Project Daedalus (1973-78)

[Spaceception]

Project Daedalus was a proof-of-concept design study done in the early-late 1970s to see if interstellar travel was possible with current technology (Except for the Fusion part, that's still out there), which would've launched a Starship flyby to Barnard's Star 5.9 ly away at 12.2% of the speed of light, and would've taken 50 years. It's a two stage, fusion driven spacecraft that would've made the Saturn V look like a V-2, and is just massive, it would've been 190 meters long, and weighed 450 tonnes. This is a really cool design, and I read somewhere, it nearly got to the blueprint stage of development. Here's the website to the more current "Project Icarus", that is run by the same organization that designed Daedalus (British interplanetary Society): http://www.icarusinterstellar.org/) They also do this thing called "Starship congress" they're really long videos (On YT of course), but I recommend you watch them.

So yeah, that's the Daedalus, what do you guys think about it?

Edited January 23, 2016 by Spaceception

[Matuchkin]

The lack of fairings kills me, though this is probably the coolest thing I've seen. In my whole life.

[Kerbart]

25 minutes ago, Matuchkin said:

The lack of fairings kills me, though this is probably the coolest thing I've seen. In my whole life.

It's lacking fins too. I bet it'll flip over during ascent.

[Matuchkin]

15 minutes ago, Kerbart said:

It's lacking fins too. I bet it'll flip over during ascent.

Not all rockets need fins. My rockets in RO use gimbal.

[ChrisSpace]

5 hours ago, Spaceception said:

So yeah, that's the Daedalus, what do you guys think about it?

I admire it as the first serious interstellar starship design that didn't involve carrying the nuclear arsenals of the US and USSR combined as a propulsion method. Only problem is how to get that thing into orbit. I assume it would have to be manufactured there out of asteroid metals.

[rudi1291]

Nah, just add some boosters

[Darnok]

6 hours ago, Matuchkin said:

The lack of fairings kills me, though this is probably the coolest thing I've seen. In my whole life.

In space you don't need fairings

[FungusForge]

44 minutes ago, Darnok said:

In space you don't need fairings

Really, Its a question of whether it'd be easier to build it in space, or try to get it off the ground in one go.

[Rune]

2 hours ago, ChrisSpace said:

I admire it as the first serious interstellar starship design that didn't involve carrying the nuclear arsenals of the US and USSR combined as a propulsion method. Only problem is how to get that thing into orbit. I assume it would have to be manufactured there out of asteroid metals.

If only... There ain't enough Helium-3 in Earth to fuel it. Assuming the engine worked the way they said it worked (and they assumed some very fancy lasers, and disregarded the thermal protection systems for them), you would have to fuel it form the clouds of freaking Jupiter. This thing assumed a system-wide industrial infrastructure with some very fancy toys like fusion technology.

 

Rune. I'll stick to Orion as the only plausible interstellar propulsion concept for now... besides, it gets comparable performance.

[Darnok]

17 minutes ago, FungusForge said:

Really, Its a question of whether it'd be easier to build it in space, or try to get it off the ground in one go.

Good luck

[Temstar]

It seems a bit premature to me to design a ship when it's core technology is still pretty much completely unknown.

Isn't that a bit like Henry Ford trying to design a Lamborghini Aventador right after coming up with Model T?

[Spaceception]

9 hours ago, Matuchkin said:

The lack of fairings kills me, though this is probably the coolest thing I've seen. In my whole life.

It doesn't need fairings, It would've been built in space, even for hardcore KSP players, it's WAY too big.

 

5 hours ago, ChrisSpace said:

I admire it as the first serious interstellar starship design that didn't involve carrying the nuclear arsenals of the US and USSR combined as a propulsion method. Only problem is how to get that thing into orbit. I assume it would have to be manufactured there out of asteroid metals.

Yup

 

2 hours ago, Rune said:

If only... There ain't enough Helium-3 in Earth to fuel it. Assuming the engine worked the way they said it worked (and they assumed some very fancy lasers, and disregarded the thermal protection systems for them), you would have to fuel it form the clouds of freaking Jupiter. This thing assumed a system-wide industrial infrastructure with some very fancy toys like fusion technology.

 

Rune. I'll stick to Orion as the only plausible interstellar propulsion concept for now... besides, it gets comparable performance.

The Moon has plenty of Helium-3, enough to last humanity for at least 100 million years.

 

2 hours ago, Temstar said:

It seems a bit premature to me to design a ship when it's core technology is still pretty much completely unknown.

Isn't that a bit like Henry Ford trying to design a Lamborghini Aventador right after coming up with Model T?

Their idea for a pulsed Fusion drive would've been sustainable, unfortunately, they couldn't test it, so we don't know how well it'll work, but the concept seems sound.

 

2 hours ago, Darnok said:

Good luck

Good luck indeed, although, that's only if you were crazy, you'd build it in space, that size comparison was only there to see how big it was.

 

Also, what a good way to spend my 350th post!

Edited January 23, 2016 by Spaceception

[EladDv]

4 minutes ago, Spaceception said:

Their idea for a pulsed Fusion drive would've been sustainable, unfortunately, they couldn't test it, so we don't know how well it'll work, but the concept seems sound.

i had an idea to throw bananas out of the ISS window but when they tried it all the bananas were sucked outside with the air, concepts aren't something that you can say "well i thought it would work" and launch an entire multi-trillion $ (if not more) program with, they couldnt even test the fusion tech how would they consider building this?

