Testing the next generation of space technology in the “Kerbal Space Program”

Lost most of the games Relevance after a few years, but independent rocket making game Kerbal Space Program It’s a little different. This is a problematic, 10-year-old game loser. It is followed by programmers, engineers, astronaut candidates, and typical non-professional explosion enthusiasts, and it has a unique and active module community. It has been fixing bugs, adding new features, and can usually keep the game fresh for nearly a decade.

In the game, you are the omniscient director of a space program composed of literally the little green man (and the beloved little green woman Valentina Kerman—the pioneer we see you), you Send to the sky with a spacecraft of your own design. It often feels like watching those fuzzy old videos of rocket launches, but returning directly in the blazing schadenfreude: you feel a little scared, a little sadistic, and you really want to try again.

Art imitates life

One of the most prolific Kerbal modders is Nertea Chris Adderley in the game, he is an engineer at the Canadian Aerospace Corporation MDA During the day, design a ground system that retrieves data from the spacecraft. But during the break, Adeley took the pilot’s seat by himself.He started playing Kerbal Space Program Soon after the release, and in 2013, he began to build his first model for the game-a pack of spare parts, including a xenon fuel tank and a magnetic plasma-powered thruster (try to say three times faster).

Since then, he has designed dozens of additional models, including Mark IV Spaceplane and space station accessories such as centrifuges and inflatable habitats.

Adderley said: “What I build I want to see us as a species build in the future.”

Recently, Addlerley decided to adopt some of the most reasonable far-future theoretical rocket engine concepts and build them into the game-introducing a way for gamers to experiment with these science fictions concept In a simulated environment, they can teach us how to actually work on a more practical level in the future.

Adderley combed through dozens of scientific papers that outlined the theoretical blueprints of these ultra-advanced propulsion systems, looking for the most realistic ones.

“Everyone is trying to sell their projects as the propulsion system of the future,” Adderley said. “You need to think critically about what people are waving.”

He calculated the numbers, considering how much power a particular engine needs, how to deal with the heat generated, and how to use the energy to further propel the virtual rocket. “That’s so funny, it might be a statement from a super nerd, but you know.”

Finally, he built 13 different engine concepts, including fusion engines-such as VastIn theory, Epstein drives are fission engines and antimatter rockets.

Although we have not yet implemented the technology for these specific impulse demons, being able to simulate advanced engines in a low-risk environment has some real-world value. In fact, this is a great sandbox, and the engineers at SpaceX and Jet Propulsion Lab used Kerbal graphics in their presentations. In 2018, NASA releases Open MCT, A telemetry data visualization software designed specifically for operating spacecraft, is open to the public on Github. Testing these systems on real spacecraft is expensive and time-consuming, so some participants run their programs through Kerbal.

For Sumontro Sinha, an aerospace engineer and fusion researcher at the University of Alabama Propulsion Research Laboratory in Huntsville, Kerbal is the first choice for testing new ideas and training new engineers.

“Don’t use slides and formula pages, just make a boat and see how it works,” he said. “If it applies to Kerbal, then it is likely to play a role in real life.”

Donut power

This Spherical tokamak fusion engine Spaceship based on fiction 2001: A Space Odyssey, There is no Dave Killer AI. Adderley discovered the actual science behind it A NASA studyThe first author of the paper, Craig Williams, said that NASA has funded many projects focused on the development of advanced propulsion systems. Williams’ team designed an engine that uses the energy produced by the fusion reaction to generate thrust. Fusion naturally occurs inside stars like our sun, where light atoms overheat to the point where electrons and neutrons are decoupled and neutrons (usually repelling each other) fuse together and produce a lot of energy. One of the biggest challenges in generating this energy on Earth is that you need a way to confine the resulting plasma and use its energy.

One method is to use a tokamak, a device that generates a toroidal magnetic field that keeps the overheated plasma in place. In Williams’ prototype engine, this tokamak is almost spherical-more like a doughnut hole. The exhaust gas produced will propel the vehicle to travel at speeds exceeding 166,000 mph, bringing passengers to Jupiter in less than 4 months. From this perspective, the deep space probe Voyager is moving away from our solar system at a speed of 35,000 miles per hour.