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Initiative for Interstellar Studies

Working towards the achievement of interstellar flight through knowledge to the stars - Starships in our lifetime

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Events

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Events

Past Events

Summer Course: Human Exploration of the Far Solar System and on to the Stars
  • Online
  • 26 – 30 June 2021
  • The Limitless Space Institute has commissioned the Initiative for Interstellar Studies to create a new course to educate and inspire the next generation to explore and travel beyond our solar system. | More info »

Talk Series: Humanity’s Power Basis for Starfaring
  • Online
  • 20 July 2021
  • Members Only (Join i4is today!)
  • Robert Kennedy III presents a talk on the role of humanity’s power basis for starfaring. Members of i4is can attend this talk live! | More info »

Talk Series: The Role of In-Space Resource Utilisation (ISRU) as an Enabler for Human Expansion into the Solar System and Beyond
  • Online
  • 13 July 2021
  • Members Only (Join i4is today!)
  • Satinder Shergill presents a talk on the role of In-Space Resource Utilisation (ISRU) as an enabler for human expansion into the solar system and beyond. Members of i4is can attend this talk live! | More info »

Talk Series: Optimisation of Photon-Sail Trajectories in Alpha Centauri using Evolutionary Neurocontrol
  • Online
  • 06 July 2021
  • Members Only (Join i4is today!)
  • Frederic Schoutetens presents a talk on optimisation of photon-sail trajectories in Alpha Centauri using evolutionary neurocontrol. Members of i4is can attend this talk live! | More info »

Talk Series: Scratch Modelling Conventional and Interstellar Spacecraft
  • Online
  • 29 June 2021
  • Members Only (Join i4is today!)
  • Terry Regan from the Initiative for Interstellar Studies presents a talk on scratch modelling conventional and interstellar spacecraft. Members of i4is can attend this talk live! | More info »

Talk Series: Visions of our Interstellar Future
  • Online
  • 22 June 2021
  • Members Only (Join i4is today!)
  • John Davies from the Initiative for Interstellar Studies presents a talk on visions of our interstellar future. Members of i4is can attend this talk live! | More info »

Talk Series: New Limitless Space Institute Course
  • Online
  • 15 June 2021
  • Rob Swinney from the Initiative for Interstellar Studies presents a talk on the new Limitless Space Institute course. Everyone can attend this talk live! | More info »

Talk Series: Guidance of the Ariane 4 Launch Vehicle
  • Online
  • 08 June 2021
  • Members Only (Join i4is today!)
  • Adam Hibberd from the Initiative for Interstellar Studies presents a talk on guidance of the Ariane 4 launch vehicle. Members of i4is can attend this talk live! | More info »

Talk Series: Debate — The Case for Interstellar
  • Online
  • 02 March 2021
  • Members Only (Join i4is today!)
  • Patrick Mahon and John Davies from the Initiative for Interstellar Studies presents a structured debate on the case for interstellar. Members of i4is can attend this talk live! | More info »

Talk Series: Interstellar Travel using Einsteinian Physics
  • Online
  • 23 February 2021
  • Dan Fries from the Initiative for Interstellar Studies presents a talk on interstellar travel using Einsteinian physics. Everyone can attend this open talk live! | More info »

Talk Series: Assuring Humanity's Interstellar Mission Capability for Posterity, or, Learning from Bronze Age Mistakes
  • Online
  • 16 February 2021
  • Members Only (Join i4is today!)
  • Robert G. Kennedy III from the Initiative for Interstellar Studies presents a talk on "Assuring Humanity's Interstellar Mission Capability for Posterity". Members of i4is can attend this talk live! | More info »

Talk Series: 'Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software', from Interplanetary to Interstellar
  • Online
  • 09 February 2021
  • Members Only (Join i4is today!)
  • Adam Hibberd from the Initiative for Interstellar Studies presents a talk on interstellar trajectories. Members of i4is can attend this talk live! | More info »

Talk Series: Advanced Propulsion 2 (Nuclear etc.)
  • Online
  • 02 February 2021
  • Members Only (Join i4is today!)
  • Olivia Borgue from the Initiative for Interstellar Studies presents a talk on propulsion technologies including nuclear propulsion. Members of i4is can attend this talk live! | More info »

