THE CONCORDE WAS THE ONLY SUCCESSFUL SUPERSONIC PASSENGER JET CRUISING AT MACH 2.04- OVER 1,350MPH! IN MANY WAYS IT WAS CONSIDERED THE FUTURE OF AIR TRAVEL, DESPITE BEING DISCONTINUED IN 2003 FOR TOO HIGH OPERATING COSTS AND SONIC BOOM CONCERNS.
As you can see, the future looks bright for occupations in space exploration. Keep in mind that by the time you reach the age to obtain these roles, opportunities and technologies mentioned here will be even more efficient and exciting— potentially encompassing an advancement to Moon colonization!
Unfortunately it isn’ t as easy as we might think to travel outside of our solar system, and there may be some things prohibiting us that you haven’ t thought about. To put this in perspective, try to think about the space between our stars, referred to as the ISM, or interstellar medium. What is hard to realize is this space is far from empty. It is mostly filled with diffused gasses like hydrogen and helium, along with tiny dust grains.
You wouldn ' t think this is too big of a deal— however, at relativistic speeds( fractions of the speed of light) all that dust turns into tiny bullets, which can destroy a spacecraft. Now lies the big question,“ Can a ship large enough to carry humans be shielded from these particles, without adding so much extra mass that it becomes too slow?” Even when we solve this problem, there is a second, final conundrum of radiation, which could leave a ship completely intact, but carrying a crew... dead from radiation. This is arguably the most unique challenge that we face as a human race— trying to embark into interstellar travel.
In a 2006 paper titled“ Radiation Hazard of Relativistic Interstellar Flight,” it is speculated that a crew of an“ inadequately shielded ship” moving at a relativistic speed would face the same level of radiation
28 | LET’ S GO AEROSPACE