Ralph L. McNutt, Jr. The John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, USA ISSI – BJ Forum: Session 1 Introduction and Exploration of Outer Overview Heliosphere and Interstellar 9:40 AM – 10:10 AM Medium - Beijing, China Thursday 7 November 2019 Introduction and Agenda • Context: The Current Effort • History: What Interstellar Probe Is • Science: The Compelling Case - Science Goal 1: Understand our Heliosphere as a Habitable Astrosphere - Science Goal 2: Understand Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems - Science Goal 3: Uncover Early Galaxy and Star Formation • An Example Science Traceability Matrix • Example Instruments and Example Payload(s) • Where Could We Go: Target Map • Constraints and Trade-Offs • Mission Architecture Options and Engineering Requirements • “Deeper Dive” Tasks – Engineering Ramp Up • Final Thoughts 7 November 2019 ISSI-BJ Forum on EXPLORATION OF OUTER HELIOSPHERE AND NEARBY INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM 2 Study Team and Collaborators • R. L. McNutt, Jr (Study Principal Investigator) • P. C . B r a ndt (Study Project Scientist) • K. E. Mandt (Deputy Study Project Scientist) • M. V. Paul (Study Manager) • E. Provornikova (Working Group Lead – Heliosphere/Local Interstellar Medium) • C. Lisse (Working Group Lead – Circum-Solar Debris Disk/Astrophysics) • K. Runyon (Working Group Lead – Kuiper Belt Objects/Planetary) • A. Rymer (Working Group Lead - Exoplanetary Connections) And almost 200 professional scientists and engineers world-wide actively working in support for Interstellar Exploration 7 November 2019 ISSI-BJ Forum on EXPLORATION OF OUTER HELIOSPHERE AND NEARBY INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM 3 Status • Contract with NASA Heliophysics Division added funding 25 July 2019 • Period of performance extended to 30 April 2022 - Allows for final report to be delivered late Fall 2021 to help inform next Heliophysics Decadal Survey • Effort comparable to pre-phase A study effort at APL 2002– 2006 on Solar Probe - Focused on engineering design and trades as informed by cross- disciplinary science community 7 November 2019 ISSI-BJ Forum on EXPLORATION OF OUTER HELIOSPHERE AND NEARBY INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM 4 Meetings and Presentations (Recent) • Invited talk at AOGS meeting in Singapore 1 August 2019 - Session ST05 - From the Heliosphere to Interstellar Exploration • Invited talk NASA NASA STMD/SMD Workshop 10 September 2019 - Interstellar Medium Spacecraft Technology Workshop – Washington DC • Invited talk at Horizon 2061 meeting in Toulouse 11 September 2019 • Invited talks at EPSC – DPS Joint Meeting 17 September 2019 - Session MIT6 = Interstellar Probe: science, mission designs, opportunities and challenges • Talks at 70th IAC in Washington DC 24 October 2019 - Session 4.4 Strategies for Rapid Implementation of Interstellar Missions: Precursors and Beyond • Special Session at 70th IAC in Washington DC 25 October 2019 - Interstellar Probe: Humanity's First Deliberate Step into the Galaxy by 2030 • Invited Lecture in Oak Ridge, Tennessee 28 October 2019 - Talk, tour, and update on Pu-238 production status at Oak Ridge National Laboratory 7 November 2019 ISSI-BJ Forum on EXPLORATION OF OUTER HELIOSPHERE AND NEARBY INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM 5 Recent Publications Brandt et al (2019) McNutt et al (2019) 7 November 2019 ISSI-BJ Forum on EXPLORATION OF OUTER HELIOSPHERE AND NEARBY INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM 6 “Interstellar Probe” • … is a mission through the outer heliosphere and to the nearby “Very Local” interstellar medium (VLISM) • … uses today’s technology to taKe the first explicit step on the path of interstellar exploration (faster than the Voyagers – on an SLS or commercial equivalent) • … can pave the way, scientifically, technically, and programmatically for more ambitious future journeys (and more ambitious science goals) 7 November 2019 ISSI-BJ Forum on EXPLORATION OF OUTER HELIOSPHERE AND NEARBY INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM 7 Voyager 1 at 147 AU; 20.5 light hours from Earth To the VLISM: The Next Step Logarithmic scale We are here Earth: The “pale blue dot” Planets from 40.4 AU (from Voyager 1 in 1990) 7 November 2019 ISSI-BJ Forum on EXPLORATION OF OUTER HELIOSPHERE AND NEARBY INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM 8 Three “Special Probes”… One Beginning … and One To Go Parker Solar Parker Solar Probe: Probe 12 August 2018 3:31 a.m. EDT Interstellar ✓ March 1960: The “Simpson Probe Committee” Ulysses Ulysses: 6 October 1990 11:47:16 UTC ✓ (STS-41 launch) 7 November 2019 ISSI-BJ Forum on EXPLORATION OF OUTER HELIOSPHERE AND NEARBY INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM 9 The third one: Interstellar Probe - A 59-year(+) Old Idea • 1960: The Space Studies Board “Outer solar system probe: to be aimed away from the Sun…” • 1965: Eugene Parker advocates mission to heliospheric boundary region Deep Space Probe (1965) Jupiter Galactic Probe (1967) • 1977: Voyager-1 launch