The Bell Nucleus 2017-2018 BN Jan 2018 Issue | Page 16

by
JESÚS
GONZALEZ
CRUZ
[
Interplanetary colonization could help ensure the species survives
catastrophe back on Earth, but as of yet it is not entirely possible. The
development of the electromagnetic drive promises to make the
aforementioned dream a reality.
]
There are many variables that keep costs and make space travel feasible, thus
human colonization on other planets from be- making the colonization of other planets pos-
coming a reality. Among them, and perhaps
most important, is the sheer cost of a manned
sible and insuring survival of the human race.
Fuel poses several issues to interplane-
mission to another planet. The National Re- tary travel. For starters, rocket fuel is quite
search estimates that a manned mission to expensive . SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket uses
Mars would cost at least four-hundred billion about two-hundred thousand dollars worth of
dollars; NASA’s budget in 2015 was eighteen fuel per launch. One thing to take into consid-
billion. However, human ingenuity may have eration, however, is what the Falcon 9 does. It
come to the rescue with the invention of the reaches orbit and returns to Earth, meaning
electromagnetic (EM) drive, a type of propul- that it travels about 700 total miles. In com-
sion mechanism that could drastically cut
16 | THE BELL NUCLEUS