The+Driving+Question


 * Which of the systems of which we have mentioned is most suitable for sustaining life forms. With regards to supporting human life, how might we get there **   ** ? **

=Which system?= Out of the following systems that would be the most suitible for sustaining life forms would be PLANETS. As a group we have decided to choose the new water world [|Gliese 581], which is situated in the outskirts of our Solar System. It is the almost the same planet as Earth except it would be covered with oceans and there is very little landmass. However more land masses are being developed there. With regards of getting there, we could travel by the fastest spacecrafst in the world, Apollo 10, Stardust and Helios. The reason why we chose PLANETS as our sustainable system is because planets contain many different materials, elements and sustainable types of life. Only a few have been seen to contain traces of life, as most don't have the right suitable zones to match coping with life, as do that plenty of the systems chosen by Dan. Most of them include stars and their stages. How could life manage to live on a hot body of gas? Planets do need energy from these stars, and Gliese 581 is situated right next to a red giant, but these planets is the of the link to life. These planets are more like home for life forms of any kind.

=How can we get there?= Apollo 10 is the fastest manned spacecraft in the world by achieving a speed of 39,896 km/h. This flying machine was the 4th manned mission in the Apollo program. According to the 2001 Guinness World Record, Apollo 10 set the record for the highest speed attained by a manned vehicle and the speed record was set during the return from the Moon on May 26, 1969. There is a possibility of travelling with this space craft. Image from: [] The stardust machine has achieved a top speed of 46,440 km/h on its return to earth in 2006. This flying machine called Stardust is an American prototype belonging to the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, whose primary purpose was to investigate the makeup of the comet Wild 2 and its coma. It was launched in 1999 and travelled nearly 5·109 km, and returned to Earth on January 15, 2006 to release a sample material capsule. It is the first sample return mission to collect cosmic dust and return the sample to Earth. If we could built a real model we could reach there pretty quick back and forth.

Image from: [] Helios is a spectacular flying machine and is the fastest unmanned spacecraft in the world with a top speed of 252,792 km/h. The Helios deep space probes were launched in the mid 1970s by Germany. There were two in the series, Helios I and Helios II. They were launched into heliocentric orbit to study solar processes. They set a speed record for the fastest spacecraft ever at 252,792 km/h (70.2 km/s). They also set the record for the closest approach to the Sun, at approximately 45 million kilometers. The Helios space probes completed their primary missions by the early 1980s, but they continued to send data up to 1985. Presently, these probes are no longer functional. If we could built another spacecraft like the Helios and allow people t travel in it we could reach there.

Image from: []

With these three spacecrafts we could reach there in about 10 years so it would be nice to have a house, T.V, Gaming stores, Free restaurants, No schools, huge swimming pools and movie theatres inside the spacecraft enough to fit at least a whole country!!!!

=Which technology can get us there?=

**Anti-matter.**
One way that can zoom us across space. Anti-matter is, hence the name, the oppsite of matter. If anti-matter contacts matter in any way, it can leave us explosive results. And we do mean explosive; like nuclear. Anti-matter atoms are made up of negative electrons surrounded by positive electrons. And, as discussed earlier, will release large amounts of energy if in contact with matter. But it is extremely hard to obtain this as only a billionth of a gram has been made so far!

**Ion drives.**
These are a type of engines that work similarly to rockets, except much more faster. These engines release a stream of very fast, positive charged xenon ions. An ion is a charged atom. If used, these ions release only a small amount of energy, thus leaving more fuel to propel.

**Nuclear bombs.**
If let loose, the speed of the craft would be as fast as the speed of light. At least one tenth.

**Collecting fuel.**
As we speed along the universe, we could collect the stray atoms that are left in the universe, and use them to propel for our own advantage. We can collect these by using a funnel with magnets.

**Laser drive.**
The spacecraft can use solar sails whilst having light under pressure in space to propel the ship.

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Science Focus 3 - Chapter 3