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Mission To Sedna, space mission to sedna
K-P
post Jan 13 2008, 12:51 PM
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I have tried to search but could not see any serious planning of sending a fly-by mission to Sedna. Does anyone have any info if the scientific community is planning such...?

In my opinion, Sedna would be very interesting target, far more interesting than any KBO etc. The fact that it spends most of the time outside heliopause under the influence of cosmic rays during aphelion could reveal some interesting results and also the reddish colour it has might be worth investigating. And good for us, at the moment it is approaching its closest point to Sun on its orbit, so mission to Sedna would not be such a big effort if done e.g. a'la NH with Jupiter gravity assist...? Maybe possible NH2 could be sent that direction.......?

Any comments, any info? Especially the fact that it is a body from outside the heliopause, could that add some interest towards it?


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stevesliva
post Jan 14 2008, 10:14 PM
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There are some more details (and numbers for Ulysses) here:
http://www.niac.usra.edu/files/library/mee...0/393McNutt.pdf

The mission concept on slide 8 describes a retrograde trajectory to Jupiter, followed by a Sun gravity assist involving an yet-to-be-developed propulsion system. Not to mention that there are a lot of other yet-to-be-developed proposed technologies, like the optical communications and Americurium RTG.
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ugordan
post Jan 14 2008, 10:28 PM
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QUOTE (stevesliva @ Jan 14 2008, 11:14 PM) *
There are some more details (and numbers for Ulysses) here:
http://www.niac.usra.edu/files/library/mee...0/393McNutt.pdf

A 15.4 km/s burn within 15 minutes. Well, that's optimistic to say the least. Currently, you could have either 15 km/s or a 15 minute short burn, but not both. The only thing I can think of right now is a massive (and we're really talking about a MASSIVE) ion engine powered by god knows what. Massive solar arrays lofted all the way to Jupiter to be able to provide enough juice for the 15 minutes of hellish perihelion passage at 4 solar radii?

We'll be seeing nuclear reactors in space probes sooner than this, IMHO.


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JRehling
post Jan 14 2008, 10:45 PM
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At least solar radiation would not be in short supply at 4 solar radii. I think that, if anywhere, is where the energy would come from.
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Posts in this topic
- K-P   Mission To Sedna   Jan 13 2008, 12:51 PM
- - J.J.   Unfortunately, I don't see this happening any ...   Jan 13 2008, 02:57 PM
|- - K-P   I don't think that the roughly 80-90 AU distan...   Jan 13 2008, 07:08 PM
- - Greg Hullender   Jupiter can speed you up or get you off the eclipt...   Jan 13 2008, 08:01 PM
- - stevesliva   Jupiter-Sun gravity assist can get you going even ...   Jan 13 2008, 08:33 PM
|- - ugordan   How can you use Sun in a gravity assist? That...   Jan 13 2008, 08:46 PM
|- - stevesliva   QUOTE (ugordan @ Jan 13 2008, 03:46 PM) H...   Jan 14 2008, 02:34 AM
||- - cawest   QUOTE (stevesliva @ Jan 14 2008, 03:34 AM...   Jan 14 2008, 06:34 AM
|||- - Greg Hullender   QUOTE (cawest @ Jan 13 2008, 10:34 PM) wh...   Jan 14 2008, 05:55 PM
|||- - ugordan   Does anyone know how much heliocentric escape velo...   Jan 14 2008, 09:53 PM
||- - ugordan   QUOTE (stevesliva @ Jan 14 2008, 03:34 AM...   Jan 14 2008, 09:18 AM
|- - Greg Hullender   QUOTE (ugordan @ Jan 13 2008, 12:46 PM) H...   Jan 14 2008, 05:51 PM
- - ngunn   We had a 'what missions would you like to see...   Jan 13 2008, 09:09 PM
- - cawest   i would not expect to see a mission to Sedna till ...   Jan 14 2008, 02:15 AM
- - stevesliva   There are some more details (and numbers for Ulyss...   Jan 14 2008, 10:14 PM
|- - ugordan   QUOTE (stevesliva @ Jan 14 2008, 11:14 PM...   Jan 14 2008, 10:28 PM
|- - JRehling   At least solar radiation would not be in short sup...   Jan 14 2008, 10:45 PM
|- - ugordan   True, but one has to think about how hot the semic...   Jan 14 2008, 11:01 PM
- - bobik   Recently, IKI researchers have analysed possible f...   Jan 25 2022, 08:13 AM
- - Antdoghalo   I like the Neptune flyby one. It gives us an excus...   Jan 29 2022, 03:10 PM
- - StargazeInWonder   2050 would be about equinox on Triton and would al...   Jan 29 2022, 10:59 PM


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