Britain in Space

• British Space Projects

• Home
• Important Note

• Pre-Space Age

• A 1930s Moonlanding
• A Manned V2
• Operation Backfire

• The 1950s

• Blue Streak
• Black Knight
• Black Prince
• 1950s Spaceplanes

• The 1960s

• Europa I and Europa II
• Black Arrow
• 1960s Spaceplanes

• The 1970s

• Daedalus

• 1970s Spaceplanes

• The 1980s

• HOTOL
• LittLEO

• The 1990s & Beyond

• SKYLON
• Beagle-2

• Miscellaneous

• Image Archive
• Launch Sites
• British Astronauts
• Timeline
• Bibliography
• Links

In 1973 the British Interplanetary Society started the Daedalus project. Its aim was to design a practical starship able to investigate a star system near our own. Although this may seem a far-fetched project, it is worth noting that in the 1930s the BIS designed a Moon Landing Mission Moon Landing Mission that bore some remarkable resemblances to the Apollo landings thirty years later. The project was led by the engineer Alan Bond, who had previously worked on the Blue Streak rocket and would go on to design the HOTOL . A panel of about thirteen experts worked on the project, though contributions were made by many more.

An artists impression of the Daedalus starship
Courtesy of Alan Mann

The project had clear guidelines:

1. The spacecraft must use current or near-future technology.
2. The spacecraft must reach its destination within a human lifetime.
3. The spacecraft must be designed to allow for a variety of target stars.

These guidelines meant that the spacecraft would be practical, that scientists working on the project would have a good chance of being alive at the end of it, that the craft would not be overtaken by something more advanced, and that several close stars could be investigated using the same type of starship.

The target chosen for the Daedalus study was Barnards Star, 5.91 Light Years distant. A spacecraft able to fly there would be able to reach Proxima Centuri in a shorter time, or Sirius in a longer period. Barnards Star was also chosen because evidence suggests that it has at least one planet orbiting it, giving the probe a chance to investigate another planetary system.

To reach Barnards Star in a human lifetime, a speed of 12% the speed of light (36, 000 Km per second) would be needed. Conventional rockets, solar sails or ion drives would be insufficient to achieve this. There was, however, a newer method; Internal Confinement Fusion. In this, a pellet of deuterim/helium-3 is bombarded from all sides by lasers, resulting in a small fusion explosion. By making 250 of these explosions every second, the correct speed could be reached. The main problem with the use of Internal Confinement Fusion as starship propulsion would be obtaining the fuel. Deuterium can be extracted from seawater, but helium-3 is a rare isotope on Earth. In the study, the team suggested mining the atmosphere of Jupiter for the helium-3. Since the 1970s, though, studies of the moon have revealed that the surface is covered in helium-3 deposited by the solar wind. Japan has already suggested mining this in order to construct fusion reactors on Earth, so it should be an ideal solution to fuelling spacecraft.

The spacecraft itself would consist of two stages, so that one could be jettisoned to reduce mass and speed up the flight. Huge tanks would hold the fuel, while the 40m-diameter engine of the Second Stage would double as a communications dish. On top of the Second Stage would be a payload bay containing 18 probes to investigate the star and its planets, two 5m telescopes, and two 20m radio telescopes. There would also be "robot wardens" able to make in-flight repairs. A 50 Ton disc of beryllium would protect the payload bay from collisions with dust and meteoroids on the flight.

After the construction and fuelling of the spacecraft in Earth orbit, the First Stage would be fired for two years, reaching a speed of 7.1% Light Speed. The engine would then be shut down and the First Stage jettisoned. The Second Stage would fire for 1.8 years before being shut down to begin the 47-year cruise to Barnards Star. At Barnards Star, it would take 12 years for radio signals from the probe to reach Earth. Obviously, this would make control of the probe from Earth impossible, so the spacecraft would be run by its own Artificial Intelligence system. NASA has recently taken the first steps towards this with its "Deep Space 1" probe.

En-route, astronomy would be done with the telescopes on board. Then, 25 years after launch, the telescopes would examine the area around Barnards Star, looking for the planets which are believed to be there. Using this information, the 18 probes would be launched between 7.2 and 1.8 years before the main craft entered the Barnardian solar system. The probes would be powered by nuclear-ion drives and would carry cameras, spectrometers, polarimeters and spectrometers to investigate every aspect of Barnards Star and its attendant planets. Sub probes could be released from each one to measure the gravity of each planet. Only one side of each planet could be photographed, however, as the probes would quickly flypast. There would be no landings, as this would require a mission able to slow down and stay in the system. However, the flypasts could determine whether the conditions for life existed any of the Barnardian planets.

Although any real interstellar mission will probably not resemble the Daedalus study in great detail, the project did show that such a mission may well be possible during the 21st Century.

To Comment on this Site:

Top