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by Fordec 1822 days ago
Is it possible to get a probe out that far in time to make a good intercept?

I imagine with this (relatively) short notice this is cutting it a bit close to orchestrate a proper orbital insertion by a designed, manufactured and tested program?
3 comments
sojuz151 1821 days ago
Some context: It took Cassini-Huygens 7 years to reach saturn with two venus and one jupiter flyby. It took New Horizons 9 years to reach pluton with jupiter flyby. With Inclination of 95.467° and Argument of perihelion of 326.285° flyby could happen near to Ecliptic but for getting to orbit one would need a nice gravity assist from jupiter.
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jerf 1821 days ago
Maybe this will motivate us to finally design and launch a probe that launches in two or more launches, all but one of which are fuel.

All our normal expectations for probe arrival times and such are based on one-shot launches, straight out of Earth's gravity well into escape velocity in one shot. It's not like launching with fuel suddenly makes it a two-day trip or anything, but it can do quite a bit of shortening and allow for quite a lot more maneuvering.

This is one of the next touchstones in space progress I've been looking for. A lot of previously impractical things become practical if we can routinely do multilaunches.

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megablast 1821 days ago
> Voyager 1 is 152 AU away

Hmmm, can we make 11au?? I think so.

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gravypod 1821 days ago
This is not a ridiculous question and does not deserve a mean answer.

Voyager 1 has been flying for over 43 years [0]. In that time it went over 150 AU. This averages about 3.5 AU/year. It took, from start of project to launch, about 5 years (1972 - 1977 [1]).

If this body is going to be 11 AU away in 10 years away we'd need to move at an average 2.2 AU/year and hit the right launch windows.

I think that it falls into the "yes, it's possible" but not into the "of course it's possible, how could you even ask" category.

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_1

[1] - https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/timeline/#event-voyager...

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op00to 1821 days ago
The question isn’t can we make 11au. That’s facile. Can we make 11au at the exact velocity, location, etc etc etc?
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