When Olympic athletes perform dazzling feats of athletic prowess, they are using the same principles of physics that gave birth to stars and planets.Conservation of angular momentum tells us that when a spinning object changes how its matter is distributed, it changes its rate of spin.Conservation of angular momentum links the formation of planets in star-forming clouds to the beauty of a gymnast's spinning dismount from the uneven bars.

Gymnasts and star-forming clouds

When athletes hurl themselves into the air to perform a flip, the only force acting on them is gravity. Since gravity only affects their "center of mass," it cannot apply forces in a way that changes the athlete's spin. But the gymnasts can do that for themselves by using the conservation of angular momentum.By changing how their mass is arranged, gymnasts can change how fast they spin. You can see this in the dismount phase of the uneven bar competitions. When a gymnast comes off the bars and performs a flip by tucking their legs inward, they can quickly increase their rotation rate in midair.

Gymnastics, a cosmic sport

Much of the beauty of gymnastics comes from the physics principle called the conservation of angular momentum. Conservation of angular momentum tells us that when a spinning object changes how its matter is distributed, it changes its rate of spin. This law links the formation of planets to the beauty of a gymnast's spinning dismount.

Stashed ideas

What do Olympic gymnasts and star-forming clouds have in common?

NASA scientists <a href="https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=36313.0">have reported </a>that they've successfully tested an engine called the electromagnetic propulsion drive, or the EM Drive, in a vacuum that replicates space. The EM Drive experimental system could take humans to <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/mars">Mars </a>in just 70 days without the need for rocket fuel, and it's no exaggeration to say that this could change everything.So what does all this mean? If the results can be replicated and verified in a vacuum (something that Eaglework engineers plan to do in the coming months), it would change the way we travel in space.

EM drive, future of space travel


NASA scientists have reported that they've successfully tested an engine called the electromagnetic propulsion drive, or the EM Drive, in a vacuum that replicates space.

Physics

NASA Has Trialled an Engine That Would Take Us to Mars in 10 Weeks

The biggest perk of traveling to space is the view. Just past the boundary between space and Earth, passengers can catch a stunning glimpse of our planet juxtaposed against the wide unknown of space. The view is meant to be awe-inducing, and the experience even has its own name: the Overview Effect.&nbsp;Another perk of these trips is that space tourists will feel a few minutes of microgravity, which is when gravity feels extremely weak. That will give them the chance to bounce around a spacecraft weightlessly before heading back to Earth.

What will people actually be able to see and experience on a space trip?

<ul><li>Right now, space tourism flights have only reached suborbital space, which means that flights enter space but do not enter orbit around Earth. Scientifically, that’s not a new frontier (done by NASA back in the early 1960s).</li><li>Right now, it’s not clear these trips will offer scientists major new insights, but they might provide information that could be used in the future for space exploration. These trips are also being marketed as potential opportunities for scientific experiments.</li><li>Suborbital spaceflight might also create new ways to travel from one place on earth to another.</li></ul>

Does commercial space travel have any scientific goals, or is it really just a joyride?

Right now, it’s not entirely clear just how risky space tourism is.<ul><li>One way space tourism companies are trying to keep travelers safe is by requiring training so that the people who are taking a brief sojourn off Earth are as prepared as possible.</li><li>On the flight, people can experience intense altitude and G-forces. </li><li>There’s also the chance that space tourists will be exposed to radiation, though that risk depends on how long you’re in space.</li><li>Some tourists will likely barf on the ride.</li><li>There doesn’t seem to be an age limit on who can travel, though.</li></ul>

Is it safe?

The leaders in commercial space tourism already claim they have a market to support the industry. While Jeff Bezos hinted the price would eventually come down — as eventually happened with the high prices of the nascent airline industry — for now, ticket prices are in the low hundreds of thousands, at least for Virgin Galactic.&nbsp;That price point would keep spaceflight out of reach for most of humanity, but there are enough interested rich people that space tourism seems to be economically feasible.

How much will tickets cost?

