Solar sailing for radio astronomy and seti: An extrasolar mission to 550 AU

Details Solar sailing for radio astronomy and seti: An extrasolar mission to 550 AU Solar sailing for radio astronomy and seti: An extrasolar mission to 550 AU

Nov 1994

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994jbis...47..476m&link_type=abstract

British Interplanetary Society, Journal (ISSN 0007-094X), vol. 47, no. 1, 476-484

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Interstellar Travel, Project Seti, Radio Astronomy, Solar Sails, Spacecraft Propulsion, Astrophysics, Gravitational Effects, Solar Gravitation, Solar Wind, Swingby Technique, Trajectory Analysis

Scientific paper

Current or near-term technology is capable of propelling small payloads to 550 Astronomical Units (AU) on flights of decades duration. Beyond 550 AU, natural or artificial electromagnetic (EM) radiation emitted by galactic objects occulted by the Sun is greatly amplified by solar gravitational focusing. Propulsion systems capable of launching such an extrasolar probe include Jupiter gravity-assist, flat or inflatable solar sails unfurled from parabolic solar orbits sunward of the Earth, and the proton-reflecting 'Magsail'. Best performance for a near-future probe is obtained using the solar sail; a superconducting Magsail has great potential for course-correction purposes. A properly configured solar sail can also serve as a radio telescope and as a solar-energy collector to power the probe's instrumentation. The best direction for the probe's trajectory is towards the galactic anti-center. This is because of the astrophysical interest in amplified EM radiation from the galactic center and the large number of Sunlike stars in the galactic arm. Many of these stars could be surveyed for artificial radio emissions using the proposed probe by astronomers engaged in SETI (Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence). By chance, the anti-galactic-center is not too far from the positions on the celestial sphere of the nearby Sunlike stars Tau Ceti and Epsilon Eridani. This random celestial arrangement increases the potential interest of the proposed mission. While focused on or near the galactic center, the probe could also examine a number of objects of astrophysical interest. These include supernova remnants, HI and HIII regions, and neutron stars or black holes near the galctic center. A number of alternative directions for probes of this type exists. Missions could be flown to sample amplified radio emissions from globular clusters such as M13 and M22 and extra-galactic objects such as the Magellanic Clouds and the Great Spiral Galaxy (M31) in Andromeda. For a number of reasons, the galactic center is superior to these objects, at least for the first flights of the SETI-sail.

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