Starship Blog

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 […]

Adam Hibberd There has been a lot of discussion around what would be the best route to catch that most mysterious and outrageously quirky interstellar interloper 1I/’Oumuamua, and I have personally investigated all sorts of spacecraft mission scenarios; using a combination of gravity assists (where kinetic energy is gained by the spacecraft’s encounter with a […]

Adam Hibberd An asteroid was discovered in December 2024 which for a while had the world on tenter hooks. Its predicted path brought it in close proximity to the Earth in December 2032, with a chance of collision which steadily rose to around 3% over the course of several weeks. Now all the pressure valves […]

Adam Hibberd I have recently read a review of a book titled “Astrotopia: the Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race” written by a professor Mary-Jane Rubenstein and it is reviewed by Patrick Mahon, who is on the Board of Directors for i4is. The review can be found here. You might be interested in that […]

Adam Hibberd Now the threat posed by Potentially Hazardous Asteroid (PHA) 2027 YR4 to Earth in December 2032 has been effectively ruled out altogether, an apathy concerning this object has descended on so many and this is, of itself, quite alarming. Let me explain to you TWO reasons now why such complacency is entirely misplaced. […]

Adam Hibberd The asteroid 2024 YR4 will approach pretty close to Earth on 2032 December 22nd and we can’t yet preclude a Tunguska-scale impact. Unlike Tunugska however, there would be quite a high likelihood of human fatalities, since its impact location could coincide with quite densely populated areas including India, for example, certainly a disaster […]

Adam Hibberd Recently I’ve been pondering a problem of gravity. Specifically, the gravity of a particular celestial object which has come to the world’s attention, making headline news in certain papers, I am of course talking about the potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) designated 2024 YR4. This object has an orbit which could – potentially – […]

Adam Hibberd Today it was back to potentially hazardous asteroid (PHA) 2024 YR4 which was discovered quite recently and has a comparatively high chance (depending on the source ~ 1.3%, with some sources quoting higher probabilities) of colliding with Earth in 2032. Furthermore this collision has the potential of causing many human deaths, though I […]

Adam Hibberd The Tunguska event holds a special place in humanity’s collective memory as an incident which could have been so much more devastating had it not occurred in the heavily forested area of Siberia and instead in a more densely populated area . Yes trees were flattened yet it seems for this event at […]

Adam Hibberd I think most of you know me by now as the guy who developed the tool called ‘Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software’ (OITS) which ultimately solved the problem of how we might send a spacecraft to catch up with rapidly receding interstellar object and scientific enigma ‘Oumuamua. I decided to work on OITS – […]

A Mission to Five Near Earth Objects in 2030 Adam Hibberd We at i4is, together with our collaborators on the Phase I NIAC (NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts) at Space Initiatives Inc., have been contemplating precursors to the ultimate mission of sending laser sails to swarm our nearest neighbouring star, Proxima Centauri. A summary of the […]