To quote:

"The Innovative Interstellar Explorer is a NASA "Vision Mission" study funded by NASA following a proposal under NRA-03-OSS-01 on 11 September 2003. This study has focused on the elusive quest to reach and measure the interstellar medium, the "undiscovered country" outside of the influence of the nearest star, our Sun."

The plan is for a launch in 2014 to reach 200 AU in about 30 years.

http://interstellarexplorer.jhuapl.edu/

I heard of a mission like this one, but it would reach 100 AU instead. Anyone know what happened to that one?

Some more online references for IIE:

http://gltrs.grc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/GLTRS/br...005-214017.html

http://www.esa.int/gsp/ACT/doc/ACT-PRE-420...nSys-McNutt.pdf

http://astronauticsnow.com/mg_pubs/gruntma..._aosta_2005.pdf

http://astronauticsnow.com/MikeGruntman/mg_p_lst.html

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/05...tar_voyage.html

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/opag/mcnuttstaif06.pdf

Try also:

http://interstellar.jpl.nasa.gov/

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Stephen

Another URL here:

http://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/SEC/secr/missions/ISP.html

is much more spare but does specify (as part of the mission description) that it would be in an " upwind direction". (Another page adds that "[o]ne of the principle [sic] reasons for sending The Interstellar Probe in this direction is to have it pass through this reconnection region".)

And this page over at MSFC dating from the year 2000 offers a few tidbits specifically on a solar sail mission: it "would move fast -- 58 miles per second" and "begin as early as 2010" while this page was proposing that the "IsP" be added "to the Prometheus mission line as a second mission goal after Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO)".

Of course, all this was back in the day when NASA still had money for such non-core missions. The way NASA's budget is now even October 22, 2014 may be unattainable.

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Stephen

There were a lot of paper missions. One such was the Thousand AU or TAU mission which proposed using a NEP drive ala JIMO. Never went beyond a paper mission.

The latest piece on Centauri Dreams discusses the Innovative Interstellar
Explorer (IIE) probe concept and links to serveral papers and articles on
the probe, which is planned to reach 200 AU from Sol in 30 years.
Voyager 1 is just over halfway to that distance now.

http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=979

The incredible thing to realize is, the nearest star system to our own,
Proxima Centauri, is about 268,000 AU distant.

Last week's (ie 6 January 2007) issue of "New Scientist" (the one with "Into the Void: High Speed Mission into Interstellar Space" on the cover) carried an article on the Innovative Interstellar Explorer. If you subscribe to NS you can still read it here:

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Stephen

OT but the same issue has a reader's photo of a very odd-looking pattern on a (terrestrial) sand dune - in the 'Unanswered questions' section at the back - that might be of interest to those studying Martian dune images.

The website calls the proposed vehicle "The first true starship." I disagree. By the time it reaches the interstellar medium, I expect Voyager 1 and 2 to be there already. For that reason, I consider Voyager 1 to be the first true starship.

http://interstellarexplorer.jhuapl.edu/bound_for_stars.html

I'm not sure I'd consider either to by a true starship as both are at least a factor of 1000 away from being fast enough to reach another star in a human lifetime. It's still leaving the solar system though so I think the term interstellar sputnik is a good one for an IEE type mission(in the same way that sputnik didnt reach any other bodies but did make it into space).

Doug:

Does that mean that a vehicle with an engine based on the Project Orion studies would be an Interstellar PuttPuttnik?


Bob Shaw

OK you're slaying me there Bob.

So it's not the first vessel which heads out to the stars which is "The first true starship" (that would be Pioneer 10, which was launched back in March 1972 and made its last planetary pitstop in December 1973) but the first to reach the interstellar medium?

But is the latter a fair yardstick? For a start the heliosphere is probably not spherical but teardrop shaped. That means that a vessel launched earlier and travelling faster but heading down the "tail" of the heliosphere may well reach the interstellar medium after a vessel launched later and travelling more slowly but heading towards the "nose" of the heliosphere.

Secondly, the size and maybe shape of the heliosphere can vary depending on such factors as the strength of the solar wind, which in turn can vary over time.

So how useful is a yardstick which moves around; and even were it to stay still would be in different places depending on which way you were going.

BTW, here's another thought to chew on: is "The first true starship" the first vessel which heads out into the interstellar void in any old direction or the first which has an actual star (system) as its destination?

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Stephen

I agree with you. The term 'starship' to me implies a specific destination other than interstellar space itself but outside our solar system. By that standard, we're nowhere near launching one.

In any case, those lead pellets (Project Farside?) may have been first out of the Solar System, back in the 1950s...

...not to mention the infamous sans-chocolate manhole cover!




Bob Shaw