Kind: captions
Language: en
imagine taking an
elevator to
space ideas like this are not purely
science fiction Engineers are actually
working on developing these why because
we might be approaching the limit of
what our chemically powered Rockets can
do rockets are incredible awe inspiring
Feats of engineering they launched about
2500 satellites into space in 2022 and
2023 SpaceX alone launched a rocket
about every 4 days in 2023 2 1 ignition
and with but Rockets are also super
expensive burn massive amounts of fuel
and when things go wrong they can lead
to
disaster and if you look at the physics
of what requires them to launch they are
also kind of inefficient and here's why
today most Rockets are powered by
chemical reactions they rely on
combinations like liquid hydrogen lh2
and liquid oxygen locks or rocket grade
curine rp1 these Rockets have to carry
their own Fuel and they need a lot of it
to get to space which adds Mass to the
rocket in chemically powered Rockets 80
to 90% of the Rocket's mass is just the
fuel and you might think to go farther
into space you'd just need to carry more
fuel but it's not that simple the more
fuel you bring on board the more massive
the rocket and the bigger the rocket the
more fuel you need to get off the ground
and Escape Earth's gravity you can see
the frustrating relationship in the
rocket equation this ratio is the
limiting factor it's the mass of the
Rockets fully fueled over the mass of it
when it was empty during the Apollo
program the Saturn 5 rocket had a mass
ratio of 23 this means that a fully
fueled Saturn 5 rocket was 23 times more
massive than when all its fuel was used
up now there have been advances in
chemically powered Rockets since then
though like spacex's Falcon 9 part of
that rocket separates from the rest and
lands back on a landing pad after
launching cargo into space making it the
first reusable rocket before that
Innovation most rockets that made it to
orbit were either destroyed or not
recovered at all this Falcon 9 rocket
has a mass ratio anywhere between 18 to
30 depending on the mission but even
though the ratio might seem low at
liftoff most of that is still fuel there
it goes there it goes there it goes oh
my
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gosh imagine how much more cargo or
scientific equipment we could send into
space if the fuel didn't take up so much
room or better yet if we use less fuel
or none at all so some Engineers are
investigating other methods of space
travel which bring brings us to space
elevators the physics could actually
work but there are some
challenges in theory a very long cable
would extend from the earth's equator
into space anchored by some type of
counterweight at the other end like an
asteroid or a satellite the whole
structure would rotate with the Earth
and cargo would be hauled up and down
without the need for Rockets but how
would the cables stay taught a
combination of gravity and centrifugal
forces the counterweight at that far end
of the cable would need to orbit in sync
with the Earth and for that to happen
the counterweight would need to be far
enough away that the centrifugal force
is greater than the gravitational pull
of the earth that would happen at about
22,23 miles away from Earth and if the
Earthly end were located in the ocean it
could potentially be moved around to
avoid bad weather or space debris but
one big issue is the material the cable
would be made with it would need to be
built with something super strong able
to withstand Earth's gravitational
forces atmospheric changes weather and
potential collisions with space debris
but it also needs to be lightweight and
nothing like this currently exists yet
but structures called carbon nanot tubes
are being explored as a potential
material for the tether for their
Incredible strength but don't count
Rockets out just yet NASA is developing
engines powered by nuclear Vision to
send astronauts to Mars s nuclear
powerered Rockets would be more
efficient for long-distance space travel
requiring less Fuel and allowing faster
speeds but these engines come with
challenges including harmful radiation
high heat production and complex costly
designs from space elevators to nuclear
engines the future of space travel might
look very different from the rocket
launchers we're used to maybe one day
chemical Rockets will be a thing of the
past and we'll be launching into space
in ways we never
imagined so what do you think could the
future of space travel be rocket
[Music]
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