The Initiative and Institute for Interstellar Studies Issue 31
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PRINCIPIUM The Initiative and Institute for Interstellar Studies R Issue 31 | November 2020 O F E V I T A I T I N ISSN 2397-9127 I S T U D I E S www.i4is.org Scientia ad sidera Knowledge to the stars ■ Interstellar Objects & Sample Returns ■ International Astronautical Congress 2020 ■ The Interstellar Downlink ■ Book Review: Extraterrestrial Languages - Daniel Oberhaus ■ News Features: ■ i4is Project Glowworm ■ i4is Technical Team ■ Hints of life on Venus ■ Breakthrough Starshot Communications Workshop - May 2020 ■ The 2020 ISU Masters Elective Module - Part 2 ■ Interstellar News Principium | Issue 31 | November 2020 1 ■ i4is Members Page Our next issue, February 2021, will include a new study of Worldships by Michel Lamontagne, a book Editorial review of The Generation Starship in SF by Simone Caroti (see also the report of his contribution to the Welcome to issue 31 of Principium, the quarterly 2020 ISU Masters Elective Module in this issue). about all things interstellar from i4is, the Initiative And we will wrap up our reporting of the 71st and Institute for Interstellar Studies. International Astronautical Congress 2020. Our lead feature this time is Interstellar Objects If you have any comments on Principium, i4is or and Sample Returns by Adam Hibberd based on interstellar topics more generally, we’d love to hear work submitted by i4is and associates to the US from you! 2023-2032 Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey. John I Davies, Editor, [email protected] Our front cover image is a worldship interior envisaged by Michel Lamontagne, whose thinking on worldships will appear in our next issue. The back cover image is the first ever image of a multi- Membership of i4is planet system around a Sun-like star by ESO. Please support us through membership of i4is. Join Much more about both inside the back cover. the interstellar community and help to reach the stars! As promised we have a review of Extraterrestrial Privileges for members and discounts for students, Languages by Daniel Oberhaus postponed from seniors and BIS members. More at i4is.org/membership. the last issue and more from our ISU elective. We Please print and display our posters - we have new versions in this issue our general poster on pages 26 have a report on i4is participation in the Starshot (black background) and 42 (white)- and student posters Communications Workshop and an introductory on pages 66 (black) and 4 (white). piece on the tough job of getting data and pictures All our poster variants at - back from light years away, The Interstellar i4is.org/i4is-membership-posters-and-video Downlink and a News Feature on the May 2020 Breakthrough Starshot Communications Workshop and i4is team contributions to it. We have the first set of reports by multiple writers on the International Astronautical Congress 2020. We have 15 items of Interstellar News. We conclude our reports of the i4is-led 2020 ISU Masters Elective Module. We have news features Hints of life on Venus and on i4is Project Glowworm and the i4is Technical Team - and a letter from Prof Greg Matloff proposing an efficient means of shielding humans from galactic cosmic rays. The regular Members Page includes a request to help our Education and Outreach Activities and our Become an i4is member feature illustrates videos Balloons over Venus. Credit: Adrian Mann of presentations we have delivered worldwide in See Hints of life on Venus in this issue. recent months. Keep in touch! Join the conversation by following i4is on our Facebook For Members of i4is page www.facebook.com/InterstellarInstitute. Become part of our professional network on LinkedIn Members have access to - www.linkedin.com/groups/4640147. Networking - i4is.org/members/networking- Follow us on Twitter at @I4Interstellar. opportunities And seek out our followers too! Contact us on email via [email protected]. Principium preprints- i4is.org/members/preprints Back issues of Principium, from number one, can be Videos - i4is.org/videos found at www.i4is.org/Principium. More in The i4is Members Page - page 65 The views of our writers are their own. We aim for sound science but not editorial orthodoxy. Principium | Issue 31 | November 2020 2 Contents page Interstellar Objects and Sample Returns: Adam Hibberd 5 Book Review: Extraterrestrial Languages by Daniel Oberhaus - John I Davies 13 Interstellar News: John I Davies 20 Outreach 20 IRG 7th Interstellar Symposium 20 Potential For Liquid Water Biochemistry Deep under the Surfaces of the Moon Mars and Beyond 20 i4is Masters Thesis in collaboration with ESA and Technical University of Munich 21 1I/'Oumuamua: The dust bunny hypothesis 21 The Interplanetary Internet 21 ESA on Space-based solar power 21 A Titan mission using the Direct Fusion Drive (DFD) 22 Better mirrors for better laser propulsion? 23 Starshot contractor has jobs available 23 Possible snags in lightsail engineering? 