On November 14, 2003, astronomers saw what was at the time the furthest known object orbiting the sun. They called it A point after the Inuit goddess of the ocean. It is Cold, reddish dwarf planet This drifts billions of miles away from the sun during its 10,000-year orbit before coming for a relatively close approach to our star. Its next perihelion occurs in July 2076, and astronomers want to use this rare encounter by flying a mission to the mysterious object.
A team of researchers from Italy suggest mission concepts that could achieve Sedna in seven to 10 years using most advantageous technology. In a a Paper Available on the pre-printed Arxiv website, they illustrate two experimental propulsion concepts that involve a nuclear fusion rocket engine and a new take on a solar sailboat. Propulsion technologies could reduce travel time to Sedna by more than 50% compared to traditional space travel methods, allowing scientists a unique opportunity to collect indications of the early formation of the solar system and probe the theoretical Oort cloud.
When it was discovered, Sedna was about 8 billion miles (13 billion kilometers) from the sun. (Pluto, the most famous dwarf planet, has an average distance of 3.7 billion miles from the sun) Sedna is known as a trans-Neptunia object, a group of objects that orbit the sun farther than Neptune. It has an extremely eccentric orbit: at its furthest distance, Sedna is 84 billion miles away from the sun, or 900 times the distance between the Earth and our star. As its closest approach, Sedna will be about 7 billion miles away from the sun, almost three times farther than Neptune. That’s still far away, but it’s close enough for a spacecraft to reach the heavenly object before it falls back into an ultra-far dark.
Space ships traveled farther before. Voyager 1 and 2 began their interstellar trip in 1977 and traveled 15 billion miles and 12.7 billion miles to date. It took Voyager 2 about 12 years to reach Neptune. Based on current technology, scientists Rating Would pass about 20-30 years to reach Sedna during its closest approach, while using Venus, land, Jupiter and Neptune as gravity helps. That would mean that the launch window to reach Sedna is rapidly approaching, without even clear plans.
Instead, the researchers behind the new study suggest alternative methods for us faster. The first is the Rocket Engine of Direct Fusion Drive (DFD), which is currently developing in Princeton University’s plasma physical laboratory. The melted-operated rocket engine would produce both push and electric power of controlled nuclear fusion reaction, providing more power than chemical rockets.
“The DFD presents a promising alternative to conventional propulsion, offering a high push to weight and continuous acceleration,” the researchers write in the paper. “However, its feasibility remains subject to key engineering challenges, including plasma stability, heat dissipation and operational length under deep space radiation.” They add that while advances are made for fusion-based propulsion, it is still unclear whether it can support long-term missions and provide power for on board instruments.
The second concept is based Existing solar velvet technologywhich is still experimental by itself. Solar sails are powered by photons of the sun, using energy produced by light and using it to propel a spacecraft forward. The researchers suggest coating the solar sails with a material, which, when heated, releases molecules or atoms and provide propulsion in a process known as thermal disorbing.
The solar sail, assisted by the gravity of Jupiter, could reach Sedna in seven years because of its ability to continually accelerate without the need to carry heavy fuel, according to the paper. The idea comes with its own set of challenges. “While solar sailing has been widely studied for deep space applications, its feasibility for a session mission requires an assessment regarding long -term structural integrity, propulsion efficiency and powerful availability for scientific operations,” the paper reads.
Despite a little advantage, the Solar Sea mission would only allow Sedna’s flyer, while the DFD engine could insert a spacecraft into the orbit of the dwarf planet for a longer mission. Both mission would provide us with the first direct observations of the previously unexplored region and help scientists better understand the larger limit that hosts the solar system.