Talk Series: The Interstellar Downlink
  • Online
  • 26 January 2021
  • John Davies from the Initiative for Interstellar Studies presents a talk on The Interstellar Downlink. Everyone can attend this open talk live! | More info »

Talk Series: Interstellar Starships in Science Fiction
  • Online
  • 01 December 2020
  • Patrick Mahon from the Initiative for Interstellar Studies presents the last talk in our new series. Everyone can attend this talk live! | More info »

Talk Series: Interstellar Precursor Missions
  • Online
  • 24 November 2020
  • Members Only (Join i4is today!)
  • Robert Swinney from the Initiative for Interstellar Studies presents a talk on interstellar precursor missions. Members of i4is can attend this talk live! | More info »

Talk Series: Advanced Propulsion 1
  • Online
  • 17 November 2020
  • Members Only (Join i4is today!)
  • Dan Fries from the Initiative for Interstellar Studies presents the fourth talk in our new series. Members of i4is can attend this talk live! | More info »

Talk Series: Worldship Design
  • Online
  • 10 November 2020
  • Members Only (Join i4is today!)
  • Andreas Hein from the Initiative for Interstellar Studies presents the third talk in our new series. Members of i4is can attend this talk live! | More info »

Talk Series: Missions to Interstellar Objects — An i4is Initiative
  • Online
  • 03 November 2020
  • Marshall Eubanks from the Initiative for Interstellar Studies presents the second talk in our new series. Everyone can attend this talk live! | More info »

Talk Series: Introduction to Interstellar Studies
  • Online
  • 27 October 2020
  • Members Only (Join i4is today!)
  • Robert Swinney from the Initiative for Interstellar Studies presents the first talk in our new series. Members of i4is can attend this talk live! | More info »

2nd Foundation of Interstellar Studies Workshop
  • Bone Mill, New Street, Charfield, GL12 8ES
  • 27-30 June 2019
  • Workshop featuring 3 main themes across the 3 days: Living in Deep Space; Advanced Propulsion Technology and Missions; and Building Architectural Mega-structures. | More info »

A Supper Club with words & music for a celestial visitor
  • Coventry Pod 31 Far Gosford Street
  • FRIDAY, 12 APRIL 2019 FROM 17:30
  • A Supper Club with words & music for a celestial visitor | More info »

Public presentation - David Hardy's 'To the Stars on the Paintbrush'
  • Bone Mill, New Street, Charfield, GL12 8ES
  • Friday 14th December 2018 6pm
  • David A. Hardy has been producing astronomical art since 1952, and became freelance in 1965. Since then he has illustrated dozens of books – some of them co-written with Patrick Moore, and some written by himself. His work has also been included in international exhibitions. This talk, illustrated mainly with his own art but with examples of the work of earlier artists, shows how space art has developed over the years, and how our increasing knowledge about space as a result of robotic and manned exploration has been reflected in the work of artists. | More info »

Cassini at Saturn: The End of an Era
  • Bone Mill, New Street, Charfield, GL12 8ES
  • Friday 30th November 2018 6pm
  • Public Lecture by Professor Carl Murray, Queen Mary & Westfield College, University of London "Cassini at Saturn: the End of an Era" | More info »

Public Symposium on the Philosophy of Extraterrestrial Intelligence
  • Bone Mill, New Street, Charfield, GL12 8ES
  • Saturday 27th October 2018
  • This event is not about the technology that we may use to search for intelligent life in the Cosmos, but more a discussion on what we mean by life, intelligence, and the philosophy of our approach to finding those things external to the Earth. It is about the assumptions we make in our lines of reasoning which may have an influence on our strategies. Multiple speakers! | More info »

Public Lecture - Avoiding Intellectual Stagnation: The Starship as an Expander of Minds
  • Bone Mill, New Street, Charfield, GL12 8ES
  • Friday 26th October 2018 at 6pm
  • Lecture by Professor Ian Crawford, Professor of Planetary Science and Astrobiology, Birkbeck, University College London | More info »

Public Lecture - Holographic Photon Sails: a Merger of Science and Art
  • Bone Mill, New Street, Charfield, GL12 8ES
  • Saturday 29th September 2018 at 1pm
  • Professor Greg Matloff, City University of New York, and C Bangs, artist, will give a lecture on the merger of science and art in the field of holographic photon sails and show the propulsive possibilities of holography in space. | More info »

