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Project Lyra
Project Lyra is a feasibility study of a mission to interstellar objects such as ʻOumuamua and 2I/Borisov, initiated on 30 October 2017 by the Initiative for Interstellar Studies (i4is). In January 2022, researchers proposed that a spacecraft launched from Earth could catch up to 'Oumuamua in 26 years for further close-up studies. Overview Options suggested by i4is initially (which have now been superseded) for sending a spacecraft to ʻOumuamua within a time-frame of 5 to 10 years were based on a launch in 2021, and required travelling first to Jupiter to conduct a Planetary flyby, flyby, followed by a close solar Planetary flyby, flyby at 3 to 10 solar radii, in order to take advantage of the Oberth effect. Subsequent research revealed further launch possibilities, notably in 2030 or 2033, using the same scenario (except the 2030 launch has an additional Vinfinity Leveraging Maneuver), but with a total flight duration of 22 years. Thus, there are still future opportunities for ...
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A project is a type of assignment, typically involving research or design, that is carefully plan, planned to achieve a specific objective. An alternative view sees a project managerialism, managerially as a sequence of events: a "set of interrelated tasks to be executed over a fixed period and within certain cost and other limitations". A project may be a temporary (rather than a permanent) social system (work systems, work system), possibly staffed by teams (within or across organizations) to accomplish particular Task (project management), tasks under Time limit, time constraints. A project may form a part of wider programme management or function as an ''ad hoc'' system. Open-source software "projects" or artists' musical "projects" (for example) may lack defined team-membership, precise planning and/or time-limited durations. Overview The word ''project'' comes from the Latin word ''projectum'' from the Latin verb ''proicere'', "before an action", which in turn comes ...
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Laser Propulsion
Laser propulsion is a form of beam-powered propulsion where the energy source is a remote (usually ground-based) laser system and separate from the reaction mass. This form of propulsion differs from a conventional chemical rocket where both energy and reaction mass come from the solid or liquid propellants carried on board the vehicle. There are two main approaches: off-board, where the laser source is external to the spacecraft, and onboard, where the laser is part of the spacecraft's propulsion system. Off-board laser propulsion, which includes laser-powered launches and laser light sails, eliminates the need for the spacecraft to carry its own energy source. Onboard laser propulsion involves using lasers in nuclear fusion or ionizing interstellar gas for propulsion. History The basic concepts underlying a photon-propelled "sail" propulsion system were developed by Eugene Sanger and the Hungarian physicist György Marx. Propulsion concepts using laser-energized rockets were de ...
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Proposed Space Probes
Proposal(s) or The Proposal may refer to: * Proposal (business) * Research proposal * Marriage proposal * Proposition, a proposal in logic and philosophy Arts, entertainment, and media * ''The Proposal'' (album), an album by Ransom & Statik Selektah Films * ''The Proposal'' (1957 film), an Australian television play based on Chekhov's 1890 play * ''The Proposal'' (2001 film), starring Nick Moran, Jennifer Esposito, and Stephen Lang * ''The Proposal'' (2009 film), starring Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds * ''The Proposal'' (2022 film), starring Joe Joseph and Amara Raja * " La propuesta" ("The Proposal"), a short story in the 2014 Argentina anthology film ''Wild Tales'' Literature * '' Proposals (play)'', a 1997 play by Neil Simon * ''The Proposal'' (novel), 1999 and 35th book in the ''Animorphs'' series by K.A. Applegate * ''The Proposal'', alternative title of Chekhov's 1890 play ''A Marriage Proposal'' Television * ''The Proposal'' (American TV series), a 2018 realit ...
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Spaceflight Concepts
Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly objects, usually spacecraft, into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such as satellites in orbit around Earth, but also includes space probes for flights beyond Earth orbit. Such spaceflights operate either by telerobotic or autonomous control. The first spaceflights began in the 1950s with the launches of the Soviet Sputnik satellites and American Explorer and Vanguard missions. Human spaceflight programs include the Soyuz, Shenzhou, the past Apollo Moon landing and the Space Shuttle programs. Other current spaceflight are conducted to the International Space Station and to China's Tiangong Space Station. Spaceflights include the launches of Earth observation and telecommunications satellites, interplanetary missions, the rendezvouses and dockings with space stations, and crewed spaceflights on scientif ...
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Breakthrough Starshot
Breakthrough Starshot is a research and engineering project by the Breakthrough Initiatives to develop a proof-of-concept fleet of light sail interstellar probes named ''Starchip'', to be capable of making the journey to the Alpha Centauri star system 4.34 light-years away. It was founded in 2016 by Yuri Milner, Stephen Hawking, and Mark Zuckerberg. A flyby mission has been proposed to Proxima Centauri b, an Earth-sized exoplanet in the habitable zone of its host star, Proxima Centauri, in the Alpha Centauri system. At a speed between 15% and 20% of the speed of light, it would take between 20 and 30 years to complete the journey, and approximately 4 years for a return message from the starship to Earth. The conceptual principles to enable this interstellar travel project were described in "A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight", by Philip Lubin of UC Santa Barbara.(file available at University of California, Santa Barbarhere Accessed 16 April 2016) Sending the lightweight sp ...
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Laser Electric Propulsion
Laser propulsion is a form of beam-powered propulsion where the energy source is a remote (usually ground-based) laser system and separate from the reaction mass. This form of propulsion differs from a conventional chemical rocket where both energy and reaction mass come from the solid or liquid propellants carried on board the vehicle. There are two main approaches: off-board, where the laser source is external to the spacecraft, and onboard, where the laser is part of the spacecraft's propulsion system. Off-board laser propulsion, which includes laser-powered launches and laser light sails, eliminates the need for the spacecraft to carry its own energy source. Onboard laser propulsion involves using lasers in nuclear fusion or ionizing interstellar gas for propulsion. History The basic concepts underlying a photon-propelled "sail" propulsion system were developed by Eugene Sanger and the Hungarian physicist György Marx. Propulsion concepts using laser-energized rockets were d ...
