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High-speed scientific spacecraft launches with commercial launch vehicles
McNutt, Ralph L.; Brandt, Pontus C.; Vernon, Steven R. +2 more
Reaching the outer solar system and interstellar space beyond has always been challenging due to the long distances and long travel times. Initial work on planetary gravity assists in the early 1960s by Minovitch and Flandro laid the basis for expanding reachable space with then-existing launch vehicles. Such gravity assists have been key enablers…
Feasibility studies for a dust observatory between earth and the asteroid belt
Srama, Ralf; Klinkner, Sabine; Fugmann, Martin +17 more
Cosmic dust transports information about the composition and evolution of distant realms over space and time. Dust sources may be in our local neighbourhood, such as the surfaces of moons and small bodies, or further away, in the galactic environment. The interior of moons like Io or Enceladus are well known dust sources in our solar system. Dust …
Electric sails are potentially more effective than light sails near most stars
Lingam, Manasvi; Loeb, Abraham
Electric sails are propulsion systems that generate momentum via the deflection of stellar wind particles through electric forces. Here, we investigate the relative merits of electric sails and light sails driven by stellar radiation pressure for F-, G-, K- and M-type stellar systems. We show that electric sails originating near M-dwarfs could att…
Near-term interstellar probe: First step
Wimmer-Schweingruber, Robert F.; McNutt, Ralph L.; Gruntman, Mike +9 more
Exploration of the heliosphere and the far reaches of our solar system by the Voyagers and New Horizons and near-Earth observations of the Kuiper Belt and exoplanetary systems have all profoundly changed how we view our own home in space. An Interstellar Probe escaping beyond the solar-system boundaries with new observational techniques would be a…
Stability of spinning satellite under axial thrust and internal mass motion
Janssens, Frank L.; van der Ha, Jozef C.
This paper considers a spinning rigid body and a particle with internal motion under axial thrust. This model is helpful for gaining insights into the nutation anomalies that occurred near the end of orbit injections performed by STAR-48 rocket motors. The stability of this system is investigated by means of linearized equations about a uniform sp…