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 […]
Blog
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 […]
Things to Come
Adam Hibberd I sometimes wonder at the short-sightedness of people. The sort of people who scoff and scorn at the far-sighted work which most of my work colleagues and I have dedicated a good deal of our lives to pursue, largely voluntarily. They may argue: We have such and such a problem NOW, how are […]
Members Newsletter
Welcome to the Members Newsletter of the Initiative and Institute for Interstellar Studies. This edition is again guest edited by John I Davies whose i4is “day job” is editing Principium quarterly and helping with educational outreach. We had an excellent candidate for the role of Content Editor for the Newsletter but she was forced to […]
Project Lyra: Using Jupiter Alone to get to ‘Oumuamua
Adam Hibberd Here is a ‘pork chop plot’ of missions to ‘Oumuamua using a Jupiter powered gravitational assist (or a Jupiter Oberth Manoeuvre, JOM). Refer to the Figure (1). Essentially, what we have are three coordinates where firstly the horizontal axis shows the launch date, the vertical axis shows the flight duration, and for every […]