P06 : Sailing the Cosmos


Students Jaden Van Oosterhout
School HDSB - Alexander's Public School - Burlington
Level Junior 7/8 - Grade 8
Group Group 1 - Earth and Environmental
Abstract Currently, spacecraft is able to travel speeds of up to 7km/s. This is fast, but we need a way to get to places that are very far away and we have to do it in a way that is inexpensive. The problem with rocket fuel, the current method of propulsion, is that it burns out quickly. If we harnessed the speed of the solar winds, we would be able to travel speeds of 444km/s, and we would be able to do it for as long as we want because the solar winds are self-sufficient, because the sun is a renewable energy source. There could be so many advantages to this kind of speed, like deep space exploration, such as travelling to the next habitable planet, Proxima B, which is 4 light years away. Also, landing on asteroids to mine for raw materials, like minerals and volatiles.