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 […]
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.
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 […]
‘Oumuamua: The State of Play
Adam Hibberd In 2017, an interstellar object was discovered, the first ever to be detected. It was observed by the Hawaiian observatory Pan-STARRS, subsequently studied by many telescopes before disappearing into the distance in January 2018. An estimate on the number density, N (how many per unit volume), in interstellar space was determined based on […]
Principium 39
Principium, the quarterly publication of the Initiative and Institute for Interstellar Studies, Number 39.
Why the Stars?
Adam Hibberd November 2022 People may ask the question why we should venture beyond our solar system to explore the stars? Why should we commit precious resources to such an endeavour? I have an answer to this which may to some degree be a personal one. The question boils down to why are we curious? […]
Exploring ‘Oumuamua’s Trajectory – Further Notes
Adam Hibberd November 2022 In my last blog I reported the progress of my work regarding the intriguing little conundrum of the first interstellar object (ISO) to be discovered, designated ‘Oumuamua, in particular my research into its orbit. In fact ‘Oumuamua is puzzling on many counts and I have also in a previous blog elaborated […]
Exploring ‘Oumuamua’s Perihelion Date
Adam Hibberd October 2022 This blog may be a bit cheeky but do take heed of the last line before jumping to any conclusions! I’ve been mucking around with ‘Oumuamua’s orbit on my computer lately. Mucking around in the sense of playing with its orbital parameters and seeing what crops up. Those of you who […]
Sailing to Apophis
Adam Hibberd September 2022 Of the existential threats posed by celestial objects to our Earth, the cradle of humanity and currently our only life-support, there are myriad such candidates. In fact we are in a veritable astronomical mine-field, the key question is not if but when. Take comets for instance. These objects composed primarily of […]
Skateboards to Starships
The third i4is summer workshops at the Royal Institution We were first invited to deliver a one day summer workshop for school students by the Royal Institution {RIGB, www.rigb.org) in 2018. We called it “Skateboards to Starships” to show that the basic physics, maths and engineering principles applied to both and at many scales between.We […]
Summer Course 25-29th July 2022
Latest News: Special guest panel with Brian ‘BK’ Kelly, former Director Flight Operations NASA and ‘Ray J’ Johnson pilot of final Shuttle mission to Hubble Space Telescope.
The Limitless Space Institute commissioned the Initiative for Interstellar Studies to create a course to educate and inspire the next generation to explore and travel beyond our solar system. Following on from the inaugural class in 2021 this second class also incorporates material previously delivered to the International Space University and i4is’ own ‘Starship Engineer’ courses.
Project Lyra: There is Another Way
Project Lyra was prompted by the question of the feasibility of a spacecraft mission to ‘Oumuamua, the first object to be discovered definitely originating from outside our solar system – the first of its party or interstellar scout as is implied by the Hawaiian translation of its name. Many of you readers will have heard […]
‘Oumuamua: Some More Strangeness
So is ‘Oumuamua natural or artificial? First it should be understood that a clear and unequivocal answer to this can only be achieved by an in-situ examination. The artist impressions of ‘Oumuamua which have become memes on the internet generally depict ‘Oumuamua as an elongated cigar-shaped rock. This meme may have done a great deal […]