Adam Hibberd Many readers in-the-know will have heard of the future ESA ‘Comet Interceptor’ mission, due to launch in 2029. For those not-in-the-know it is a spacecraft desgined to loiter at the famous Sun/Earth Lagrange 2 (L2) point for a few years, waiting for a ‘pristine’ Oort Cloud comet to come flying in to the […]
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Members Newsletter – April
Dami Lee on Project HyperionWe were really happy to see that our Project Hyperion competition (https://www.projecthyperion.org/) captured the imagination of the architect and Youtuber Dami Lee, who posted a detailed and thoughtful video commentary ‘Can Humans REALLY Leave Earth?’ Over one million views! Check it out: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BBb2gC0lByk&pp=0gcJCVACo7VqN5tD(You may want to skip the ads that are […]
Members Newsletter – March
News from i4isThe i4is Educational team are currently recruiting! If any of our members are interested, and especially if you are in striking distance of London or Lincoln, both in the UK, we could do with support at the April events mentioned below. You can read about some of the activities in recent issues of […]
Principium 52
Principium 52 has gone out to subscribers and is now accessible to all
2024 YR4, Which Rendezvous Plan?
Adam Hibberd The object known as 2024 YR4 has laid down the gauntlet on humanity. ‘See me outside, or take the consequences!’ The consequences however would not be eternal dishonour and ignominy, but a complacent denial of the existential threat posed by Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) such as this. True, a few weeks after its […]
Members Newsletter – February
News from i4is The next meeting of the i4is SF Book Club is Thursday, 19th March 2026 at 1900 UK time (online) A keen group of i4is members – writers and readers of SF meet monthly online for about one hour to discuss various SF stories, currently short stories taken from ‘The Road to Science […]
A Mission to 3I/ATLAS by Solar Slingshot (a layperson’s guide).
Adam Hibberd This is how I’d explain my paper to a mate in a pub: “The Solar System is comprised of lots of different objects (like planets, asteroids and comets) which go around the central Sun, in huge ellipses. You may say the Earth’s path is circular, that’s true, but in fact all circles are […]
Sample Return Mission Feasibility of 2024 YR4
Adam Hibberd A mission to Near Earth Asteroid designated 2024 YR4 which for a while had a relatively high chance of colliding with the Earth. This probability has dropped to zero but instead the likelihood of impact with the Moon has gone up – it is now ~ 4 %. Such a collision would cause […]