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Voyager Program
The Voyager program is an American scientific program that employs two interstellar probes, ''Voyager 1'' and ''Voyager 2''. They were launched in 1977 to take advantage of a favorable planetary alignment to explore the two gas giants Jupiter and Saturn and potentially also the ice giants, Uranus and Neptune—to Flyby (spaceflight), fly near them while collecting data for transmission back to Earth. After ''Voyager 1'' successfully completed its flyby of Saturn and its moon Titan (moon), Titan, it was decided to send ''Voyager 2'' on flybys of Uranus and Neptune. After the planetary flybys were complete, decisions were made to keep the probes in operation to explore Outer space, interstellar space and the outer regions of the Solar System. On 25 August 2012, data from ''Voyager 1'' indicated that it had entered interstellar space. On 5 November 2019, data from ''Voyager 2'' indicated that it also had entered interstellar space. On 4 November 2019, scientists reported that on ...
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Falcon Heavy
Falcon Heavy is a super heavy-lift launch vehicle with partial reusability that can carry cargo into Earth orbit and beyond. It is designed, manufactured and launched by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket consists of a center core on which two Falcon 9 boosters are attached, and a second stage on top of the center core. Falcon Heavy has the second highest payload capacity of any currently operational launch vehicle behind NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), and the fourth-highest capacity of any rocket to reach orbit, trailing behind the Space Launch System, SLS, Energia (rocket), Energia and the Saturn V. SpaceX conducted Falcon Heavy test flight, Falcon Heavy's maiden launch on 6 February 2018, at 20:45 Coordinated Universal Time, UTC. As a Boilerplate (spaceflight), dummy payload, the rocket carried Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster, a Tesla Roadster belonging to SpaceX founder Elon Musk, with a mannequin dubbed "Starman" in the driver's seat. The second Falcon Heavy laun ...
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Parker Solar Probe
The Parker Solar Probe (PSP; previously Solar Probe, Solar Probe Plus or Solar Probe+) is a NASA space probe launched in 2018 to make observations of the Stellar corona, Sun's outer corona. It used repeated Gravity assist, gravity assists from Venus to develop an eccentric orbit, approaching within 9.86 solar radius, solar radii (6.9 million km or 4.3 million miles) from the center of the Sun. At its closest approach in 2024, its speed relative to the Sun was or 191 km/s (118.7 mi/s), which is 0.064% the speed of light. It is the fastest object ever built on Earth. The project was announced in the fiscal 2009 budget year. Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory designed and built the spacecraft, which was launched on 12 August 2018. It became the first NASA spacecraft named after a living person, honoring physicist Eugene Parker, Eugene Newman Parker, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago. On 29 October 2018, at about 18:04 UTC, the spacecraft became t ...
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Nuclear Propulsion
Nuclear propulsion includes a wide variety of propulsion methods that use some form of nuclear reaction as their primary power source. Many aircraft carriers and submarines currently use uranium fueled nuclear reactors that can provide propulsion for long periods without refueling. There are also applications in the space sector with nuclear thermal and nuclear electric engines which could be more efficient than conventional rocket engines. The idea of using nuclear material for propulsion dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. In 1903 it was hypothesized that radioactive material, radium, might be a suitable fuel for engines to propel cars, planes, and boats. H. G. Wells picked up this idea in his 1914 fiction work '' The World Set Free''. Surface ships, submarines, and torpedoes Nuclear-powered vessels are mainly military submarines, and aircraft carriers. Russia is the only country that currently has nuclear-powered civilian surface ships, mainly icebreaker ...
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Solar Sails
Solar sails (also known as lightsails, light sails, and photon sails) are a method of spacecraft propulsion using radiation pressure exerted by sunlight on large surfaces. A number of spaceflight missions to test solar propulsion and navigation have been proposed since the 1980s. The two spacecraft to successfully use the technology for propulsion were IKAROS, launched in 2010, and LightSail-2, launched in 2019. A useful analogy to solar sailing may be a sailing boat; the light exerting a force on the large surface is akin to a sail being blown by the wind. High-energy laser beams could be used as an alternative light source to exert much greater force than would be possible using sunlight, a concept known as beam sailing. Solar sail craft offer the possibility of low-cost operations combined with high speeds (relative to chemical rockets) and long operating lifetimes. Since they have few moving parts and use no propellant, they can potentially be used numerous times for th ...
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Interstellar Object
An interstellar object is an astronomical object in interstellar space that is not gravitationally bound to a star. Applicable objects include asteroids, comets, and rogue planets, but not a star or stellar remnant. This term can also be applied to an object that is on an interstellar trajectory but is temporarily passing close to a star, such as certain asteroids and comets (that is, exoasteroids and exocomets). In the latter case, the object may be called an interstellar interloper. The first interstellar objects discovered were rogue planets, planets ejected from their original stellar system (e.g., OTS 44 or Cha 110913−773444), though they are difficult to distinguish from sub-brown dwarfs, planet-mass objects that formed in interstellar space as stars do. The first interstellar object which was discovered traveling through the Solar System was ʻOumuamua, 1I/ʻOumuamua in 2017. The second was 2I/Borisov in 2019. They both possess significant Hyperbolic trajectory#Semi-m ...
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