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Published January 19, 2000 | Published
Book Section - Chapter Open

NASA's interstellar probe mission

Abstract

NASA's Interstellar Probe will be the first spacecraft designed to explore the nearby interstellar medium and its interaction with our solar system. As envisioned by NASA's Interstellar Probe Science and Technology Definition Team, the spacecraft will be propelled by a solar sail to reach >200 AU in 15 years. Interstellar Probe will investigate how the Sun interacts with its environment and will directly measure the properties and composition of the dust, neutrals and plasma of the local interstellar material which surrounds the solar system. In the mission concept developed in the spring of 1999, a 400-m diameter solar sail accelerates the spacecraft to ~15 AU/year, roughly 5 times the speed of Voyager 1&2. The sail is used to first bring the spacecraft to ~0.25 AU to increase the radiation pressure before heading out in the interstellar upwind direction. After jettisoning the sail at ~5 AU, the spacecraft coasts to 200–400 AU, exploring the Kuiper Belt, the boundaries of the heliosphere, and the nearby interstellar medium.

Additional Information

© 2000 American Institute of Physics. Issue Date: 19 January 2000. A portion of this work was conducted at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. We wish to thank the other members of the Interstellar Probe Science and Technology Definition Team: E. Bakes, NASA Ames; P. Frisch, U. of Chicago; H. Funsten, LANL; M. Gruntman, USC; L. Johnson, MSFC; R. Jokipii, U. of Arizona; W. Kurth, U. of Iowa; J. Linsky, U. of Colorado; R. Malhotra, LPI; I. Mann, Caltech; R. McNutt, APL; E. Moebius, UNH; W. Reach, Caltech; S. Suess, MSFC; A. Szabo, GSFC; J. Trainor, GSFC/retired; G. Zank, U. of Delaware; T. Zurbuchen, U. of Michigan. Program Manager: S. Gavit, JPL. Program Scientist: V. Jones, NASA HQ. Deputy Program Scientist: J. Ling, NASA HQ. Program Executive: G. Mucklow, NASA HQ. NASA Transportation: D. Stone, NASA HQ. Interagency Representatives: D. Goodwin, DOE and E. Loh, NSF. Foreign Guest Participants: W. Druge, U. of Kiel, Germany, B. Heber, Max Planck, Germany; C. Maccone, Torino, Italy. JPL Support: C. Budney, S. Dagostino, E. De Jong, K. Evans, W. Fang, R. Frisbee, C. Gardner, H. Garrett, S. Leifer, R. Miyake, N. Murphy, B. Nesmith, F. Pinto, G. Sprague, P. Willis, and K. Wilson.

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