Adam Hibberd I’m not sure whether you might already be aware of this but there are really weird objects orbiting the Sun which astronomers have observed and tried to categorize as a new class of object, ‘the dark comets’. But what makes them weird? It’s the rather strange fact that the peculiar orbital paths they […]
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.
Mission to an Interstellar Object
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
A Challenge for OITS
Adam Hibberd I was recently asked by a US colleague to do a little research using ‘OITS’. For those of you unaware by now, ‘OITS’ stands for ‘Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software’ and is a powerful tool I developed single-handedly for studying the problem of sending spacecraft on heliocentric trajectories to a planet or for that […]
3I/ATLAS: Is It Worth a Solar Oberth?
Adam Hibberd Have you noticed, 3I/ATLAS is well and truly on its way out of the Solar System? It has afterall passed through its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) and is well on its way to a close encounter with Jupiter in mid-March – given this, it would seem to be the ideal moment […]
The SpaceX Starship and Catching an Interstellar Object
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 […]
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 […]