Space travel has taken us to our closest neighbor, the Moon, and deeper into our larger solar community, inhabited by giants like Saturn and Jupiter. In 1982, Voyager 2 has flown closer to Uranus than any other spacecraft since then, and is now traveling through interstellar space at a distance of about 133 AU (about 19.9 billion km) from Earth, 46 years after launch.

But there have been few such satellite missions in recent years. Cost is the main barrier, but time frame is also a factor. Design calculations for such long journeys will take years, and planning and building a spacecraft will take about a decade. Given the time it takes for a satellite to reach distant targets, this means our next look at the stars probably won’t be anytime soon.

Launching the Voyager satellites in 1977, a team of scientists led by Slava Turyshev of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology aims to get space exploration back on track. The team proposes a new method of travel that could get us to the stars faster and cheaper.

In an article published on the preprint server arXivTuryshev and more than two dozen researchers from the United States and Europe have proposed combining miniature satellite devices with a solar-powered process that would create a fast, cheap and easy way to travel.

Solar powered swimming is a process in which the pressure created by solar radiation is used for propulsion. The latest innovations in this technology were demonstrated in the successful 2019 mission funded by the Planetary Society’s LightSail-2 crowdfunding project.

The researchers explain: “Solar sails gain propulsion by using highly reflective, lightweight materials that reflect sunlight to propel a spacecraft through space. The constant pressure of photons from the sun is the heavy consumable used by traditional onboard chemical and electrical propulsion systems that limit the lifespan of missions and observatories. It provides propulsion, eliminating the need for materials.”

They say the sails are much cheaper than the heavy equipment currently used for propulsion, and the constant, sustained pressure of solar photons from the sun provides the propulsion for a wide variety of vehicle maneuvers, such as hovering or rapidly changing the orbital plane. .

Solar sails and miniaturization “have advanced over the past decade to a point where they can enable exciting and cost-effective missions to reach deep into the outer reaches of our solar system, farther and faster,” the report says.

The researchers call the combination of these two technologies the Sundiver concept.

“The fast, cost-effective and maneuverable sailboat capable of traveling beyond the elliptical plane opens up new opportunities for affordable solar system exploration,” the report says, “and holds great promise for solar physics, planetary science and astrophysics.”

With its enhanced maneuverability, the spacecraft can easily deliver small payloads to multiple destinations when needed and dock on a suitable modular vessel. The researchers add that reliance on the sun and miniaturization of the carrier, which does not require a dedicated launch pad, will provide significant savings: “A major reason for the high costs is that [поточна] dependence on slow and expensive chemicals. An engine that works at the limits of its capabilities and effectively renders the current solar system exploration paradigm unsustainable. A new approach is needed.”