Mission To 700 AU, Discussion of options for sending a probe to 700 AU Options

[qraal]

Speaking of Mike Brown and his planets, if the proposed Planet IX is confirmed, then it's likely to be about 700 AU away. That's a 200 year journey at "Voyager" speed (~3.5 AU/year), so we'll need to go significantly faster.

For historical precedent there's the Thousand AU mission design from the late 1980s, which used a SNAP powered ion drive to push a probe to ~20 AU/year. Waiting 50 years for major data return seems excessive, so I'd think a 20 year max travel time, and preferably a 10 year travel time, should be in the minimum specifications.

The main propulsion options IMO are an extreme Oberth Maneuver, with a very high thrust system at perihelion; a high performance Solar-Sail; an E-Sail, and - a bit more speculative - a laser-push by the proposed Starshot Array.

Anything missing?

[nprev]

MOD NOTE: Please review and be mindful of rule 1.9 before posting in this topic.

[qraal]

To review:

1.9 Other subjects that are banned here include: Pluto's planethood; conspiracy theories; sci-fi engineering; "new physics"; pseudoscience.

...which hopefully we can keep this topic to real near-term engineering options.

MOD NOTE: Please review and be mindful of rule 1.9 before posting in this topic.

[HSchirmer]

To review:

1.9 Other subjects that are banned here include: Pluto's planethood; conspiracy theories; sci-fi engineering; "new physics"; pseudoscience.

...which hopefully we can keep this topic to real near-term engineering options.

And to put a bookmark about current engineering:

Lasers- current US Navy laser is solid state 30kW (XN-1 LaWS on USS Ponce),
contracts are out to develop 150kW versions to be aircraft based.

Railguns -current US Navy guns fire 23 pound rounds at mach 7, (escape velocity at earth's surface is around mach 33)
Sea trials are supposed to start aboard USNS Millinocket.


File:Laser Weapon System aboard USS Ponce (AFSB(I)-15) in November 2014 (05).JPG
File:One of two electromagnetic railgun prototypes on display aboard joint high speed vessel USS Millinocket (JHSV 3) in port at Naval Base San Diego on July 8, 2014. US Navy photo.

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[JRehling]

Here's a proposal for a solar sail craft that would attain a velocity of 400 km/s, which is 1 AU every 4 days. That could reach a distance of 1,000 AU in about thirty years. That would provide the necessary specs for this and many other objectives.

The strategy is to put a spacecraft into an orbit that brings it close to the Sun, then open the solar sails at that time. I don't know if the specifics are in order, but the general principles seem sound. It might be the cheapest way to achieve a certain range of velocities.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0701073.pdf

[HSchirmer]

Here's a proposal for a solar sail craft that would attain a velocity of 400 km/s, which is 1 AU every 4 days. That could reach a distance of 1,000 AU in about thirty years. That would provide the necessary specs for this and many other objectives.

The strategy is to put a spacecraft into an orbit that brings it close to the Sun, then open the solar sails at that time. I don't know if the specifics are in order, but the general principles seem sound. It might be the cheapest way to achieve a certain range of velocities.

https://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0701073.pdf

Hey, there may be a new "best actual engineering demonstration" for sails.

The "plasma magnet sail"

It's a magnetic sail that traps the solar wind using current induced in solar plasma instead of current in a solid superconducting ring.

That's roughly analagous to the advance in electric generation which occured when designs switched from "magneto" with a rotating iron bar magnet
to the "dynamo" where the magnetic field is created by current flowing through field coils.

Propbably the most interesting sail proposal I've ever seen -

10. Missions Enabled by Plasma Magnet Sails
Plenary talk by Jeff Greason, Board Chairman, Tau Zero Foundation, Oct. 5, 2017, Huntsville, AL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vVOtrAnIxM

Combined that with the recent work on Magneto Aeroshell Braking for stopping.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/magnetoshell-a...-space-orbiters You might not need a heavy rentry shield and meters-wide parachute, if you've got a tunable magnetic field...


Combine the two, and suddenly you've got some extremely interesting real entineering "electromagnetic propulsion" possibilites.