• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Initiative for Interstellar Studies

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

  • What we do
    • Education
      • Education
      • ISU Projects
      • Starship Engineer
      • SF Starships
      • STEM & Schools
      • Talk Series
      • Exploring Equations
      • LSI Summer Course
    • Technical
      • Project Dragonfly
      • Andromeda Probe
      • Project Glowworm
      • Project Lyra – Exploring Interstellar Objects
      • von Neumann AI Probe
      • Project World Ship
    • Sustainability
    • Enterprise
    • The Alpha Centauri Prize
    • X-Projects
    • I4IS-USA
    • In the media
  • Who we are
    • About Us
    • Board of Directors
    • Education
    • Researchers
    • Managers
    • Team i4is Gallery
    • Interstellar artists
      • David A Hardy
      • Adrian Mann
      • Alex Storer
      • Terry Regan
    • Contact us
  • Events
  • Publications
    • Principium
    • Axiom
    • Monographs & Reports
    • Books
    • App
    • Team Publications
    • Useful Resources
  • Blog
  • News
  • Members
    • Join Now
    • Login
  • Donate
You are here: Home / Starship Blog / Psyche: OITS has Something to Say

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 humanity, especially if such bodies can eventually be mined.

The real mission is planned to launch early October and will use SEP (Solar Electric Propulsion) which is a low thrust but high Specific Impulse engine, which measures out its thrust slowly but surely and also very fuel-efficiently.

We can approximate a SEP trajectory with OITS by exploiting many consecutive Intermediate Points (IPs) or alternatively known as Deep Space Manoeuvres. However when I attempted to do this, I found replacing some of these DSMs with planets (either Earth or Mars) resulted in more fuel-efficient trajectories albeit using high thrust rather than the low thrust SEP.

Go to the video here.

Note that an issue with this trajectory would be the high approach velocity the spacecraft would have with respect to the target which would ultimately have to be removed to rendezvous with the destination. That would require fuel mass.


Primary Sidebar

Blog

Edelbaum to 1I/’Oumuamua

2 November 2026

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 […]

Members Newsletter – October

30 October 2026

News from our researchers Breakthrough Discuss, 20th to 21st October 2026, Oxford, UK Breakthrough Initiatives has been holding these conferences since its founding. Two major changes have happened in the last three years: As a result this year’s Discuss was again held at Oxford 20-21 October, hosted by the physics department of the university. This […]

A Mission to 1I/’Oumuamua

15 October 2026

1I/’Oumuamua is a very special celestial body. As well as being the first interstellar object (ISO) to be discovered encountering our Solar System, way back in 2017, it has various other strange qualities which make it a scientific enigma. Amongst its unusual features we have the following: (1) It is the first ISO to be […]

Halley’s Comet – a Remarkable Serendipity

13 October 2026

Adam Hibberd Conceptually the problem of a rendezvous with Halley’s comet, i.e. the requirement for the vehicle to apply thrust to match its velocity to that of the comet’s, is largely a problem of matching orbital plane. Once this is done, a significant proportion of the work has been performed. Of course the challenge with […]

Join i4is for a journey to the stars!

Members get access to exclusive videos. Here's a taster:

Join now

Footer

Contact i4is

Initiative for Interstellar Studies
27/29 South Lambeth Road
London, SW8 1SZ
United Kingdom

info@i4is.org

Starship Blog

Edelbaum to 1I/’Oumuamua

Members Newsletter – October

A Mission to 1I/’Oumuamua

Halley’s Comet – a Remarkable Serendipity

Donate

The Initiative for Interstellar Studies is entirely dependent upon the goodwill of its volunteer teams, the minor amounts we receive from our activities and the sale of our merchandise but also the kindness of donors. In order to advance our mission of achieving interstellar flight over the next century, we need your help and support. If you are feeling generous we would very much appreciate your help in moving our mission forward. Make a donation » about Donate

  • Shop
  • Donate
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • Contact us

Initiative for Interstellar Studies Limited
27-29 South Lambeth Road, London, SW8 1SZ
Company Limited by Guarantee No: 09062458 (England and Wales)
Copyright © Initiative for Interstellar Studies · Built by Jason King

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
  • Manage options
  • Manage services
  • Manage {vendor_count} vendors
  • Read more about these purposes
View preferences
  • {title}
  • {title}
  • {title}