Have you ever wondered why, when captain Kirk said, “Set course, Scotty, at warp speed” – before you realise it – there is a just a flash of light and a spec denoting the trail of the enterprise? What you may not have realised is that distances in the solar system are so enormous that even light travelling at 186,000 miles per second, or 670,000,000 miles an hour, takes years to reach the closest star. ‘Known Universe: Speeding through the Universe’, captures the quest of scientists that have explored ways to accelerate travel and explore the unchartered and far reaches of the solar system and beyond.
Scientists realise that if we ever hope to explore the far reaches of the cosmos, we’ll have to develop new technologies and figure out new ways of how to get there. Space exploration depends on speed, and the faster we travel, the more we can learn. It was speed that took astronauts to the moon and it is speed that took a spacecraft to Mars. But even with speed, the distances between the planets are so vast that it still takes years to reach them, requiring new, faster technologies.
‘Known Universe: Speeding through the Universe’ provides a unique insight into the workings of a planet’s ‘gravity assist’ phenomenon that could propel a passing spacecraft to greater speeds; the planet Jupiter helped accelerate the New Horizons probe an additional 9,000 miles an hour, trimming off three years on its trip to Pluto, and the deployment of the latest technologies such as Solar Sails, which turns sunshine into speed, made a trip to Pluto last just 2 years – instead of 10 – with the New Horizon probe.
Tune into National Georgraphic Abu Dhabi (NGAD) on 05 June at 8:00 pm KSA / 9:00 pm UAE to meet Franklin Chang-Diaz PhD, a former astronaut, who is working on a new engine that could hurtle a shuttle through space at hundreds of thousands of miles an hour – the Magneto Plasma rocket. This latest innovation, if successful, could produce so much thrust that a trip to Mars could take as little as 39 days.
