PRINCIPIUM The Newsletter of the Initiative for Interstellar Studies Issue 25 | May 2019 ISSN 2397-9127 www.i4is.org ■ The State of the Art in Fusion Propulsion ■ Overview: TVIW 2018 Symposium ■ Second Foundations of Interstellar Studies workshop ■ Extreme Deep Space Exploration ■ Competition: From Apollo to the stars! ■ Progress & activity by i4is-US 2017-2019 ■ Fine Tuning Lasers: Project Dragonfly and Glowworm R O F ■ i4is Members Page and Become an i4is member E V ■ Interstellar News I T A I ■ News Features: T I N ■ Oumuamua, Project Lyra and ISOs I ■ Indian Anti-Satellite test ■ All Comets Great and Small S S ■ IAC 2018 - Swarm Systems T U D I E ■ i4is-US at annual MIT Beyond the Cradle event Scientia ad sidera ■ The Membership Team Knowledge to the stars Principium | Issue 25 | May 2019 1 CONTENTS The State of the Art in Fusion Propulsion 4 Editorial Overview: TVIW 2018 Symposium 9 Welcome to issue 25 of Principium, the quarterly Interstellar News 13 newsletter about all things interstellar from i4is, the Masters Collaboration with University of York 13 Initiative and Institute for Interstellar Studies. Breakthrough Discuss 2019 13 Our Introduction feature is The State of the Art in Searches for Galactic Stream Interstellar Asteroids 14 Fusion Propulsion, part 1 of an essay by Kevin i4is at the Royal Institution 2019 14 Schillo, University of Alabama Huntsville (page 4). Ciel et Espace on Hein-Baxter AI for interstellar 14 ISU/i4is Elective Module – Chipsats 15 Our front cover is a reminder of the recent first NASA Grant for Solar Gravity Lens Mission 15 imaging of a black hole, a visualisation of the photon trajectories which produced the image. Our Tau Zero Breakthrough Propulsion Study 15 back cover is an impression of the Large Synoptic More from Prof Claudius Gros on Genesis probes 15 Survey Telescope (LSST), a vital new tool in finding Human exploration beyond the Moon and Mars 16 incoming comets and interstellar objects. The Contact Paradox 16 David Hardy - Honorary FBIS 16 We now feature a table of contents which, as you see, range from the latest i4is work on our The i4is Members Page 17 Glowworm LEO laser-push demonstrator to an 2nd FISW workshop 18 introduction to the team which implemented our News Feature: Indian Anti-Satellite test 21 membership scheme. Become an i4is member 23 Extreme Deep Space Exploration 24 We announce the Second Foundations of Interstellar Competition: From Apollo to the stars! 29 Studies Workshop (FISW) 27-30 June 2019 (page 18). Also in this issue Patrick Mahon exhorts us to News Feature: Oumuamua, Project Lyra and ISOs 30 Become an i4is member (p23) and we have the first News Feature: All Comets Great and Small 35 i4is Members Page (p17) with a few examples of Progress & activity by i4is-US 2017-2019 38 the members-only content we have already made News Feature - IAC 2018 - Swarm Systems 40 available. And with the 50th anniversary of Apollo i4is-US at annual MIT Beyond the Cradle event 43 11, we announce a little Competition: From Apollo Tuning our Lasers: Projects Dragonfly and 48 to the stars! (p29). Our technical team reports Fine Glowworm Tuning our Lasers: News Feature - The Membership Team 51 Letter: ISOs - Warning from Oumuamua? 53 Updates on Project Dragonfly and Glowworm (p48) and the final item is a letter from T Marshall Membership of i4is Eubanks with a Warning from Oumuamua? (p53) Please support us through membership of i4is. The feature on Nomadic Planets is postponed to Join the interstellar community and help to reach next time when we will also have The State of the the stars! Privileges for members and discounts Art in Fusion Propulsion - Part 2, a News Feature: for students, seniors and BIS members. The Principium Team and Terry Regan's Mariner 2 All at i4is.org/membership. Spacecraft model - part 1: The research phase. Please print and display the poster on page 3 As always, comments on Principium, i4is and all (white background for easy printing and 80% matters interstellar are always welcome, discount for students). Other variants are all at - John I Davies, Editor, [email protected] i4is.org/i4is-membership-posters-and-video JOIN i4is at i4is.org/membership Keep in touch! Join in the conversation by following the i4is on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/InterstellarInstitute For Members of i4is 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 17 The views of our writers are their own. We aim for sound science but not editorial