Adam Hibberd
@hibberdadam994
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I developed software to study missions to the planets and used it to research trajectories to Interstellar Object 'Oumuamua. I am also a pianist/composer.
Coventry, England
Joined August 2014
A popular animation showing Project Lyra with a Solar Oberth of 10 Solar Radii (SR) away from the Sun's centre.
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@tony873004 Thanks for this Tony, an alternative animation is available here:.Also note there are alternative trajectories for Project Lyra, like exploiting a Jupiter Oberth Manoeuvre (with no exceedingly hot perihelion), go here:.
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Thanks Tony for your animation:.For more on Project Lyra visit.@I4Interstellar.and also visit our website at Fianlly go to my blog here:
Project Lyra explores the possibility of sending a spacecraft to chase 'Oumuamua using an Earth gravity assist to reach Jupiter, which robs the craft of almost all its speed, causing it to drop to the Sun for an Oberth maneuver. Thanks @hibberdadam994 for the trajectory data!
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@eterevsky @tony873004 This would be a 'fryby' of the Sun. The Interstellar Probe people at JHU have studied a Solar Oberth at 3 Solar Radii (SR), for their concept study. PL would have a higher perihelion of 6 SR. PSP will get down to around 10SR, I calculate PL has a solar flux 3 x higher than PSP.
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A mission to an asteroid which is permanently within the orbit of Venus, ꞌAylóꞌchaxnim, as solved and animated by my softwre development, OITS (Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software):.
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@elonmusk @leometric Go to the animation here:. I am the astrodynamicist for Project Lyra and work for who conducted the research for this project. @I4Interstellar.
Project Lyra explores the possibility of sending a spacecraft to chase 'Oumuamua using an Earth gravity assist to reach Jupiter, which robs the craft of almost all its speed, causing it to drop to the Sun for an Oberth maneuver. Thanks @hibberdadam994 for the trajectory data!
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That is a higher perihelion than for the nominal mission scenario (which reaches 6 SR), yet is around the same perihelion distance as the NASA Parker Solar Probe will reach, with the same top speed also.
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For anyone interested in #ProjectLyra and would like to find more out about my software development OITS (Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software). A simplifed guide is provided for you in this Principium issue:.
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Thus exactly the same heat shield technology (a Carbon-Carbon composite material) can be utilised.
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That kink after the Jupiter encounter ensures the subsequent perihelion reached by the probe is on the other side of the Sun from Jupiter, allowing the necessary alignment of the Solar Oberth burn to accelerate the craft to 'Oumuamua.
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For those fo you interested in Project Lyra animations, do go to my friend Justin's animation of the Solar Oberth option here:.
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I was just returning to my discovery concerning 'Oumuamua's orbit which has NOT been widely publicised and indeed I think is not widely known. But let me start from what IS known, see below.
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Just a little early morning deliberating about 'Oumuamua.
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Earth-Jupiter-'Oumuamua. I have a lot on my plate but just at this moment doing some new Project Lyra research (in other words spacecraft missions to 'Oumuamua) using a single Jupiter powered gravitational assist (or JOM = Jupiter Oberth Manoeuvre).
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Would you like a sideways animation of the Project Lyra mission to 'Oumuamua, with a Solar Oberth at 10 Solar Radii (SR)? See attached or go to my blog for more detail:.
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@YourMomDave1 @tony873004 @8lackPrince To put this in context, the Giotto probe's encounter of Halley's comet was 70km/s and the Earth travels around the Sun at 30 km/s, in both cases we can get useful observations with appropriate instruments. There are further PL options where encounter velocities are lower.
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This is another memory I have of my time in the Ariane 4 (the extremely successful European launch vehicle) project as a software engineer, in the '90s.
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For more details go to the website for the Initiative for Interstellar Studies ( and also have a look at the blog on this site ( which is mainly Project Lyra related stuff. @I4Interstellar.
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A view of Earth from 'Oumuamua as 'Oumuamua passed through the inner Solar System. Note that the change in apparent size of Earth with distance is not modelled, hence for this animation, Earth seems pretty much constant in size.
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I decided to try and find optimal trajectories a laser sail probe might follow to arrive at Enceladus, moon of Saturn. First question: what do I mean by optimal? .Answer: in this context, it is the smallest possible encounter velocity of the laser sail as it passes by Enceladus.
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I've been working on the problem of how a swarm of laser sails might fly through the Proxima Centauri system, encounter the orbiting planet Proxima b in the process, and formulate from all the trajectories an idea of the masses of these two objects. Read on. .
