The Bussard Ramjet Deserves its Own Song

(If you just want to get the new song and not read my wonderful little blog posting, it’s right here.)

Dr. Robert W. Bussard had a dream. Well, he had a great idea about how humans could travel speeds approaching that of light, which, as of now, we can’t. At least I can’t. If you can, please say how you have done so in the comments section. Anyway, in 1960 Bussard developed the idea for what has since become known as the Bussard Ramjet (or Bussard Collector because of its means of fueling itself). Here’s how Wikipedia explains it:

Bussard proposed a ramjet variant of a fusion rocket capable of fast interstellar spaceflight. It would use an enormous electro-magnetic field (ranging from kilometers to many thousands of kilometers in diameter) as a ram scoop to collect and compress hydrogen from the interstellar medium. High speed forces the reactive mass into a progressively constricted magnetic field, compressing it until thermonuclear fusion occurs. The magnetic field then directs the energy as rocket exhaust opposite to the intended direction of travel, thereby accelerating the vessel.

I learned about it upon re-watching Carl Sagan’s Cosmos series, and was fascinated. Not because I know anything about rocket propulsion, but because it was what, at least to Sagan, a feasible means for humans to travel the length of the universe. The way he explained it was a little clearer to dumb guys like me: the Bussard Ramjet essentially sucks in interstellar dust and uses fusion to turn it into fuel, and there is no theoretical limit to how fast it could go – save the law that says nothing can go faster than light. Of course, because of the time distortion that happens to near-light speed travelers, anyone who did traverse the universe in (what would seem to them) a matter of months would return home after what would actually have been billions of years later – no one home to brag to. Stupid relativity.

Regardless, it was something that Sagan obviously thought was a great step in the right direction using known science. It got me to thinking how frustrating it must be to those scientific explorers who depend so much on public opinion and government handouts to make real progress and try big, daring things.

So sometime in 2003 I wrote a song about it, and I have finally gotten around to making it somewhat acceptable for public consumption. I hope you like what might be the first pop song about a theoretical intergalactic vacuum cleaner. Or at least the first song about this one.

Download Paul’s new song “Bussard Collector” here.

And tell your physicist friends. Or don’t, because they will likely quibble with the lyrics. Stupid physicists.

P.S. – The image in this entry is courtesy of (and the work of) Adrian Mann, from his very cool site “This is Rocket Science.” Thanks, Adrian!

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