thousand astronomical units via ten-years of ion rocket thrust
Robert Elton Maas
<HS> From: mnetor!utzoo!he...@seismo.css.gov (Henry Spencer)
<HS> Subject: space news from AW&ST 6 Oct 1986
<HS> JPL is studying a mission dubbed TAU, Thousand Astronomical Units, for a
<HS> nuclear-ion probe to travel well beyond the solar system. A megawatt
<HS> nuclear reactor would power ion engines for about 10 years, ...
This excites me! More info please if available.
<HS> [Mini-editorial: a probe with a 50-year mission will be passed by newer
<HS> probes with better engines long before the end of its mission. Planning
<HS> for such long missions needs to consider in-flight obsolescence. -- HS]
That's what I thought about Voyager 2. By the time it gets to Uranus,
much less Neptune, it will have been passed by an ion rocket with
improved telemetry, so the whole Uranus/Neptune mission is a waste. As
it turns out, delays in the whole space program, especially the ion
rocket, have turned Voyager 2 into a note in a bottle not likely to be
exceeded by any new mission for many years. I say we should go ahead
and put up our ion rocket, with state-of-art telemetry virtually
guaranteed for 20 years, and note in the bottle for additional time if
our space program falls on its face again.