Starship Engineer Summer School
  • The Bone Mill, i4is HQ, Gloucestershire
  • 15-19 August 2018
  • The world's first ever dedicated interstellar summer school. | More info »

Extreme Deep Space Exploration: A Personal Perspective
  • The Bone Mill, i4is HQ, Gloucestershire
  • 27 July 2018 at 6 PM
  • A public presentation starting at 1800, doors open 1700. | More info »

A Presentation by Kelvin F. Long - The Apkallu Initiative: A Project to build a Minilithic Artefact to Preserve the Knowledge of Human Civilization into Deep Time In the Event of Global Cataclysm

  • The Bone Mill, i4is HQ, Gloucestershire
  • 29 June2018
  • A public lecture starting at 1800, doors open 1700.

New i4is Symposium on Future Space Activities featuring Mark Hempsell: The Stellar Challenger - A Concept Study

The Bone Mill, i4is HQ, Gloucestershire, 01 June 2018

Mark Hempsell, President of the BIS, has kindly agreed to replace David Baker at our HQ lecture - 1 June 2018; doors open from 5pm, presentation starts 6pm.

6pm: "The Stellar Challenger- A Concept Study" - presented by Mark Hempsall, President of the BIS.  Proposes a nuclear rocket engine combining thermodynamic and electrical heating yielding exhaust velocities above 12 km/sec - about twice the maximum for a chemical rocket." Contact us at info@i4is.org to attend.  More info.

1:30pm - 5pm:  I4is public Symposium on Future Space Activities.  The Initiative for Interstellar Studies presents an afternoon of public talks on the near and far future of space activities: Kelvin F Long, Rob Swinney, Patrick Mahon, David Johnson and Stephen Ashworth on Current and Proposed Space Telescope Missions Post Hubble, Sustainability and Resource Utilisation in Space, Proposal for a Trans-Neptunium object mission design study, Derivation of Equation for Application to Mass Drivers, A Strategic Goal for Humanity on Earth and in Space in 2061 - followed by a discussion and summary.


HQ Lecture (4): David Ashford

  • The Bone Mill, i4is HQ, Gloucestershire
  • 11 January 2018
  • David spoke about Bristol Spaceplanes and sub-orbital tourism.

HQ Lecture (3): Robert Kennedy III

  • The Bone Mill, i4is HQ, Gloucestershire
  • 08 December 2017
  • Robert spoke about his work in geothermal engineering.

HQ Lecture (2): Dr Pete Worden

  • The Bone Mill, i4is HQ, Gloucestershire
  • 20 October 2017
  • Pete Worden gave the second public lecture on Breakthrough Initiatives Project Starshot.

HQ Lecture (1): Al Worden

  • The Bone Mill, i4is HQ, Gloucestershire
  • 08 October 2017
  • Apollo 15 Astronaut Al Worden gave the first ever public lecture to a packed out room at the new HQ opening on the subject of Apollo 15 and his thoughts about the future exploration of deep space by humankind.

Foundations of Interstellar Studies

  • City University New York, New York, USA
  • 13, 14, 15 June 2017
  • A theoretical physics workshop on interstellar flight, a collaboration between the Institute for Interstellar Studies and the theoretical physics department of the University.

Interstellar Challenge (STEM)

  • Imperial College
  • 05 December 2016
  • Science Technology Engineering Mathematics event organised by i4is Educational Academy Committee with 8 schools.

Science Fiction Starships

  • British Interplanetary Society, London
  • 13 November 2016
  • One day workshop exploring the science and engineering of science fiction starships, building on from the Starship Engineer workshop.

Starship Engineer

  • British Interplanetary Society, London
  • 12 November 2016
  • One day workshop exploring the science and engineering of spacecraft design.

Interstellar Spaceflight

  • Scottish Dark Sky Observatory, Scotland
  • 14-15 August 2015
  • Public lectures by team members.

UK Space Conference

  • Liverpool, UK
  • July 2015
  • BIS organised event on 75th anniversary of the society.

Project Dragonfly Workshop

  • British Interplanetary Society, London, UK
  • July 2015
  • Student design competition for laser-sail study and associated presentations and awards.

