![]() ![]() Breakthrough Starshot may very well be impossible according to criterion #3 simply because of the needed material properties of the accelerating sail that must survive a gigawatt laser beam for 30 minutes. For example, “warp drives” can currently be classified as impossible by criterion #1, and chemical rockets are impossible due to criterion #2. This is worth quoting:Īpplying this Holmes Method to space propulsion concepts for exoplanet exploration, in this paper the term “impossible” is re-interpreted arbitrarily to mean any technology that requires: 1) new physics that has not been experimentally validated 2) mission durations in excess of one thousand years and 3) material properties that are not currently demonstrated or likely to be achievable during this century. Jackson applies it to the propulsion concepts we normally think of in terms of making an interstellar crossing. On the matter of the impossible, the quote proves useful. Image: Depiction of the deceleration of interstellar spacecraft utilizing antimatter concept. ![]() In the new paper, he looks at a 10-kilogram scale spacecraft with the capability of deceleration as well as a continuing source of internal power for the science mission. Jackson has been studying the matter for decades now, and has presented antimatter-based propulsion concepts for interstellar flight at, among other venues, symposia of the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop (now the Interstellar Research Group). The latter is a by-product of the enrichment of natural uranium to make nuclear fuel.īoth thrust and electrical power emerge from this, and in Jackson’s hands, we are looking at a mission architecture that can not only travel to another star – the paper focuses on Proxima Centauri as well as Epsilon Eridani – but also decelerate. In any case, a Star Trek reference comes into useful play here because what Jackson (Hbar Technologies, LLC) is writing about is antimatter, a futuristic thing indeed, but also in Jackson’s thinking a real candidate for a propulsion system that involves using small amounts of antimatter to initiate fission in depleted uranium. I’m a great admirer of Doyle and love both Holmes and much of his other work, so it’s good to get this citation straight.Īs I recall, Spock quotes Holmes to this effect in one of the Star Trek movies this site’s resident movie buffs will know which one, but I’ve forgotten. ![]() Although I’ve often seen Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes cited in various ways, I hadn’t chased down the source of this famous quote: “When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” Gerald Jackson’s new paper identifies the story as Doyle’s “The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier,” which somehow escaped my attention when I read through the Sherlock Holmes corpus a couple of years back. ![]()
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