Adam Hibberd On the request of a colleague, I have solved the problem of exploiting the powerful SpaceX Starship (in fact the yet to be launched Block 3 variant) to lift a spacecraft so that it can catch up with 1I/’Oumuamua, the now rapidly receding ‘interstellar object’. This object sped through the inner group of […]
Starship Blog
With the recent creation of the new i4is website, along with the newer blogs, we have included a selection of previous Starship Blog posts from our archive which we hope you will enjoy browsing. If you would like to write an article and have it appear on our web site, then get in touch with us.
Principium 51
Principium 51 has gone out to subscribers and is now accessible to all.
3I/ATLAS in Plane Language.
Adam Hibberd I have had many queries concerning the calculation of the likelihood of 3I/ATLAS’s orbital plane lying within 5° of that of the ecliptic of the Solar System. This calculation appears in the paper ‘Is the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Alien Technology?’ which can be found here. The calculation exploits a simple equation based on […]
Elon’s Starship to Launch Project Lyra?
Adam Hibberd Yesterday I was trying to gauge the measure of the SpaceX Starship in terms of its ability to launch the Project Lyra spacecraft on its way to its destination. BTW Project Lyra is the initiative to send a mission to catch-up with very quickly receding interstellar object 1I/’Oumuamua. So exactly how do we […]
3I/ATLAS Mission to Launch in 2035
Adam Hibberd As a consequence of exploring the Solar Oberth option to catch up with 3I/ATLAS, using my software development Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software (OITS), I have discovered that a mission exists IN THE FUTURE, with a launch in 10 years time, i.e. in 2035. The video animation can be found on my YouTube channel […]
On a Second Moon and the Zond 1 Probe.
Adam Hibberd 2025 PN7, the widely touted newly discovered quasi-satellite of the Earth, has stirred-up in me a renewed fascination for identifying apparently natural objects as old derelict interplanetary missions. So is this object natural or technogenic? If I were to say 50:50 this could be the failed Russian Zond 1 probe to Venus, what […]
3I/ATLAS: How low should we go?
Adam Hibberd 3I/ATLAS, the interstellar object, is in the Solar System and making its presence known, not only to astronomers but also to the world’s media. My paper with Avi Loeb and Adam Crowl examined the hypothesis that 3I/ATLAS might be alien technology, go here. I confess this paper has been somewhat of a hit! […]
3I/ATLAS: An Interstellar Controversy
Adam Hibberd When you have a surprise, uninvited visitor gatecrash your party, you are liable to treat them cautiously at first and then after a visual appraisal reveals they are worthy of acceptance, maybe curiosity will strike and you may start asking questions to find out more about them. You may by the end of […]
3I/ATLAS: What would Juno need to do?
Adam Hibberd Having demonstrated yesterday that a reasonably low DeltaV (velocity increment) applied by the Juno’s engine could achieve a significantly closer approach to 3I/ATLAS than would otherwise be the case if Juno stayed in its current Jupiter orbit, surely that would be the end of the matter? The answer is ‘not quite’, since this […]
Juno and 3I/ATLAS, a New Lease of Life?
Adam Hibberd Juno the wife and sister of Jupiter in Greek mythology, is also a spacecraft currently orbiting the planet Jupiter. The spacecraft suffered a major setback in 2016 when the main engine became unusable necessitating key alternative arrangements to be made to the Juno mission plan. A paper by Avi Loeb, Adam Crowl and […]
3I/ATLAS: What if?
Adam Hibberd My paper with Adam Crowl and Avi Loeb is out today, and we have collectively been doing what scientists and philosophers have been doing since time immemorial, and that is asking questions, and exercising our imaginations in the process. In this case the question goes like this: ‘is 3I/ATLAS, the third interstellar interloper […]
Missions to 3I/ATLAS
Adam Hibberd The third interstellar object is causing a bit of a stir. What could it be exactly? Judging by its predicted path, we should get a ring-side view of it from Earth, except for an important viewing outage as it approaches perihelion – the closest approach to the Sun – simply because it will […]