The story of the original television series Star Trek, which aired from 1966 to 1969, was based on the crew of the Starship Enterprise, which had two main tasks to perform: the first was to explore space, and the second was to defend the United Federation of Planets from those who would do it harm.
Though Star Trek was short-lived compared to other programs, the series gained a huge fan base of followers. I was not privy to the original series during its first broadcast since I was serving my country overseas in the US Air Force; I did, however, get to enjoy the reruns that almost immediately surfaced on television as its popularity continued and grew to spawn movies and spinoffs over the next few decades. I believe what made the original Star Trek so popular were two things.
First, there was the technology that was being shown for the first time, such as a starship being able to travel over vast amount of space quickly and safely, and also the ability for humans to travel from a transporter to another location and back again. The second was the characters, who came from a variety of different backgrounds, making each unique in his or her own way.
The Starship Enterprise, according to my fellow writer Ryan Matthew Pierson, had two distinct propulsion systems. Impulse engines actually did move the Enterprise by what we normally would call propulsion. Warp engines actually moved space around the ship at speeds faster than light.
A team of scientists at the University of Huntsville’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, along with Boeing and the Marshall Space center’s Propulsion Engineering Lab, are working on what could turn out to be one of the biggest developments in propulsion. From prop driven airplanes, which first propelled the Wright Brothers’ plane, to jet engines and space engines, all were propelled by using some type of fossil fuel. What the impulse engine will be using is nuclear fusion technology to drive spacecraft of the future.
The huge apparatus, known as the Decade Module Two (DM2), was originally developed to gather research into the effects of nuclear weapons explosions. The development continued until researchers turned their attention to propulsion, which is now being centered on spacecraft for the future exploration of space. Even though some may see this propulsion engine as a possible bomb, others in the space industry who are developing the engine state that the engine is completely safe and will not explode.
According to those who are involved in the research, there currently is no intention of using the technology to power either military or commercial aircraft. The spacecrafts that are being considered for this type of propulsion would be used for flights to Mars, which the researchers are hoping would cut the flight time from six months to six weeks. In addition, the time to explore deep space would be dramatically reduced, and space travelers would be able to visit other planets in months rather than years.
In addition to speed, the spacecraft would be lighter since tons of fuel would not be needed for the trip. By having a lighter payload for fuel, more equipment could be stored on the aircraft, providing additional means of conducting scientific studies while in flight and also on the planets themselves. One could only imagine the amount of knowledge that could be obtained in a shorter amount of time compared to the Curiosity rover that is currently roaming around Mars.
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