Scientists are building a steam-powered spaceship that can potentially explore 'forever'

By using steam rather than fuel, the World Is Not Enough (WINE) spacecraft prototype can theoretically explore “forever,” as long as water and sufficiently low gravity is present. (Credit: University of Central Florida)

The steam-powered locomotive that was featured in "Back to the Future Part 3" helped Doc Brown and Marty McFly travel through time. Now, humanity is looking to go "back to the future" and use steam power to go to the final frontier — space.

Scientists at the University of Central Florida (UCF) have joined Honeybee Robotics to develop a steam-powered spacecraft known as World Is Not Enough (WINE). It would extract water either from asteroids or nearby "planetary bodies" to generate the steam necessary for propulsion and move on to its next mining target, researchers said in a statement.

"It's awesome," UCF planetary research scientist Phil Metzger said of the demonstration. "WINE successfully mined the soil, made rocket propellant, and launched itself on a jet of steam extracted from the simulant. We could potentially use this technology to hop on the Moon, Ceres, Europa, Titan, Pluto, the poles of Mercury, asteroids — anywhere there is water and sufficiently low gravity."

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Due to the prevalence of water on asteroids and other planetary bodies (the Moon, for example), Metzger added that WINE could theoretically fly and explore "forever."

The ability to run on steam could have an enormous impact on space exploration, given that current missions are reliant on propellant not made of steam.

"Each time we lose our tremendous investment in time and money that we spent building and sending the spacecraft to its target," Metzger added. "WINE was designed to never run out of propellant so exploration will be less expensive. It also allows us to explore in a shorter amount of time, since we don't have to wait for years as a new spacecraft travels from Earth each time."

The WINE lander recently completed its first test mission, according to LiveScience. It was able to successfully mine a fake asteroid (the material was provided by the University of Central Florida) for water, convert the liquid into rocket propellant and then launch itself in the air.

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Metzger said three years were spent developing the necessary technology to go from idea to reality and is now seeking partners to continue developing the craft.

While it's a significant achievement, there is more testing that needs to be done before WINE could ever go into space. However, Metzger is hopeful that something could happen soon, as is Kris Zacny, vice president of Honeybee Robotics.

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"The project has been a collaborative effort between NASA, academia and industry; and it has been a tremendous success," Zacny said in the statement. "The WINE-like spacecrafts have the potential to change how we explore the universe."

Follow Chris Ciaccia on Twitter @Chris_Ciaccia