23 Places like home - "Hab zone" exoplanets 24 TVIW Updates from IRG 24 Recent Acta Astronautica papers 24 Recent Interstellar Papers in JBIS 25 Letter to the Editor: In-Space Self-Sufficient Habitats - A Possible Superconducting Alternative 27 to Passive Shielding From: Dr Gregory L Matloff The Interstellar Downlink - Principles and Current Work: John I Davies 28 71st International Astronautical Congress 2020 - The Interstellar Report - Part 1 of 2 43 News Feature: i4is Project Glowworm update: Dan Fries and John Davies 58 News Feature: The i4is Technical Team - Dan Fries 59 News Feature: Hints of life on Venus - John I Davies 62 The i4is Members Page 65 Become an i4is member: John I Davies 67 News Feature: Breakthrough Starshot Communications Workshop - May 2020 Summary and i4is 68 contributions News Feature: The 2020 ISU Masters Elective Module - Part 2 of 2: John I Davies 72 NEXT ISSUE 90 Cover Images 91 Principium | Issue 31 | November 2020 3 JOIN I4IS ON A JOURNEY TO THE STARS! Do you think humanity should aim for the stars? Would you like to help drive the research needed for an interstellar future… … and get the interstellar message to all humanity? The Initiative for Interstellar Studies (i4is) has launched a membership scheme intended to build an active community of space enthusiasts whose sights are set firmly on the stars. We are an interstellar advocacy organisation which: • conducts theoretical and experimental research and development projects; and • supports interstellar education and research in schools and universities. Join us and get: • early access to select Principium articles before publicly released; • member exclusive email newsletters featuring significant interstellar news; • access to our growing catalogue of videos; • participate in livestreams of i4is events and activities; • download and read our annual report; To find out more, see www.i4is.org/membership Principium | Issue9 23310% | November discount 20202018 for full time students! 41 Interstellar Objects and Sample Returns LEAD FEATURE Adam Hibberd The i4is Project Lyra team have worked with international colleagues to deliver Interstellar Now! Missions to and Sample Returns from Nearby Interstellar Objects and Exobodies in Our Back Yard: Science from Missions to Nearby Interstellar Objects a Science White Paper submitted to the 2023- 2032 Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey. Principium readers will be familiar with the work of Adam Hibberd in Project Lyra. Here he walks us through the basics of missions to Interstellar Objects (ISOs) including the possibility of a sample return - and the additional challenges it poses. Introduction What do we know of the Solar System to which our planet Earth belongs? Well we know Earth is not alone - in our Solar System it is surrounded by other celestial bodies. For example, most of us are aware that there are seven other known planets, and they can be considered our siblings - born and brought up in the same familiar surroundings, formed from the same proto-planetary disc which surrounded our host star, the Sun. How do we know this? There is an abundance of scientific evidence which allows us to reach this inescapable conclusion. Two of the most compelling pieces of evidence are firstly that they are in orbits bound to the Sun. In fact the orbits are elliptical so that each planet has its own unique ‘orbital period’, the time taken for it to return to the same point in its orbital path around the Sun. Secondly, they all follow an anticlockwise rotation around the Sun (looking down on the Solar System from above the Earth’s North Pole). This direction is known as prograde. This is too much of a coincidence to happen randomly and originates in the spin orientation of the Sun’s proto-planetary disc. Indeed if we change our perspective and look at objects at smaller scales then we generally observe them to follow the same sorts of orbits, elliptical and bound to the Sun and also with the same orbital spin orientation, anticlockwise (a notable exception will be discussed later). The orbital path of an object under the influence of some dominant gravitational force is characterized by a set of 5 or 6 numbers known as its orbital parameters (or orbital elements) each of which say something different about the orbit and stay pretty well fixed. Given a series of observations of the location of an object in the night’s sky and using equations derived long ago by scientific mavericks and geniuses, the object’s associated orbital parameters can be determined. Amongst these is a parameter known as eccentricity (a unitless parameter given the symbol e). For an elliptical orbit, e has a value somewhere between zero and one. Historically, save for a small number of exceptions (like certain comets which actually originate in the distant reaches of the Solar System called the Oort Cloud), when an object is discovered and the value of its parameter e is calculated, the solution has inevitably and consistently confirmed to lie within this range of values.