Experimental payment technology can reach a mysterious planet beyond Pluto in 10 years

On November 14, 2003, astronomers discovered what was at that time the most popular being revolving around the sun. They called it Our master After the goddess of the ocean. that it Cold dwarf planet reddish This is drifting on billions of miles from the sun during its orbit of 10,000 years before coming to a relatively close approach to our star. The next bottom occurs in July 2076, and astronomers want to benefit from this rare meeting by transferring an important to the mysterious object.

A team of researchers from Italy proposes task concepts that can reach our master within seven to 10 years using advanced technology. in paper On the Arxiv website on the printed web, they show two payment concepts for payment that include the nuclear missile engine for fusion and the new solar sailing technology. Pushing techniques for travel time to SDNA can reduce more than 50 % compared to traditional ways to travel to space, giving scientists a unique opportunity to collect evidence about the early formation of the solar system and investigate the OORT theoretical cloud.

When discovered, Sedna was about 8 billion miles (13 billion km) of the sun. (Pluto, the most famous dwarf planet, is a average distance of 3.7 billion miles from the sun.) Our master is known as being through the plant, and it is a group of things that revolve around the sun beyond Neptune. It has a very strange orbit: in the maximum distance, Sedna is 84 billion miles from the sun, or 900 times the distance between the Earth and our star. During her nearest approach, Sedna will be about 7 billion miles away from the sun, approximately three times from Neptune. This is still far, but it is close enough until the spacecraft reaches the celestial being before it fades to the super dark.

Space vehicles traveled distances beyond before. Voyageer 1 and 2 started their journey between the stars in 1977 and traveled 15 billion miles and 12.7 billion miles so far. It took Voyageer 2 about 12 years to reach Neptune. Based on current technology, scientists appreciation It will take between 20 to 30 years to reach our master during its nearest approach, while using Venus, Earth, Jupiter and Neptune as gravitational help. This means that the launch window to reach our master is approaching quickly, with no clear plans yet.

Instead, researchers behind the new study indicate alternative ways to get us faster. The first is the Direct Fusion Drive (DFD), which is currently being developed at the Prisonston University Physics Lab. The integration missile engine will produce both orientation and electrical energy from the interaction of controlled nuclear fusion, providing greater energy of chemical missiles.

“DFD provides a promising alternative to traditional payment, and provides a high level of weight to weight and constant acceleration,” the researchers write in the paper. “However, its feasibility remains subject to the main engineering challenges, including the stability of plasma, heat waste and the longevity of operational age under deep space radiation.” And they add that although progress is made to pay -based payment, it is still unclear whether he can support long -term tasks and provide energy to tools on board.

The second concept is based on Current solar sailing technologyWhich are still experimental in itself. Solar sails are turned on by sunflowers, harnessing the energy produced by light and using it to push the spacecraft forward. Researchers suggest solar sails paint with the materials that, when heated, release molecules or atoms and provides payment in a process known as thermal absorption.

The solar sail, with the help of Jupiter’s attractiveness, can reach our master in seven years because of his ability to accelerate continuously without the need to carry heavy fuel, according to the paper. The idea comes with its challenge set. “While solar sailing was widely studied for deep space applications, its feasibility of the SDNA mission requires evaluation in terms of long -term structural integrity, payment efficiency, and energy availability for science operations,” says the paper.

Despite the slight time feature, the mission of solar sailing will only allow the sin of Sedna, while the DFD engine can insert a spacecraft in the orbit of the dwarf planet for a longer task. Any task will provide us with the first direct notes of the previously unaccreditable area and help scientists understand the largest limits that include the solar system.