Adam Hibberd
I do occasionally become absorbed by conversations with AI (ChatGPT) and in the process get inspired and enthused by possibilities for different research opportunities.
For instance, recently I was chatting away with ChatGPT on the subject of how we might conduct a NEP (Nuclear Electric Propulsion) mission to the first interstellar object to be discovered travelling through our Solar System, designated 1I/'Oumuamua. One might call this investigation 'Project Lyra using NEP', and as a result of this chat I came up with a spiffing idea.
We were discussing how such a mission might hugely benefit from a passive gravity assist (PGA) of Jupiter, this being a close approach to the planet, without any significant thrust, which would otherwise make it a 'JOM' (i.e. a Jupiter Oberth Manoeuvre).
Such a PGA encounter has numerous benefits and indeed a PGA is the default reference mission for the Interstellar Probe project by JHU/APL (go here) albeit their plan is to become interstellar rather than to target 'Oumuamua specifically.
So there we were, ChatGPT and I, when I brought up the subject of launch windows and the constraint that if we wish to gain the enormous energy-boost that a PGA of Jupiter accomplishes then we must tie ourselves down to Jupiter's orbital period (11.9 years). This in turn means windows for appropriate alignment with 'Oumuamua would be relatively scarce (approx. every 11.9 years), whilst all-the-time the target would be receding farther and farther from the Sun, making such a mission an ever-more challenging prospect.
But it is at this point that ChatGPT did what AI is very good at doing, and corrected me rather politely as being slightly presumptuous, and that using NEP (a low thrust option) could open up launch windows using Jupiter which may have wider intervals than simply assuming the chemical (high thrust) option. Even further to this, ChatGPT suggested - who knows? - maybe Jupiter isn't needed at all.
This was the 'Eureka!' moment because it was then that 'Edelbaum' (go here) occurred to me. The paper I just referenced is one I have cited in a few of my Project Lyra papers and lays out the logic behind the optimal 3-impulse escape from the Solar System proposed by the American aerospace engineer and astrodynamicist Theodore N. Edelbaum.
To summarise the Edelbaum concept, it begins at a circular orbit around the Sun (like the one Earth is in for example (approx.)) and applies a single impulse (ΔV, i.e. an instantaneous change in velocity) at this orbit to send the spacecraft (s/c) away from the Sun. It then waits for aphelion (farthest from Sun) and 'puts on the brakes', applying annother ΔV to allow the s/c to descend towards the Sun. Once it reaches perihelion (closest to Sun) it applies a final tangential ΔV to shoot out of the Solar System at 'break-neck speed'. For the reasons why this is so effective - and these are actually rather straightforward - go to the paper by Philip R. Blanco and Carl E. Mungan, here.
Anyway, clearly the most important consequence of all this is that absolutely NO Jupiter encounter is necessary, so optimal launch dates will arise yearly as opposed to every ~12 years when we were relying on Jupiter.
So as an update, I am currently using my software development 'Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software' (OITS) - with the all important facility of 'Intermediate Points' - to perform precisely this research, and so far the results have been exceedingly encouraging.
Watch this space.