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March
2000 Issue- Science and the Citizen BRAIN TERRAIN
- Amateur Scientist An Automated Precision Magnetometer
- Technology and Business Bioagent Chip
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More from this In-Depth Report
- Features Star Wars: The Clone Wars Animated Film Comes to Theaters
- Features When Clones Attack: Q&A with Clone Wars Director David Filoni
- Features The Science of Star Wars: The Clone Wars--Q&A with Author Jeanne Cavelos
- From the In-Depth Report The Science of Star Wars
Chemical rockets have served humankind well in its first, tentative steps into space. Having ridden atop them to the moon and back, one of us (Aldrin) can vouch for the technology's merits. Nevertheless, for trips beyond our nearest neighbor in space, chemical rockets alone leave much to be desired.
Even Mars, the next logical destination in space, would be a stretch for chemical rockets. To deliver a human crew to the planet would require so much fuel that essentially all scenarios for such a voyage involve producing, on the planet's surface, large amounts of fuel for the return trip. That requirement adds another element of risk and complexity to the proposed mission. Much more powerful plasma rockets, on the other hand, are still probably a decade away from use on a human-piloted spacecraft.
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