Interstellar Space Travel

Interstellar space travel is unmanned or manned travel between stars. The concept of interstellar travel in starships is a staple in science fiction. Interstellar travel is tremendously more difficult than interplanetary travel. Intergalactic travel, the travel between different galaxies, is even more difficult.
Many scientific papers have been published about related concepts. Given sufficient travel time and engineering work, both unmanned and generational interstellar travel seem possible, though representing a very considerable technological and economic challenge unlikely to be met for some time, particularly for crewed probes. NASA has been engaging in research into these topics for several years, and has accumulated a number of theoretical approaches.

The main difficulty of interstellar travel is the vast distances that have to be covered and therefore the time it takes with most realistic propulsion methods - from decades to millennia. Hence an interstellar ship would be much more severely exposed to the hazards found in interplanetary travel, including hard vacuum, radiation, weightlessness, and micrometeoroids. The long travel times make it difficult to design manned missions, and make economic justification of any interstellar mission nearly impossible, since benefits that do not become available for decades or longer have a present value close to zero.

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Apollo 7 Launch

October 11: National Coming Out Day in the United States


1138 – A massive earthquake, one of the deadliest in recorded history, struck Aleppo, Syria.
1852 – The University of Sydney, Australia's oldest university, was inaugurated in Sydney two years after the New South Wales Legislative Council established it with the passage of the University of Sydney Act.
1865 – The Morant Bay rebellion, led by Paul Bogle and George William Gordon, began in Jamaica, but eventually it was brutally suppressed by Governor Edward John Eyre.
1962 – Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council, the first Roman Catholic ecumenical council in 92 years.
1968 – Apollo 7 (lift-off pictured), the first manned mission of NASA's Apollo program, and the first three-man American space mission, launched from Complex 34 in present-day Cape Canaveral, Florida.
More events: October 10 – October 11 – October 12

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The Technology

Technology is the application of developments in science and engineering to benefit humanity. It may be defined as: "Solutions for real human problems by the development and application of tools, machines, materials, goods, or information in the form of skills, knowledge, processes, blueprints, plans, diagrams, models, formulae, tables, engineering designs, specifications, manuals, or instructions."

Tropical Storm Wilma regional imagery,2005

... that a mercury arc rectifier converts alternating current to direct current by means of an electric arc through mercury vapor?
... that only one of the 266 1076 Class steam locomotives built for the Great Western Railway was named, and the rest had only numbers?
... that the six Charles Tayleur locomotives ordered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the Great Western Railway were unsuccessful?

... that the intensity of a tropical cyclone (pictured) is usually determined by the Dvorak technique using only visible and infrared satellite images?
... that the technique of double-balloon enteroscopy allows any position along the gastrointestinal tract to be visualized in real-time?
... that ANTARES, a neutrino telescope under construction in the Mediterranean Sea, will find neutrinos from outer space by looking downward, into the Earth?
... that KATRIN is an experiment to determine the mass of the neutrino by measuring the energies of electrons given off from the beta decay of tritium?
... that forensic electrical engineering is a branch of forensic engineering whose primary role is to investigate whether a fire was caused by the failure of an electrical appliance?
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Pink Floyd Performing at Earls Court,1973

Pink Floyd were an English rock band from Cambridge. The band initially earned recognition for their psychedelic and space rock music, and--as they evolved--for their progressive rock music. Pink Floyd were known for philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album cover art, and elaborate live shows. One of rock music's most successful acts, the group have sold over 200 million albums worldwide including 74.5 million albums in the United States alone. Pink Floyd influenced progressive rock artists of the 1970s such as Genesis and Yes; and contemporary artists such as Nine Inch Nails and Dream Theater.
Pink Floyd had moderate mainstream success and were one of the most popular bands in the London underground music scene in the late 1960s as a psychedelic band led by Syd Barrett; however, Barrett's erratic behaviour eventually forced his colleagues to replace him with guitarist and singer David Gilmour. After Barrett's departure, singer and bass player Roger Waters gradually became the dominant and driving force in the group by the late-1970s, until his eventual departure from the group in 1985. The band recorded several albums, achieving worldwide success with The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977), and The Wall (1979).
In 1985, Waters declared Pink Floyd "a spent force", but the remaining members, led by Gilmour, continued recording and touring under the name Pink Floyd. Waters sued them for the name and eventually they reached a settlement out of court, under which Gilmour, Mason and Wright would continue as Pink Floyd. They again enjoyed worldwide success with A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) and The Division Bell (1994). Waters performed with the band for the first time in 24 years on 2 July 2005 at the London Live 8 concert.
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Tristan und Isolde

Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld and his wife Malvina as the title characters of Richard Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, sometime during the opera's initial run, though, given the demands of early photography, most likely not in an actual performance. The opera was extremely difficult on its leads—it had to be delayed when Malvina temporarily lost her voice, and Ludwig died three weeks after the fourth show.
Photo credit: Joseph Albert
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Washington Monument

October 9: Yom Kippur ends at sunset (Judaism, 2008); Independence Day in Uganda; Hangul Day in South Korea; Leif Erikson Day in the United States

1831 – Ioannis Kapodistrias, the Greek head of state, was assassinated in Nafplion.
1874 – The Universal Postal Union, then known as the General Postal Union, was established with the signing of the Treaty of Bern to unify disparate postal services and regulations so that international mail could be exchanged freely.
1888 – The Washington Monument (pictured) in Washington, D.C., at the time the world's tallest building, officially opened to the general public.
1942 – World War II: American forces defeated the Japanese at the Third Battle of the Matanikau in Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, avenging the Japanese victory at the Second Battle of the Matanikau a couple of weeks earlier.
1963 – A landslide displaced large amounts of water from the Vajont Dam in northern Italy, causing waves and floods that quickly swept away several villages and killed almost 2,000 people.
More events: October 8 – October 9 – October 10
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To day

• 1542 – Explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo became the first European to set foot on Santa Catalina Island off the coast of California.
• 1571 – The Ottoman Empire was decisively defeated by the Christian West for the first time, as a multinational fleet led by Don John of Austria crushed the Turkish navy near the Gulf of Corinth in the Battle of Lepanto (painting by Paolo Veronese pictured).
• 1868 – Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, USA opened, with an initial enrollment of 412 students the next day.
• 1949 – East Berlin and the Soviet Zone of Occupied Germany became the German Democratic Republic.
• 1958 – Attempting to control the political instability in Pakistan, President Iskander Mirza suspended the 1956 constitution, imposed martial law, and cancelled the elections scheduled for January 1959.

More events: October 6 – October 7 – October 8

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The Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge was the world's first working railway suspension bridge. It spanned 825 feet (251 m) and stood 2.5 miles (4.0 km) downstream of Niagara Falls from 1855 to 1897. Connecting Niagara Falls, Ontario to Niagara Falls, New York, the bridge carried mixed traffic on its two decks across the Niagara River; trains crossed over the river by way of the bridge's upper deck while pedestrians and carriages used the lower. The Suspension Bridge was part of Canadian politician William Hamilton Merritt's vision to promote trade within his country and with its neighbor the United States. On March 18, 1855, a fully-laden passenger train drove across the upper deck at 5 miles per hour (8.0 km/h), and officially opened the completed bridge. Its success proved that contrary to general opinion a safe and operational railway suspension bridge was tenable, and allayed concerns induced by the 1854 collapse of the Wheeling Suspension Bridge. The Suspension Bridge was finally replaced by the Steel Arch Bridge, which was later renamed the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge, on August 27, 1897. (more...)

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