Based on a novel rechargeable atomic battery (CAB) that is capable of reaching 100 kilometers per second (360,000 kilometers per hour) with a specific mass energy system of 5-8 kilos per kilowatt, the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts ( NIAC) has received a proposal for a spacecraft capable of reaching an extrasolar object.
The mission will also include collecting samples and bringing them back to Earth. A mission that would have a total duration of only ten years.
30 times higher power density
The central innovation in this spacecraft architecture that makes this mission possible is the rechargeable atomic battery (CAB), which has a power density more than 30 times that of Pu-238 (plutonium 238) . The CAB is easier and cheaper to manufacture than the Pu-238 and the safe is greatly enhanced by the encapsulation of radioactive materials within a robust carbide matrix.
This technology is superior to fission systems for this application since fission systems need a critical mass, while radioisotope systems can be much smaller and accommodate smaller launch systems, reducing cost and time. complexity.
The idea would be to take samples of an extrasolar object that crossed our solar system , as objects such as Oumuamua and C / 2019 Q4 (Borisov) have already done. Discovered on October 18, 2017 while moving away from the sun, the interstellar intruder 1I / 2017 U1 (known as ‘Oumuamua’) has thus become the first interstellar object ever observed. Comet 2I / Borisov was the first to come from another solar system, it is also the most pristine space object ever observed.
When the third such object arrives, we may already be ready to tackle it. And then many of us will experience the sense of wonder that we already felt by reading the science fiction novel Appointment with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke .