Incremental steps to the stars
Kelvin Long

The final talk of the day was by guest speaker Luca Derosa a Physicist and Aerospace Engineer from Italy. He discussed the inclusion of relativity in space mission analysis. He examined many different mission profiles, including uniform motion, hyperbolic motion, constant thrust motion and negative exponential thrust motion. He then discussed using the Lorentz transformation in system reliability analysis. He also discussed two new ideas for interstellar propulsion. The first was an ‘electromagnetic drive’ and relied upon the emission of Hawking radiation from a large black body plate. The second was a ‘radioactive drive’ and relied upon the use of a fission reactor to heat up a large plate and cause it to emit particles. Luca was one of the youngest of the speakers and it was good to have someone new enter the interstellar field with fresh ideas.

From the perspective of the Tau Zero Foundation the event was a success and the presentations can be viewed at the peregrinus-interstellar web link. All the speakers enjoyed the comments and questions from the audience and the style of the conference was very much an informal gathering rather than formal lectures. The event was held within the beautiful setting of Charterhouse School. This was the first interstellar event at the UK Space Conference, but hopefully it won’t be the last and with continued incremental steps, travel to the stars will one day go from being a dream to a reality.