P089-11
Bridge to the stars: A mission concept to an interstellar object
Thursday, 17 December 2020: 06:00
Virtual
Kimberly Moore1, Samuel Weston Courville2, Kyle Connour3, Sierra Nichole Ferguson4, Rachana Agrawal5, Daniel N Brack6, Peter Buhler7, Ellen Czaplinski8, Michael DeLuca9,10, Ariel Deutsch11, Noah Patrick Hammond12, Donald Kuettel13, Kristie LLera14, Angela G Marusiak15, Stefano Nerozzi16, Ashley Schoenfeld17, Jesse Dylan Tarnas18, Alexander E Thelen19, Jeffrey Stuart20, Julie C Castillo15, Damon Landau21, William D Smythe22, Charles John Budney23 and Karl L Mitchell15, (1)California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (2)Planetary Science Institute, Lakewood, CO, United States, (3)Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, Boulder, CO, United States, (4)Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States, (5)Purdue University, School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, West Lafayette, IN, United States, (6)University of Colorado at Boulder, Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, Boulder, United States, (7)NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, United States, (8)University of Arkansas, Arkansas Center for Space and Planetary Sciences, Fayetteville, AR, United States, (9)University of Colorado at Boulder, Laboratory for Atmosphere and Space Physics, Boulder, CO, United States, (10)Princeton University, Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton, NJ, United States, (11)Brown University, Providence, RI, United States, (12)Wheaton College, Norton, MA, United States, (13)University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, United States, (14)Southwest Research Institute San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United States, (15)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (16)University of Arizona, Tucson, United States, (17)University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States, (18)Brown University, Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Providence, RI, United States, (19)USRA / NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (20)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (21)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, United States, (22)JPL, Pasadena, CA, United States, (23)California Institute of Technology Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States
Abstract:
The discovery of exoplanets has revealed an astounding diversity of planetary systems. Studying these systems is essential to improving our understanding of planetary formation processes, as well as extent life in the universe. Unfortunately, humanity can only observe limited aspects of exoplanetary systems by telescope, and the significant distances between stars make in situ measurements infeasible. But what if we could study exoplanet material up-close without having to travel light years? Interstellar objects (ISOs) allow for close-up observation of the building blocks or fragments of exoplanetary systems
. Given the confirmed discovery of two ISOs (1I/’Oumuamua
(Meech et al., 2017) and 2I/Borisov
(Guzik et al., 2019)), the time is right to consider a mission to an interstellar object.
Here we present a new mission concept (“Bridge”) to flyby a future ISO as it passes through our solar system. The concept was designed as part of NASA’s 31st Planetary Science Summer Seminar (Budney et al., 2019) and employs both a remote sensing payload and a guided impactor. Bridge would gain insight into physical, chemical, and biological differences between our solar systems and others as well as the exchange of planetary materials between them. However, the unique and ephemeral nature of ISOs will require specific changes to future NASA Announcements of Opportunity to enable long-term spacecraft storage and rapid launches. As the next Decadal Survey in Planetary Sciences approaches, the collective advocacy of the scientific community will be required to make this mission a reality.
References:
C. J. Budney et al. LPSC 50, (3225), 2019.
P. Guzik et al. Nat. Astronomy, 2019.
K. J. Meech et al. Nat., 552(7685), 2017.
National Research Council. The Ntl. Acad. Press, 2011.