Interstellar Travel

  • Cotswold Astronomical Society, Gloucestershire, UK
  • 11 July 2015
  • Presentation by Gill Norman.

Starfest 2015

  • North Essex Astronomical Society, Essex, UK
  • 15 April 2015
  • Trade stand and lectures by team members.

Eastercon 2015 (Dysprosium)

  • Heathrow Airport
  • 03-05 April 2015
  • Trade stand and presentations by team members.

Interstellar Wormholes: Physics and Practical Realisation

  • British Interplanetary Society, London, UK
  • 24 November 2014
  • Workshop event organised in conjunction with showing of film 'Interstellar' to discuss the physics.

3rd Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop

  • Tennessee, USA
  • 09-12 November 2014
  • i4is facilitated the first science fiction workshop.

World Science Fiction Convention (Loncon3)

  • London, UK
  • 14-18 August 2014
  • Trade stand, exhibition and entire talks session by i4is.

BIS Space History Conference

  • Charterhouse, Surrey, UK
  • 24-26 July 2014
  • Annual BIS space conference.

Starfest 2013

  • Essex, UK
  • 02 November 2013
  • Trade stand and presentations at the North Essex Astronomical Society.

14th Sci-Fi London

  • London, UK
  • October 2013
  • Lectures plus the running of a film competition.

Primary Sidebar

Blog

A Precursor Mission to Proxima Centauri

31 October 2024

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 […]

Deflecting Apophis

26 October 2024

Adam Hibberd There have been some developments. I have been addressing the problem of how to deflect Apophis from its path if it were indeed on a collision course with Earth. My Apocalypse Plot gives the magnitude of ΔV at different points in Apophis’s orbit to send it on a course to JUST strike the […]

Apophis: More Monolythical Mathematical Musings.

29 September 2024

Adam Hibberd Apophis gets awfully close on Friday April 13th 2029 (within GEO altitude). Its orbit is altered by the encounter with Earth and the obvious question is will there be any further possible encounters? Some of you may remember I have worked on the practicalities of sending laser-accelerated sails to intercept Apophis as it […]

Errors in Velocity Due to an Interstellar Probe’s Fast Encounter with a Star

23 July 2024

Adam Hibberd A spacecraft is travelling on a very hyperbolic orbit w.r.t. an object X (possibly a star) which has gravitational mass, μ, meaning the spacecraft is only slightly deflected from its direction of motion. Our task is to quantify the errors in velocity, both longitudinal and transverse, associated with this encounter compared to simply […]

‘Oumuamua: Lasers in Space

16 May 2024

Adam Hibberd In my latest research, I have been considering the case of using laser structures in space to accelerate space laser sails to sufficient speed so that they will ultimately reach the first discovered interstellar object, 1I/’Oumuamua, within a matter of years from launch, or even as soon as a year. This is clearly […]

Measurement of Mass by Space Sails

16 February 2024

Adam Hibberd I’ve been doing a little algebra. Let me state the problem. Let us say we have a swarm of space sails flying edge on to the interstellar medium (ISM). This swarm lies in a plane at right angles to its velocity relative to this ISM. Now lets bring in an element of the […]

Project Lyra Mission Guide

26 January 2024

Adam Hibberd I provide for you a chart of some missions to 1I/’Oumuamua investigated by Project Lyra. The green rows use chemical propulsion, the blue use nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) and the pink exploit laser sails. This table will be updated when new research becomes available. For more detail, zoom in with your mouse (Ctrl+scroll […]

Project Lyra: A Solar Oberth at 10 Solar Radii

5 January 2024

Adam Hibberd I have recently returned my attention to the Solar Oberth mission to ‘Oumuamua. For readers not familiar with this celestial body, 1I/’Oumuamua was the first interstellar object to be discovered passing through our Solar System, is now out of range of our most powerful telescopes and has left scientists with many questions in […]

Swarming Proxima

20 November 2023

Adam Hibberd Breakthrough Starshot is the Initative to send a probe at 20% light speed (0.2c) to the nearest neighbouring star Proxima Centauri. But how do we achieve such a high speed? It turns out that if we have an extremely powerful laser (and exponential advances in tech over the next decades will mean that […]