<ul><li>The emissions of a flight to space can be worse than those of a typical airplane flight because just a few people hop aboard, so the emissions per passenger are much higher. That pollution could become much worse if space tourism becomes more popular.</li><li>The carbon footprint of launching yourself into space in one of these rockets is incredibly high, close to about 100 times higher than if you took a long-haul flight.</li><li>These flights’ effects on the environment will differ depending on factors like the fuel they use, the energy required to manufacture that fuel, and where they’re headed.</li></ul>

What impact will commercial space travel have on the environment?

<ul><li>The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has generally been given the job of overseeing the commercial space industry. But regulation of space is still relatively meager.</li><li>One of the biggest areas of concern is licensing launches and making sure that space flights don’t end up hitting all the other flying vehicles humans launch into the sky, like planes and drones.</li><li>There’s a lot that still needs to be worked out, especially as there are more of these launches.</li><li>In the meantime, no government agency is currently vetting these companies when it comes to the safety of the human passengers aboard.</li><li>There doesn’t seem to be an abundance of travelers’ insurance policies for space.</li></ul>

Who is regulating commercial space travel?

Six questions to consider before launching yourself into space.

Six questions to consider before launching yourself into space

Sir Richard Branson, the billionaire entrepreneur who owns Virgin Galactic, boarded his rocket for its maiden space voyage, debuting private space tourism and beating Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos to the private space race.
<ul>
<li>Unity, the rocket plane with two pilots, flew the billionaire to the edge of the earth, reaching 282,000 feet up in the sky, and getting back within the hour.</li>
<li>The flight departed from New Mexico where Elon Musk joined in to support Sir Richard Branson.</li>
<li>The space project was conceived in 2004 but was delayed due to technical problems including a fatal crash in 2014.</li>
</ul>

Billionaire In Space

The Virgin Group owner plans to start commercial space tourism in 2022 and has already taken a USD 250,000 deposit from 600 individuals keen on a space ride.According to Jeff Bezos, the height achieved by the Unity Space rocket is not 100 km, the internationally recognized altitude where one enters space, even though the U.S. Government puts the height at 80 km.

Space Tourism: The Next Frontier

Unity is a sub-orbital rocket and cannot achieve the velocity or altitude required to maintain its position in space or circle the earth. It is carried into space using a bigger rocket up to 15 km and can achieve a maximum height of 90 km.It has a unique feather mechanism to self-stabilize its fall while gliding back to earth.

Unity The Rocket

The UK businessman realises a lifetime's ambition by riding a rocket plane high into the sky.

Virgin Galactic: Sir Richard Branson rockets to the edge of space

Star Trek, a science fiction mainstay, has millions of fans, fondly called Trekkies. They are very interested in the many innovative, but fictional technologies featured in the long-running franchise, many of which have become a reality(like the Communicator or the Floppy Disc).
The fictional Star Trek universe, called the Trekiverse, has spaceships flying at ‘warp’ speeds, many times faster than the speed of light. The sub-light speed cruise modes of spaceships are called Impulse Drive.

Star Trek’s Many Technologies

Self Improvement

Impulse engines use nuclear-powered propulsion technology, and though the speed is not faster than light, it is faster than what we have today. All this is still in the fictional realm, though the theory is sound and we can have such engines in the future.Impulse drives have a theoretical problem of time dilation, in which ‘near-light’ speeds cause anomalies in time. They also can behave unpredictably in different atmospheres, as they are designed to work in a vacuum.

Impulse Drives

Ion drives are real life engine propulsion technologies similar to impulse drives used in the fictional Star Trek universe. They operate continuously due to low-power consumption, like the Dawn spacecraft sent to dwarf planet Ceres in 2007. It lacks the quick acceleration ability of the fictional Impulse drives, but is promising nonetheless.

Ion Drives

Rocket scientists are working on plasma drives, which use electricity instead of the old ‘chemical’ technology in most rocket engines.They are supposed to be much more powerful and fast in terms of propulsion and can get a spacecraft to Mars in about 30 days, as compared to the six months it takes now.

Plasma Engines

In Star Trek, the ships use a propulsion system known as impulse drive to maneuver at sub-light speeds. Could we develop it someday? It might be possible.