orthodoxy. Principium | Issue 25 | May 2019 2 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: • member exclusive posts, videos and advice; • free or discounted publications, merchandise and events; • advanced booking for special HQ events; and • opportunities to contribute directly to our work. To find out more, see www.i4is.org/membership 80% discount for full time students! Principium | Issue 25 | May 2019 3 The State of the Art in Fusion LEAD FEATURE Propulsion An Essay by Kevin Schillo, University of Alabama in Huntsville Kevin Schillo introduces and surveys fusion-based propulsion systems. There are many live concepts for fusion and many of them are applicable to spacecraft propulsion. Kevin has based this on the extensive literature search he did for a dissertation in support of his PhD research. This is the first of two parts. Part 2 will appear in Principium 26, August 2019. Introduction capabilities, the energy released by a fusion Since the discovery of the vast energy that can be system is significantly greater than what is released in nuclear reactions, scientists and engineers offered in fission. For this reason, fusion have developed concepts in which nuclear fission propulsion systems have been explored and fusion systems may be used for spacecraft extensively over the past several decades. propulsion. In a fission reaction, a heavy element In a fusion propulsion system, the plasma splits into lighter nuclei, releasing large amounts exhaust from fusion reactions can be of energy. In nuclear fusion, light nuclei are joined converted directly to thrust, eliminating the together to form a heavier nuclei. Both have been need to generate electricity that would be researched extensively for spacecraft systems. The needed for an electric propulsion system. A primary advantage that fission has over fusion is fusion system would be capable of sending a that fission systems may be used on spacecraft with spacecraft to the furthest reaches of the solar existing technology in the form of nuclear thermal system and possibly beyond far more rapidly or nuclear electric systems. While fusion propulsion than any other propulsion system that can be is currently beyond our current technological expected to be developed. Figure 1. Comparison of initial spacecraft mass in metric tons and transit times for roundtrip Mars mission, with the x axis showing transit time in years and the y axis showing the initial vehicle mass in low Earth orbit [1]. Principium | Issue 25 | May 2019 4 LEAD FEATURE Studies by Cassibry et al [1], Miernik et al [2], and Early History of Nuclear Propulsion Adams et al [3] in the 2000s and 2010s have shown One of the earliest nuclear propulsion concepts that fusion propulsion rapidly reduces interplanetary explored was Project Orion, in which a spacecraft trip times when compared to other propulsion carries a large number of nuclear explosives. The systems for spacecraft. This can be seen in figure explosives are ejected one at a time and detonated 1, which compares the initial spacecraft mass in at a certain distance from the vehicle. Plasma from low Earth orbit and the corresponding transit times the explosion impinges upon a pusher plate at the required for a roundtrip Mars mission for different spacecraft’s rear and propels the vehicle forward propulsion systems. It is extremely difficult for a [4]. A vehicle design concept for Orion [5] is shown chemical propulsion system to be used for a human in Figure 2. piloted mission due to the corresponding long During the 1970s, research done at the Los Alamos transit times. Nuclear thermal and nuclear electric National Laboratory investigated using a laser to propulsion systems could allow for two-year initiate fusion detonations in fuel pellets [6]. The manned Mars missions. A fusion propulsion system Los Alamos team also researched three different with specific powers of 1-10 kW/kg could enable designs for systems that would convert energy from roundtrip Mars missions lasting less than a year. a fusion explosion into propulsive thrust. The first Compared to other propulsion systems, fusion offers design was a pusher plate very similar to that which significant payload mass and short transit times. was investigated for Project Orion. For this design, Fusion propulsion has also been identified as an a fuel pellet is detonated at a certain distance attractive candidate for making interstellar missions from the spacecraft and a pusher-plate absorbs possible.