• DOI:10.3847/1538-3881/aa813f
• Corpus ID: 119070263

Optimized trajectories to the nearest stars using lightweight high-velocity photon sails

@article{Heller2017OptimizedTT,
  title={Optimized trajectories to the nearest stars using lightweight high-velocity photon sails},
  author={Ren{\'e} Heller and Michael Hippke and Pierre Kervella Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research and Gottingen and Neukirchen-Vluyn and Unidad Mixta Internacional Franco-Chilena de Astronom'ia and Universidad Catolica de Chile and Lesia and Observatoire de Paris and Cnrs and 06 Univ.Paris},
  journal={arXiv: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics},
  year={2017}
}

• R. Heller, M. Hippke, +8 authors 06 Univ.Paris
• Published 11 April 2017
• Physics, Geology
• arXiv: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics

New means of interstellar travel are now being considered by various research teams, assuming lightweight spaceships to be accelerated via either laser or solar radiation to a significant fraction of the speed of light (c). We recently showed that gravitational assists can be combined with the stellar photon pressure to decelerate an incoming lightsail from Earth and fling it around a star or bring it to rest. Here, we demonstrate that photogravitational assists are more effective when the star is used as a bumper (i.e. the sail passes "in front of" the star) rather than as a catapult (i.e. the sail passes "behind" or "around" the star). This increases the maximum deceleration at $\alpha$ Cen A and B and reduces the travel time of a nominal graphene-class sail (mass-to-surface ratio 8.6e-4 gram m$^{-2}$) from 95 to 75 yr. The maximum possible velocity reduction upon arrival depends on the required deflection angle from $\alpha$ Cen A to B and therefore on the binary's orbital phase. Here, we calculate the variation of the minimum travel times from Earth into a bound orbit around Proxima for the next 300 yr and then extend our calculations to roughly 22,000 stars within about 300 ly. Although $\alpha$ Cen is the most nearby star system, we find that Sirius A offers the shortest possible travel times into a bound orbit: 69 yr assuming 12.5% c can be obtained at departure from the solar system. Sirius A thus offers the opportunity of flyby exploration plus deceleration into a bound orbit of the companion white dwarf after relatively short times of interstellar travel.