Laser and Sail in Earth Orbit with Evolutionary Neurocontrol

24 October 2023

Adam Hibberd In my last post I explained how my software development, Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software (OITS), seems to achieve miracles of intelligent design in a fashion analogous to evolution, though in fact with both cases evidently no intelligence is involved – instead simple mechanisms combined with iteration are at work. This concept stimulated me […]

OITS Takes on Evolution

10 September 2023

Adam Hibberd The more I think about evolution through natural selection the more I see analogues to my software development Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software. (I should make it clear at this early stage in my post that OITS does NOT employ a genetic/evolutionary algorithm approach, I shall elucidate below.) You see there is NO intent […]

How Close did ‘Oumuamua Approach Each of the Inner Planets?

2 September 2023

Adam Hibberd A view of the distance of ‘Oumuamua from each of the Inner Planets as it rounded the sun, reached perihelion and then sped away again. Mars was just about as far away as it could possibly have been from ‘Oumuamua. ‘Oumuamua came very close to Earth (around 0.16 au). It came no closer […]

Was Loeb’s Bolide Interstellar?

1 September 2023

Adam Hibberd Loeb’s interstellar spherules have caused controversy and indignation amongst experts in the science community. For those of you not-in-the-know, Loeb travelled to the site of a proposed interstellar meteor (his designation: IM1) which he had identified in a catalogue of bolides held by NASA and then discovered in the ocean tiny metallic blobs he […]

‘Oumuamua – a Sci-Fi Story or Reality?

23 August 2023

Adam Hibberd Let me tell you all a story. It is the story of life and its purpose. I ask you to bear with me here as Project Lyra and ‘Oumuamua will make an appearance eventually – I promise. Many of you will be familiar with the idea that the universe might be some kind […]

‘Oumuamua: The Mystery Unfolds

20 August 2023

Adam Hibberd Those of you who have been following my Project Lyra blogs know that I have over the past year or so done some extensive analysis of ‘Oumuamua’s trajectory. You may refer to previous posts on the i4is website to get an understanding of exactly what I have been up to, or alternatively continue […]

Psyche: OITS has Something to Say

18 August 2023

Adam Hibberd Here’s a mission to asteroid Psyche for you. Initial theories favoured Psyche as a core of a failed protoplanet, containing vast reserves of metals. More recent research, however favour alternative origin theories. Whatever is the case, we are about to discover its true nature and this would be a huge step forwards for […]

Project Lyra: Ignore the outlier and miss an opportunity

31 July 2023

Adam Hibberd Wouldn’t you like an answer to the question: What is ‘Oumuamua? There have been many theories, but there is no real consensus. The only way to answer this would be to send a spacecraft to observe ‘Oumuamua in situ but the total lack of will-power to get this question answered, in my view, […]

The Case of Fireball CNEOS 2017-10-09

28 July 2023

Adam Hibberd Around the middle of last year I read an article by Siraj and Loeb in which they analysed closely a database of bolides (which are meteor fireballs) maintained by NASA-JPL CNEOS (Center for Near Earth Object Studies). In so doing they identified at least one bolide as having an interstellar origin (designated CNEOS […]

Project Lyra: The Mission to Resolve a Mystery

4 July 2023

Adam Hibberd Project Lyra is the study of the feasibility of a spacecraft mission to the first interstellar object to be discovered passing through our Solar System, designated 1I/’Oumuamua. I have now authored and co-authored a total of nine Project Lyra papers. The considerable number of science papers (many now peer-reviewed, several still to be […]

Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software: The Secrets Revealed

25 June 2023

Adam Hibberd In the UK Spring of 2017, I derived the theory for solving interplanetary trajectories, which enabled me to develop a powerful software tool for optimising hight thrust spacecraft missions, a tool which I called Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software (OITS). For those of you fascinated by mathematics, in particular mathematical formulae, the two equations […]

Laser Sails: Trajectories Using Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software

16 June 2023

It struck me a while ago that I have developed this extremely effective tool for solving interplanetary trajectories (OITS), so how would I be able to exploit it for alternative applications – applications which would be beyond its originally intended purpose, that of designing trajectories for chemically propelled spacecraft (and in the process assuming impulsive […]

