Fuelling Interplanetary Travel

Home Introduction Primer Trad. Propulsion Adv. Chemical Nuclear Thermal Electric (Ion) Solar Sails ET Resources Conclusion Bibliography

Welcome to the homepage for my Fuelling Interplanetary Travel Project.  I have broken it down into 10 different pages.  Each page corresponds to the section headings found in the outline below.  Click on any section heading to open that page. I suggest starting with the introduction. Each page contains links that will allow you to "page" back and forth through the pages. 

Introduction

Why explore?
Benefits
Costs
Why do we need new propulsion technologies?

Interplanetary Travel Primer

Orbits
The Rocket Equation
Specific Impulse
Manned vs. Unmanned Exploration

Traditional (Chemical) Propulsion Methods

Solid Fuel
Liquid Fuel
Gravity-Assisted Maneuvers

Advanced Chemical Combinations

Monopropellants
Bipropellants
Tripropellants
High Energy Density Matter (HEDN)

Nuclear Thermal

Fission
Fusion
Inertial Confinement
Magnetic Confinement

Electric (Ion) Propulsion

Thrusters
Beamed Energy
Hybrid Nuclear-Thermal / Nuclear-Electric Propulsion

Solar Sails

Interplanetary Solar Sails
Interstellar Light Sails

Extraterrestrial Resource Utilization

The Moon
Mars

Conclusion

Near-term test missions
The future of space flight

Bibliography


This site was created in fulfillment of SAO course requirements 
for HET602a, Semester 1, 2000 by Dennis Ward.

©2000 by Dennis Ward, All rights reserved.