Posted on 04/16/2016 12:00:03 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: Want to take a fast trip to the edge of the Solar System? Consider a ride on a Heliopause Electrostatic Rapid Transit System (HERTS). The concept is currently being tested and it might take only 10 to 15 years to make the trip of over 100 Astronomical Units (15 billion kilometers). That's fast compared to the 35 years it took Voyager 1, presently humanity's most distant spacecraft, to approach the heliopause or outer boundary of the influence of the solar wind. HERTS would use an advanced electric solar sail that works by extending multiple, 20 kilometer or so long, 1 millimeter thin, positively charged wires from a rotating spacecraft. The electrostatic force generated repels fast moving solar wind protons to create thrust. Compared to a reflective solar light sail, another propellantless deep space propulsion system, the electric solar wind sail could continue to accelerate at greater distances from the Sun, still developing thrust as it cruised toward the outer planets.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit and Copyright: NASA, Marshall Space Flight Center]
No Big One.
|
I would like to buy a vowel.
Could it be adapted to the TAU project?
The problem with both ideas is, no way back — if the goal is to send a *really durable* probe out of the Solar System, and time is no object, great. Otherwise, it’s just a neat idea that isn’t practical and accomplishes nothing.
http://www.google.com/search?q=space+exploration+TAU+project
Thousands of Astronomical Units.
The plan was to send a telescope 1000's of AU out of the plane of the galaxy.
This would provide for direct imaging of our own galaxy (and hidden hangers on) while also providing a long baseline for accurate distance measurements.
It doesn't need to come home any more than Hubble did.
The images would be no less spectacular and awe inspiring than Hubble.
It would exceed the current lifespan of our civilization to get it into position, iow, it wouldn’t be functioning, and if it were, would be long forgotten.
By the time BART or MARTA get done with it
you won’t be able to afford to ride it.
15 years for the first 100 AU, and we’d be getting data every day for that 15 years.
Your reasoning sounds oddly like the liberals who opposed the Keystone pipeline (and before that North Slope drilling) because ‘we wouldn’t see a drop of oil for 5 years’.
We can be at 1000 AU in less time than it took to build a medieval Cathedral. Did that delay make their efforts unworthy?
...especially if we lose our ability to dream.
0 to 60 in 5.8 light years? In cold dark space?
Trillion light year and multibigtime dollars missions aren’t cheap.. It will likely take that kind of commitment tho to eventually hyperjump out of our current realm.
150 years from launch, the probe would have been non-functional (and/or out of comm range) for over a century.
Yeah. And the Mars rovers were supposed to run for 90 days.
Yeah. And they didn’t run for 100 years.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.