Simplistic propulsion analysis of a breakthrough space drive for Voyager

Abstract

When considering exploration beyond our solar system, speed is a critical factor. With the speeds achievable with current propulsion technology, interstellar distances cannot be traversed within a human life span. For example, the Voyager spacecraft would take approximately 80,000 years to traverse 4.3 light-years - the distance to our nearest neighboring star. In 1996 NASA established the Breakthrough Propulsion Physics program to search for further advances in physics to circumvent these limitations. One of the goals of this program is to discover a new method of propulsion that eliminates the need for propellant. A simplistic analysis is offered in this paper to assess the trip-time benefit of this single goal, using the Voyager spacecraft as a basis. The existing propulsion performance of the Voyager spacecraft is compared to its performance assuming it was equipped with a breakthrough physics space drive that could convert energy directly into kinetic energy. Given that the physics does not yet exist for such a space drive, these comparisons are at the most rudimentary level, based on energy comparisons. Specifically, the velocity and distance covered by the Voyager spacecraft are compared to that achievable by a hypothetical space drive using the same energy available to the existing Voyager. The additional benefit of having the Voyager’s Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) supply propulsion power is also considered.