"Star Trek" technologies are starting to become a reality in our everyday lives; just ask anyone who owns a cellphone or tries a virtual reality headset. But how real are these "Star Trek" technologies in space today, 50 years after the iconic science fiction series' TV debut? While the tech for warp drives and transporters remains elusive, NASA is using some technology in space that would be at home on the starship Enterprise.
Five-year mission planningOne key way NASA is emulating "Star Trek" is by finding ways for humans to spend years in space without requiring constant resupply missions from Earth, said Jason Crusan, NASA's director for advanced exploration systems. This means using the International Space Station as a test bed for technology that can extend an astronaut's stay in space and thus could be used one day on the long journey to Mars.
Space station astronauts already drink water mostly recovered from urine, but NASA wants to push its recovery rate (now in the 80 percent range) even further, Crusan said.
"Humans have a lot of salt in our waste," Crusan told Space.com. So, in late June, NASA awarded Paragon Space Development Corp. a $5.1 million contract to create a Brine Processor Assembly for flight in 2018. This assembly is expected to remove brine and recover up to 94 percent of the water from urine, NASA officials said in a statement.
Ongoing technology developments also allow astronauts to manufacture their own tools using 3D printing and to use atmospheric monitors to check the air in the cabin environment for contaminants. Those monitors shrink huge gas chromatography mass spectrometry units, which identify different substances in test samples, to about the size of a toaster.
All of these are important considerations in sending a future crew to Mars in an Orion spacecraft, along with one to three other habitat modules attached to provide extra room, Crusan said. This "Orion plus" spacecraft would likely have solar electric propulsion capability — engines that ionize noble gases to give a small amount of thrust and run for long periods of time, Crusan said.
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