Adam Hibberd An Oort cloud comet is composed primarily of dust and ice and has spent most of its life in the far-flung distant reaches of our Solar System (2,000 au to 200,000 au from our Sun). It is eventually nudged inward towards our Sun by gravitational influences such as galactic tides or some passing […]
Blog
Project Lyra: Falcon Heavy Expendable
Adam Hibberd Following on from my previous blog where I studied the capability of the up-coming Ariane 6 4 launcher in terms of delivering a spacecraft on a course to intercept the first interstellar object to be discovered, ‘Oumuamua, I continue this logical progression with analysis of a more powerful launcher, the Falcon Heavy. The […]
Members Newsletter
The deadline to submit papers to the bi-annual Interstellar Research Group conference is now less than one month away (Abstract Submission Final Deadline, April 21) i4is will be there and we’ll be reporting in Principium and the Members Newsletter. It will take place July 10 – 13, 2023 (with pre-symposium seminars taking place) in Montreal, QC, Canada at McGill University.
Project Lyra: Using an Ariane 6
Adam Hibberd Ariane 6 is the up-and-coming successor to the old Arianespace workhorse, Ariane 5, and may secure its maiden flight later this year. There will ultimately be two strap-on booster configurations from which to choose, one with two boosters, and the more powerful version with four. I thought it might be worthwhile assessing the […]
Principium 40
The February 2023 issue of Princpium is now available and has already gone out to subscribers.
Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software (OITS)
Adam Hibberd I started development of this software, OITS, in April 2017 on a holiday near the little town of Cheadle, in the county of Staffordshire, UK. I started from the very basics, deriving the theory during the holiday and continuing shortly thereafter, and then immersed myself in the implementation of the equations I had […]
Members Newsletter
This is just a short message from Tam O’Neill (Membership/Infrastructure Manager for i4is) to introduce you to our latest volunteer here at i4is, Parnika Singh. Parnika has graciously taken on the role as our membership newsletter editor.
Music of ‘Oumuamua
Adam Hibberd If you have a fascination for the mysterious interstellar object ‘Oumuamua and are musically inclined, please check out these two pieces by my musician friend Robin Jax based on recordings of me playing two piano compositions of mine. Whether it be Robin’s neurodivergence, or my own schizophrenia, we have both overcome our respective […]