Exploration of the Solar System will require very fast and high energy capability spacecraft that are also capable of carrying large payload masses. This includes missions to the outer planets but also interstellar precursor missions such as to 500 - 1,000 AU. In recent work we have been developing models for such vehicles driven by inertial confinement fusion engines.

The SunVoyager is a mission concept for a 1,000 AU probe carrying 100 tons payload. It would travel over a trip time of 6-10 years travelling at 720 km/s. It would utilise small 5.76 mg pellets filled with D3He fuel detonated at 10 Hz pulse frequency and the thrust would be augmented with 10 mg/pellet expellant propellant. Such a probe would be useful for a gravitational lens focal mission where images of exoplanets around other distant stars could be made.

SunVoyager probe for 1,000 AU mission

Discovery III is a redesign of an earlier NASA Discovery II concept. In the NASA study the team used a spherical magnetic torus reactor to reach Jupiter in 118 days and Saturn in 212 days. This was carrying a 172 tons crewed payload with a rotating artificial gravity section for the astronauts. In the Discovery III we again adopt an inertial confinement fusion engine using 2.88 mg pellet mass detonated at 100 Hz and augmented with expellant propellant. The D-III would arrive at the outer gas giants in the same time frame as the D-II study. Both the D-II and D-III are a redesign of the historical Discovery I from the novel and movie “2001: A Space Odyssey”.

Discovery III crewed probe for a 5 - 10 AU mission

The Interstellar Research Centre continues to explore advanced propulsion concepts for interplanetary and interstellar precursor exploration along these lines.

References:

  1. K F Long, SunVoyager: Interstellar Precursor Probe Mission Concept Driven by Inertial Confinement Fusion Propulsion, Journal of Spacecraft & Rockets, 60(3), May-June 2023.

  2. K F Long, Development of SunVoyager Interstellar Precursor Probe Driven by Inertial Confinement Fusion Propulsion, Journal of Spacecraft & Rockets, April 2024.

  3. K F Long, Discovery III: Missions to the Outer Planets using Inertial Confinement Fusion Propulsion, Submitted to Journal of Spacecraft & Rockets, June 2024.

  4. K F Long, Application of the HeliosX ICF Advanced Propulsion Mission Analysis Code to Perturbed Interstellar Design Models, Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, 76(3), 94-11, March 2023.