It just doesn’t seem fair, does it? There’s an entire universe out there, with surprises waiting
for us in every star system… but human beings, so far, have been able to explore just a tiny,
tiny, tiny part of it. There’s so much we don’t know, and so, so much we haven’t seen.
That could, though, be about to change. This is Unveiled, and today we’re answering
the extraordinary question; Did Japan just invent how we’ll one day travel into deep space?
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By now, we know our solar system reasonably well. That’s not to say we know everything about it,
far from it, but just that we’re fairly sure on the basics. There’s one sun,
eight planets including Earth, many moons around those planets including our own, an asteroid belt,
the Kuiper belt, the scattered disc, and the Oort Cloud. That’s an extremely oversimplified
way of describing this spectacular structure suspended in space that we just so happen
to call home… but it’s all there. Really, though, the further away from
Earth we get, the more and more unsure we tend to become. Again, there are cosmological facts that
we’re certain about - including the existence of other star systems, and other galaxies,
as well as black holes, rogue planets, and that all of it is expanding outwards.
But the details gradually disappear the further out we look. Which is why most people with even a
passing interest in space and the universe would likely agree that it would be seriously cool
if we could travel out of the solar system ourselves… and make it into deep space.
Now, we’re not going to get too far ahead of ourselves in this video as, it’s 2021, and as
of yet we haven’t even been to Mars. Only a dozen human beings have ever stepped foot on the moon.
And only a few hundred have been into orbit, with most of them headed to the International Space
Station. For all that we’ve achieved, we’re still at the extremely early stages when it comes to
long-distance space travel. But there is hope, and especially given recent developments in Japan.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (or, JAXA) has announced a successful test run in space of
what’s known as a rotating detonation engine (or, RDE). These engine types aren’t entirely new in
the far-future realm of space engineering, with many organisations having experimented with them
before now, including NASA and the United States Navy… but JAXA’s test run is the first of its kind
in the world. It’s the first time that anyone has truly seen whether RDEs really could work.
So, what is an RDE? Simply put, it’s an engine that runs off a series of meticulously controlled
explosions. These explosions chase each other through a purpose-built, ringed part of the
engine itself, continually feeding out the energy and thrust that’s needed for a machine to go.
And, hopefully, go fast. What’s crucial, though, is that although there’s the potential for huge
amounts of power here, it’s been estimated that an RDE could be up to twenty-five percent
more efficient than traditional rocket engines are… which, naturally, means that they should
run off much less fuel. In theory, then, they could be cheaper to use and wield less
of an environmental impact. So, it’s win / win for spaceship designers! Although, it should
also be noted that there are some potential downsides at the early stages of this tech,
including the long-debated possibility that RDEs could be unstable. For so long as the explosions
within an RDE do remain controlled, then there’s no reason to worry… but were they ever to get out
of control, then there could be serious trouble! Thankfully, the JAXA test run went off without a
hitch. And, although its scope was limited to just a few seconds of actual RDE use,
scientists both in Japan and around the world have been encouraged by the fact
that everything worked, and nothing blew up. In a statement after the successful launch,
JAXA described the many potential benefits of RDEs, including that they could make future
spacecraft lighter, which would further add to their efficiency… while one Jiro Kasahara,
a professor at Nagoya University who also worked alongside JAXA on the project, is reported as
saying, “we will aim to put the technology into practical use in about five years”.
The timeframe here, then, isn’t as long nor as far-off as the estimates can so often seem
for so many other plans and missions within the field of space travel. The technology is still
in its infancy, but there’s a genuine hope that it could become the norm before the 2020s are
through. Which could be excellent news if you hope to see interstellar exploration anytime soon. But,
again, we perhaps shouldn’t get too carried away. For one, things can go wrong with the tech itself,
and the engineers and scientists might eventually conclude that RDEs aren’t the way forward. But,
also, even if every space agency on the planet were to convert to RDEs tomorrow,
there’s still a long way to go before actual humans are strapping themselves in
for long-haul, interstellar flights. That’s because there’d still be so many
other problems to solve, not least how to ensure the long-term survival of a long-distance crew
both during its flight, and upon its arrival to whatever alien world it’s headed for.
Vehicles equipped with rotating detonation engines may well need less fuel to function,
but they could still be travelling through space at a relatively slow pace.
When most science fiction imagines interstellar travel, it foresees near-instantaneous journeys
between this planet and the next, and the next… but that’s not yet being promised here. Indeed,
at this still early stage, it’s not really clear how fast an RDE ship could go…
which is one reason why we should perhaps plan for the tech to be used to send uncrewed probes
on their way, instead. And AI missions, that could still take decades to complete.
Nevertheless, to send anything out of the solar system with confidence would be a major
step forward. We, of course, have the Voyager probes already making their way toward the Oort
Cloud - the outer, outermost region of the solar system - along flightpaths that have taken them
further away from the sun than anything else we’ve ever built. But equip all our unmanned
space vehicles with RDEs, and we could suddenly see plenty more join (and maybe even pass)
the iconic Voyagers on their far-off journeys. So, where could these ships of the future be headed?
No doubt for the first few missions we’d keep it relatively close,
exploring the applications of RDEs during trips to Mars, or Venus, or the Asteroid Belt. But,
after that, the Alpha Centauri system would arguably be the most sensible destination,
seeing as it’s the next closest collection of stars and planets to our own. But, naturally,
in the meantime, and as technology continues to improve across all fields,
it may well be the case that our Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence will yield
better results too… so that we can begin to target specific regions of the galaxy, with the hope that
life will be found there. At present, even if we were certain that life existed somewhere far away,
we’d have no hope of physically sending anything there… but, should RDEs greatly improve our travel
options, or should they inspire yet more innovation in space engineering, then the
distances could, one day, feel much smaller. Really, it’s why the news coming out of JAXA
is so significant. We’re now more confident than ever before that RDEs will work, they’re
no longer only a hypothetical option, and that could usher in a new age of space exploration.
And, for all the head-scratching that this generation of scientists and astronomers has
had to do over trying to tame the huge distances that space throws at us, RDEs could represent a
key breakthrough. What’s your verdict? Do you like the idea of rotating detonation
engines propelling us across the cosmos? They certainly look like the stuff of science fiction,
but is it time for them to become science fact? We saw in a previous video how there’s an
ever-growing number of exciting space missions scheduled for the coming years and decades,
so it’s no wonder why there’s some speculation that we could be on the brink of a new golden
age of space travel… and, certainly, if we can improve the way we power ourselves through space,
then we can expect to discover even more about this incredible universe we live in.
And that’s how Japan may have just invented how we’ll, one day, travel into deep space.
What do you think? Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments, check out these other
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