For more than 20 years, an “Interstellar Precursor Mission” to ∼1000 AU within the working lifetime of the initiators (<50 years) has been discussed as a high priority for multiple scientific objectives. During the last two years there has been renewed interest in actually sending a probe to another star system - a “grand challenge” for NASA - and the idea of a precursor mission has been renewed as a beginning step to achieve this goal. We revisit an old idea for implementing such a mission. The probe is launched initially to Jupiter and then falls to the Sun where a large propulsive ΔV maneuver propels it on a high-energy ballistic escape trajectory from the solar system. The implementation requires a low-mass, highly-integrated spacecraft to make use of moderate (Delta-class) expendable launch vehicles. We provide a first-order cut at many of the engineering realities associated with such a probe. We identify a mission concept that can link the required science, desired instruments, spacecraft engineering and the realities of the fiscal and technological milieu in which NASA must operate if such missions are to reach fruition and lay the groundwork for eventually realizing true starships.
A realistic interstellar explorer
SPACE TECHNOLOGY AND APPLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL FORUM - 2000 ; 2000 ; Albuquerque, New Mexico (USA)
AIP Conference Proceedings ; 504 , 1 ; 917-924
2000-01-19
8 pages
Conference paper
Electronic Resource
English
A Realistic Interstellar Explorer
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