Lately, I've been thinking about the relative advantages and disadvantages of ground-based telescopes, space-based telescopes, and interstellar probes.
Some of the qualitative stuff is easy to get a sense of. For instance, with adaptive optics to correct for the interference of the atmosphere, ground-based telescopes are getting a new lease on life. Also, scientists have figured out how to put together arrays of telescopes, which increases the relative attractiveness of telescopes v. interstellar probes. NIMBY makes space-based telescopes more attractive. Limited rocket payload diameters make ground-based telescopes more attractive. The time to develop, build, and launch a space-based telescope makes ground-based telescopes more attractive. The long time that it takes an interstellar probe to reach its destination makes telescopes more attractive. And so on.
However, I have little sense about the math for interstellar probes and would like y'all's thoughts on that and/or links to papers or discussions of it.
For instance, I want to place a probe payload of a couple thousand pounds into orbit around Alpha Centauri. Let's pretend that we have high-power solid state lasers, such that the transportation system of the probe could be powered on the outbound leg by laser from Earth orbit. Let's also pretend that VASIMR propulsion is available.
What would be the spacecraft total weight and time to destination? Would it ever make sense, given our current scientific outlook to do interstellar probes?
Some of the qualitative stuff is easy to get a sense of. For instance, with adaptive optics to correct for the interference of the atmosphere, ground-based telescopes are getting a new lease on life. Also, scientists have figured out how to put together arrays of telescopes, which increases the relative attractiveness of telescopes v. interstellar probes. NIMBY makes space-based telescopes more attractive. Limited rocket payload diameters make ground-based telescopes more attractive. The time to develop, build, and launch a space-based telescope makes ground-based telescopes more attractive. The long time that it takes an interstellar probe to reach its destination makes telescopes more attractive. And so on.
However, I have little sense about the math for interstellar probes and would like y'all's thoughts on that and/or links to papers or discussions of it.
For instance, I want to place a probe payload of a couple thousand pounds into orbit around Alpha Centauri. Let's pretend that we have high-power solid state lasers, such that the transportation system of the probe could be powered on the outbound leg by laser from Earth orbit. Let's also pretend that VASIMR propulsion is available.
What would be the spacecraft total weight and time to destination? Would it ever make sense, given our current scientific outlook to do interstellar probes?
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