought of to some degree by many, but why not send a robotic probe(s) to Kepler with a self-contained reaction wheel(s)/solar panel/sighting/guidance/communications assembly. ” Sending such a device requires R&D for the device plus the launch cost. It is likely much cheaper to produce a second kepler spacecraft, based on the original design. Actually, mass-producing the original spacecraft would have been the cheapest option. It’s important to make clear, though, that in the original queue of missions aimed at finding life elsewhere, a mission like Kepler was a survey mission to establish the statistical frequency of whether these planets are rare or common. It lived the length of its prime mission, and was extremely successful during that time at achieving this goal. It has paved the way for additional missions, such as TESS — Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite — and TPF — Terrestrial Planet Finder — which will continue the search for Earth-like exoplanets in the near future.Image: The Enzmann starship as envisioned by the space artist David Hardy. This painting was commissioned by Kelvin Long in 2011 to depict a scene Hardy had first painted in the 1970s. Explain the Lorentz transformation and many of the features of relativity in terms of four-dimensional space-time Crowl, Adam; Long, K; Obousy, R (2012-06-01). "The Enzmann Starship: History and Engineering Appraisal". Journal of the British Interplanetary Society. 65: 185. Bibcode: 2012JBIS...65..185C.

Kepler has done what the program managers said it would do, and that is to give us an inventory of extrasolar planets. It completed its primary observation phase, and had entered its extended science phase. We’re already in the gravy train period — there’s still a year and a half’s worth of data in the pipeline that scientists will analyze to identify other candidate planets, and there will continue to be Kepler science discoveries for quite some time. Honor cords, Dean’s list, and Certificate of Achievement for the John Blodgett Memorial Scholarship Award, University of Maine, Augusta Forward: The Craftsman’s Symbology, Selected Symbols of the Entered Apprentice Degreeby Anthony Mongelli Describe the Galilean transformation of classical mechanics, relating the position, time, velocities, and accelerations measured in different inertial frames

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The other scheme, and this has never been tried, involves using thrusters and the solar pressure exerted on the solar panels to try and act as a third reaction wheel and provide additional pointing stability. I haven’t investigated it, but my impression is that it would require sending a lot more operational commands to the spacecraft. Question. Is this down scalable to probe size? Instead of a manned 30 kton ship, we use a 30 ton probe, with far less fuel and mass. Or is the scale of the ship a requirement of the propulsion technology? 60 years plus data transmission time at the target might be within the possible horizon of a science/exploration mission for some societies. As for scaling down, if you ever manage to read the original essay by Stine, he was proposing one stage of the initial probes to have small payloads – but to reach the speeds he wanted, the mass ratio was +1,000. Thus the launch mass was ~1,000,000 tonnes, with multiple stages. a b c d e f Long, K. F. (25 November 2011). Deep Space Propulsion: A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight -- Chapter 11.4: The Enzmann Starship. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4614-0607-5. ISBN 9781461406075. LCCN 2011937235.