Project Lyra – The Mission to Chase After ‘Oumuamua
gortex, Knight of Ni
Member, Registered: 8/16/2009
Location: Valles Marineris Mood: Transmogrifiedposted on Jan, 28 2022 @ 02:01 PM
direct link to this postIt’s been over 4 years since Oumuamua visited our Solar System and left amateur and professional astronomers scratching their heads saying “WTF was that thing ?” , sadly Oumuamua passed before we could get a look at it so now the Institute for Interstellar Studies have revealed they have been working on a plan to launch a mission to chase after the what ever it was to answer the questions Oumuamua left us with , was it a chunk of ice , rock or something more exotic.
The Institute say if they launch a probe in 2028 by using slingshots of our Solar System planets they could catch up to the mystery object in 26 years , yeah it’s a long wait and some of us probably won’t get to see the results but the idea is still an exciting prospect.
Interestingly enough, there are many proposals on the table for missions that could do just that. Consider Project Lyra, a proposal by the Institute for Interstellar Studies (i4is) that would rely on advanced propulsions technology to rendezvous with interstellar objects (ISOs) and study them. According to their latest study, if their mission concept launched in 2028 and performed a complex Jupiter Oberth Manoeuvre (JOM), it would be able to catch up to ‘Oumuamua in 26 years.
On October 30th, 2017, less than two weeks after ‘Oumuamua was detected, the Initiative for Interstellar Studies (i4is) inaugurated Project Lyra. The purpose of this concept study was to determine if a mission to rendezvous with ‘Oumuamua was feasible using current or near-term technologies. Since then, the i4is team has conducted studies that considered catching up with the ISO using nuclear-thermal propulsion (NTP) and a laser sailcraft, similar to Breakthrough Starshot – an interstellar mission concept for reaching Alpha Centauri in 20 years.
www.universetoday.com…-154028Video from the Institute for Interstellar Studies detailing their plan.
It’s no secret that I find ‘Oumuamua fascinating and think it’s the closest we’ve come to finding something possibly designed by ET but I also find the name of the project fascinating too , mainly because of this sat in my picture callery.
Not saying it’s Aliens but …..
Nifty keen!