Mars Ride-Share: an Opportunity Not to be Missed

14 June 2023

Adam Hibberd I was recently discussing with my colleagues across the pond, the potential for mounting a cheap mission to some alternative, yet interesting destination in the inner Solar System, by exploiting a ‘ride-share’ with a more important mission, possibly one organised by NASA or ESA. It struck me that since there have been, and […]

C/2014 UN271 the comet which will NOT collide with the Earth

4 April 2023

Adam Hibberd An Oort cloud comet is composed primarily of dust and ice and has spent most of its life in the far-flung distant reaches of our Solar System (2,000 au to 200,000 au from our Sun). It is eventually nudged inward towards our Sun by gravitational influences such as galactic tides or some passing […]

Project Lyra: Falcon Heavy Expendable

27 March 2023

Adam Hibberd Following on from my previous blog where I studied the capability of the up-coming Ariane 6 4 launcher in terms of delivering a spacecraft on a course to intercept the first interstellar object to be discovered, ‘Oumuamua, I continue this logical progression with analysis of a more powerful launcher, the Falcon Heavy. The […]

Project Lyra: Using an Ariane 6

16 March 2023

Adam Hibberd Ariane 6 is the up-and-coming successor to the old Arianespace workhorse, Ariane 5, and may secure its maiden flight later this year. There will ultimately be two strap-on booster configurations from which to choose, one with two boosters, and the more powerful version with four. I thought it might be worthwhile assessing the […]

Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software (OITS)

15 February 2023

Adam Hibberd I started development of this software, OITS, in April 2017 on a holiday near the little town of Cheadle, in the county of Staffordshire, UK. I started from the very basics, deriving the theory during the holiday and continuing shortly thereafter, and then immersed myself in the implementation of the equations I had […]

Music of ‘Oumuamua

30 January 2023

Adam Hibberd If you have a fascination for the mysterious interstellar object ‘Oumuamua and are musically inclined, please check out these two pieces by my musician friend Robin Jax based on recordings of me playing two piano compositions of mine. Whether it be Robin’s neurodivergence, or my own schizophrenia, we have both overcome our respective […]

Things to Come

22 January 2023

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 […]

Project Lyra: Using Jupiter Alone to get to ‘Oumuamua

9 January 2023

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

30 December 2022

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 […]

Why the Stars?

24 November 2022

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

9 November 2022

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

31 October 2022

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 […]

Principium 50

1 September 2025

Principium 50 has gone out to subscribers and is now accessible to all.

3I/ATLAS: How low should we go?

21 August 2025

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

21 August 2025

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?

21 August 2025

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 […]

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Initiative for Interstellar Studies
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info@i4is.org

Starship Blog

A Precursor Mission to Proxima Centauri

Deflecting Apophis

Apophis: More Monolythical Mathematical Musings.

Errors in Velocity Due to an Interstellar Probe’s Fast Encounter with a Star

‘Oumuamua: Lasers in Space

Measurement of Mass by Space Sails

Project Lyra Mission Guide

Project Lyra: A Solar Oberth at 10 Solar Radii

Swarming Proxima

Laser and Sail in Earth Orbit with Evolutionary Neurocontrol

OITS Takes on Evolution

How Close did ‘Oumuamua Approach Each of the Inner Planets?

Was Loeb’s Bolide Interstellar?

‘Oumuamua – a Sci-Fi Story or Reality?

‘Oumuamua: The Mystery Unfolds

Psyche: OITS has Something to Say

Project Lyra: Ignore the outlier and miss an opportunity

The Case of Fireball CNEOS 2017-10-09

Project Lyra: The Mission to Resolve a Mystery

Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software: The Secrets Revealed

Laser Sails: Trajectories Using Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software

Mars Ride-Share: an Opportunity Not to be Missed

C/2014 UN271 the comet which will NOT collide with the Earth

Project Lyra: Falcon Heavy Expendable

Project Lyra: Using an Ariane 6

Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software (OITS)

Music of ‘Oumuamua

Things to Come

Project Lyra: Using Jupiter Alone to get to ‘Oumuamua

‘Oumuamua: The State of Play

Why the Stars?

Exploring ‘Oumuamua’s Trajectory – Further Notes

Exploring ‘Oumuamua’s Perihelion Date

Principium 50

3I/ATLAS: How low should we go?

3I/ATLAS: An Interstellar Controversy

3I/ATLAS: What would Juno need to do?

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