I'M GIVIN' 'ER ALL I GOT, CAPTAIN!!
So screamed Scotty while attempting to outrun Klingons orbiting around Uranus. Unknowingly Scotty in 1966 was predicting the future in 2009. Ok, ok... it wasn't Scotty who made the prediction, it may more appropriately be attributed to the author of Star Trek - Gene Roddenberry. The Starship enterprise was powered by an ion-propulsion engine which used Dylithium crystals.
It turns out that 40 years later, Ion propulsion engines are science fact, not fiction. Dylithium, as it turns out, is a gas not a crystal...its the gaseous state of the element Lithium...and its not used for propulsion.
Xenon gas, on the other hand is! In fact, the Ion propulsion engine does now exist, and its used to propel satellites through space. a certain exploratory research satellite named "Dawn" was launched in late 2009 towards to asteroidsCeres and Vesta. Unlike its predecessor "one trick pony" research satellites, Dawn entered orbit around the first asteroid, studied it and returned information to earth. It then thrust out of orbit and moved to the next asteroid to repeat the sequence...all using a Xenon ion propulsion drive.
So... what forces could have transfiormed an imaginary propulsion system and enabled today's sattelite ? The first would seem to be sociological. The generation that grew up as kids watching StarTrek on TV is todays engineers and scientists. The notion of space flight for that generation was not so far fetched. After all, we were in the middle of space race with Russia and just a couple of years later we put a man on the moon. These science facts of the time easily reinforced anyone who may have thought "well, why not?" From another point of view, the technical advances over the last 40 years have become tremendous enablers!.. Just one, alone, has made a myriad of things happen: Electronic miniaturization. Via this one marvel where circuits are now designed at the atomic level, SO many MILLIONS of transistors packed into the size of a postage stamp makes the ROOM sized computers of the 60s laughable!...speaking of laughable,
Capt. Kirk's "communicator" didn't have a video screen, nor could it be used to play games. But it did make a cool little "weep weep" sound when you flipped it open....
My OLD AND OBSOLETE CELL PHONE DID THAT AND HAD A VIDEO SCREEN AND CAMERA! ... eat your heart out Cpt. Kirk!!
http://scienceray.com/physics/ion-propulsion-from-star-trek-to-nasa/
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