[EladDv]

Double.

Edited January 23, 2016 by EladDv
Double.

[Spaceception]

2 minutes ago, EladDv said:

i had an idea to throw bananas out of the ISS window but when they tried it all the bananas were sucked outside with the air, concepts aren't something that you can say "well i thought it would work" and launch an entire multi-trillion $ (if not more) program with, they couldnt even test the fusion tech how would they consider building this?

Well, it was mostly just a proof-of-concept idea, I don't think they were serious in actually building it, but if they were, that's the Starship they wanted.

And even if they were 100% serious in building this, the first thing they would've had to do was test the Fusion drive, nothing else, if that didn't work, the whole project would be scrapped.

[Shania_L]

How you managed to write that entire OP without mentioning the British Interplanetary Society who designed it is quite an achievement in itself.

As others have mentioned it was to be assembled in space, the pic of it at ground level was simply for scale reference.

The BIS is not in the business of actually designing spacecraft for production, this (as well as many other designs) are indepth design proposals created to simply show what can or could be done, there was/is no serious intention to ever actually build this. The BIS serves as a discussion group, a loose collection of people interested/experienced in the subject of spaceflight who provide their knowledge to form these proposals. The early communication satellite ideas put forwards by Arthur C Clarke for example went through "sanity checking" at the BIS.

The Megaroc project was another example of this ahead of its time concept mission, Megaroc was a slightly expanded, fully reusable, manned V2 suborbital launcher "designed" in the very late 40's based on little more than the few test launches the British did with V2s after the war.

[Spaceception]

18 minutes ago, Shania_L said:

How you managed to write that entire OP without mentioning the British Interplanetary Society who designed it is quite an achievement in itself.

Read the tags

Also, it's in the first post now.

Edited January 23, 2016 by Spaceception

[SargeRho]

I think Project Daedalus included the possibility of mining Saturn or Uranus for Helium 3. That might have been an idea from Icarus Interstellar, though.

And I read that the second stage of Daedalus could tender between Earth and Uranus in something like 150 days/trip.

[Spaceception]

1 minute ago, SargeRho said:

I think Project Daedalus included the possibility of mining Saturn or Uranus for Helium 3. That might have been an idea from Icarus Interstellar, though.

And I read that the second stage of Daedalus could tender between Earth and Uranus in something like 150 days/trip.

They were meaning to mine Jupiter for Helium-3, but it turns out the Moon has plenty of that, so that's a plus.

[SargeRho]

The moon may have plenty, but the concentration is abysmal. 15 parts per billion I think. The concentration won't be much higher in Uranus' atmosphere, but gas is a lot easier to process than dust, I think.

[Spaceception]

3 hours ago, SargeRho said:

The moon may have plenty, but the concentration is abysmal. 15 parts per billion I think. The concentration won't be much higher in Uranus' atmosphere, but gas is a lot easier to process than dust, I think.

It may be easier, but looking at the distances involved, makes the Moon a better choice.

[Nothalogh]

10 hours ago, Rune said:

I'll stick to Orion as the only plausible interstellar propulsion concept for now... besides, it gets comparable performance.

May Teller and Ullam smile upon you

[fredinno]

19 hours ago, Kerbart said:

It's lacking fins too. I bet it'll flip over during ascent.

Doesn't matter, it would almost certainly be built via orbital assembly.

12 hours ago, Rune said:

If only... There ain't enough Helium-3 in Earth to fuel it. Assuming the engine worked the way they said it worked (and they assumed some very fancy lasers, and disregarded the thermal protection systems for them), you would have to fuel it form the clouds of freaking Jupiter. This thing assumed a system-wide industrial infrastructure with some very fancy toys like fusion technology.

 

Rune. I'll stick to Orion as the only plausible interstellar propulsion concept for now... besides, it gets comparable performance.

You can use Tritrium and Deuterium, bypassing Helium 3. D-T is the most likely reaction to work economically anyways right now.

[TheHalovex]

On 1/23/2016 at 4:31 AM, Kerbart said:

It's lacking fins too. I bet it'll flip over during ascent.

I'm a bit slow so not sure if you guys are joking or not! If not, then the aim of Daedalus was to construct it in orbit using a heavy lift rocket to get components there. No need for fairing or fins. Hell of a long burn on this thing though to get it up to the 12% of light speed! (0.12 c)

[kerbiloid]

On 23.01.2016 at 6:18 AM, Spaceception said:

if interstellar travel was possible with current technology (Except for the Fusion part, that's still out there)

When the fusion part will be "current", any other part will be "invented and pictured by Da Vinci".
So, a Steampunk ship with the engine from KSPI-E.

50 000 t of fuel, i.e., say 20 000 t of ³He.
Current technologists only dream about mining ³He on the Moon, 1 g of ³He / 100 t of regolith.
So, afaik, they were going to fuel this craft, mining He in the Jupiter upper atmosphere.
Don't know, what shocks me more: digging and frying 2 trln t of regolith or gathering several million tons of the Jup air.

No retro engines. It will fly forever until crashes into something. Good if into a star. Worse if into your planet.
I've checked the nukemap site to watch results of 500 t / 0.1 c collision with the Earth, but there's a 100 Mt limit.

P.S.
It's not a necro posting. Remember, it's about an interstellar flight. They last for eons.
It would be a necroposting >50 years later. Until then, it's just a lightspeed delay.

Edited July 21, 2017 by kerbiloid