Pioneer 10/11 (1980) • 1990: The Interstellar Probe (Holzer et al., 1990) • 1999: JPL Study (NASA STDT) • 2001: NIAC Study, APL Voyager (1977) • 2005: Innovative Interstellar Explorer (McNutt et al., 2005) (“Vision Mission”) • 2009: The Interstellar Heliopause Mission (Wimmer-Schweingruber et al., New Horizons (2006) 2009) • 2015: Keck Institute of Space Studies (KISS) Report 7 November 2019 ISSI-BJ Forum on EXPLORATION OF OUTER HELIOSPHERE AND NEARBY INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM 10 Two Distinct Questions • What should we do? • The question for a future Science Definition Team or equivalent and the science community overall via Decadal Surveys • What could we do? • The question at hand for this study 7 November 2019 ISSI-BJ Forum on EXPLORATION OF OUTER HELIOSPHERE AND NEARBY INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM 11 The Current Study • The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory has been tasked by the NASA Heliophysics Division to (re-)study the mission (as of 13 June 2018) • Provide input to help support the next round of “Decadal Surveys” in the United States - Focus on the time frame in the next Heliophysics Decadal: 2023 – 2032: Could we launch a scientifically compelling mission that decade? – technical question but not without science implications 7 November 2019 ISSI-BJ Forum on EXPLORATION OF OUTER HELIOSPHERE AND NEARBY INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM 12 Notional “Starting Place” • The Task at hand: A Heliophysics engineering study informed by science • But… Look for possible synergies across the other Divisions within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate • Study Name: “First Pragmatic Interstellar Probe Mission Study” • Payload Mass: Within current payload-to-S/C-mass ratios • Technology: All technology shall be ready for flight by 1 January 2030 • These study requirements needed to conduct the engineering analysis. Think of this as the “parameter space” that we have chosen deliberately to make sure this is pragmatic 7 November 2019 ISSI-BJ Forum on EXPLORATION OF OUTER HELIOSPHERE AND NEARBY INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM 13 The Compelling Case: Questions Span NASA Science Divisions Heliophysics Potential for Science Goal 1: The HeliospherePlanetary as a Habitable Astrosphere expandedAs we Global Nature of the Heliospheric Interactions scienceseek acrossanswers all ofto Science Goal 2: Origin and Evolution of NASA’sthe Planetary Systems Science Properties of dwarf planets/KBOs and large-scale question structure of the circum-solar debris disk Mission Directorateof Science Goal 3: Early Formation and Evolution of GalaxiesAstrophysics and Stars habitability Uncovering the Diffuse Extragalactic Background Light 7 November 2019 ISSI-BJ Forum on EXPLORATION OF OUTER HELIOSPHERE AND NEARBY INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM 14 Science Goal 1: The Heliosphere as a Habitable Astrosphere • Integral to evolution of habitable systems Mira • Missing in the family portrait of Astrospheres BZ Cam • Dedicated measurements resolve LL Orionis the new physics uncovered by the Voyagers IRC+10216 • The first ENA and UV images looking back uniquely determines the global nature • Voyager, IBEX, Cassini, JUICE and IMAP guide Zeta Ophiuchi the optimal exit 7 November 2019 ISSI-BJ Forum on EXPLORATION OF OUTER HELIOSPHERE AND NEARBY INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM 15 Science Goal 2: Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems Debris Disks: Signposts of terrestrial Dwarf Planets: Unexplored active worlds planet formation and evolution KBOs: Fossils of solar system formation and composition Eta Corvi – 1400 Myr Pluto • IR imaging reveals our unseen circum-solar debris disk • Flyby observations provide leaps in understanding solar system Charon Fomalhaut – 440 Myr Quaoar and Weywot 400 AU formation and Kuiper Belt comparative planetology • Ground truth for exoplanetary systems and disks 2014MU69 HL Tauri - < 1 Myr 7 November 2019 ISSI-BJ Forum on EXPLORATION OF OUTER HELIOSPHERE AND NEARBY INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM 16 Science Goal 3: Uncover Early Galaxy and Star Formation • Extragalactic Background Light (EBL) is all the light that has ever shined • Holds the collective knowledge of Obscured by Zodiacal Cloud early formation: (1) starlight in z = 20 z=2-5 galaxies - 2 – 5 galaxies,Z ~ 10 (2) galactic dust re-emission, and (3) the light from 100’s µm 100’s , Z, ~1100 - , Z = 6 6 Z = , Dust the first stars Myr Myrs • Uncover the EBL by going beyond Reionization ~0.38 1000 - the Zodiacal Cloud, which Diffuse EBL 1 EBL Diffuse obscures the 1-100 µm window 150 by 10 - 100x • EBL measurements provide Decadal-level cosmology science enabled by unique outside location 7 November 2019 ISSI-BJ Forum on EXPLORATION OF OUTER HELIOSPHERE AND NEARBY INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM 17 A “Menu” Approach • Look widely across the science and technical communities • Assemble a “Menu” of what has been done and what can