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Whatever it is, we are all agreed it is definitely from some other place in our galaxy, and if you read the paper 'all explanations are extraordinary', it is probably not just a rock.
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Current predicted ground track for 2023 BU (as of 24/01/2024 15:25:00 GMT) using NASA Spice kernel data:
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@StephenFleming @tony873004 There are solutions like: after the probe has launched, and when we have the tech, we propel a swarm of laser sails to a hundred of km/s or more to 'Oumuamua to triangulate its position, then relay this data back to the probe and it adjusts its trajectory to achieve a close flyby.
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To me that's very, very strange - and I have even calculated the probability of this happening by chance, which is 0.25%. Now that's very much an outlier.
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@wayneclary @tony873004 Braking using chemical would not be feasible, but using a combination of electric sails and magnetic sails would help. There's a paper on this by Andreas Hein and Nikolas Perakis.
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The spacecraft arrives at Jupiter where a slingshot reverses the velocity of the s/c and sets it on a retrograde path to rendezvous with retrograde Kaʻepaokaʻawela, which is co-orbital with Jupiter. Can you predict when the s/c will catch the target?.
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Interested in a mission to 'Oumuamua not requiring the complexities and challenges of a close approach to the Sun (a Solar Oberth)? .The mission attached exploits a Jupiter Oberth, with a series of gravity assists to get from Earth to Jupiter to 'Oumuamua.
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The Institute for Interstellar Studies and Space Initiatives Inc. collaborated on a NIAC (NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts) proposal, and we were successful! Go here for more detail:.
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Could we have done a sample return to 'Oumuamua?.What's that?.
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To discover how a SpaceX Falcon Heavy would fare as far as Project Lyra is concered go to my blog for @I4Interstellar, here:.
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More on the exact nature of 'Oumuamua's galactic velocity before it encountered the Sun. Marshall Eubank's paper: .
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It is interesting to note though - and this is my discovery - that the particular 3 values of these parameters which 'Oumuamua 'chose' to take, happened to make it MOST observable to potential onlookers on this third rock from the Sun - we call Earth.
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A sideways look at that Project Lyra trajectory with a perihelion at 10 SR, specifically the Jupiter to Solar Oberth leg of the overall mission.
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@JohnGamble1590 @CPindil @tony873004 It's a Hawaiian name, it was discovered by PanSTARRS an observatory in Hawaii and means 'a messenger from afar arriving first'. Quite appropriate.
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@MinuteofZombie @tony873004 Thank you, go to my github repository where you will find the software I developed, OITS (Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software) ready to download (if you have MATLAB):.
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@TheAIStorytellr @tony873004 Let's hope this wonderful opportunity is not missed. There is still time to prepare a mission, next launch window is around 2030-2033. Thanks for your encouagement and I whole-heartedly concur with this sentiment - the Project Lyra mission is not beyond the wit of man.
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We know that 'Oumuamua was really just stationary or 'floating' in interstellar space when the Solar System effectively ploughed straight into it.
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It is so easy to focus on the parochial or ephemeral, especially in the context of the recent pandemic. Let us use this tragic episode in humanity's history to regroup and ask ourselves collectively what we want to do with our precious existence in this Universe?.
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Whatever it is, we are all agreed it is definitely from some other place in our galaxy, and if you read the paper 'all explanations are extraordinary', it is certainly not just a rock.
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A sample return would go to 'Oumuamua, dispatch an impactor, pick up the dust from the resulting impact plume using aerogel, and finally return to Earth for atmospheric re-entry with the sample on-board to be analysed by scientists on Earth.
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I simplified the explanation of the theory behind my interplanetary trajectory software quite significantly, and this, I hope, makes the whole thing easier to follow. It's all in this article I wrote for i4is (the Initiative for Interstellar Studies):.
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I wrote this for Principium a while ago. It looks into the trajectory followed by the nominal Solar Oberth mission to unusual interstellar object 1I/'Oumuamua (Project Lyra). Bit technical, but if you are interested in math, applied math, this is for you:.
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For more on Project Lyra visit @I4Interstellar and also visit our website at Fianlly go to my blog here:.
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Thus the motion it APPEARED to have was entirely a consequence of the Solar System's velocity through local interstellar space - just as when a car hits an aphid on the windscreen, for an observer stationary in the car, that aphid appeared to be hurtling at 70mph. .
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To discover how a SpaceX Falcon Heavy would fare as far as Project Lyra is concerned go to my blog for @I4Interstellar, here:.
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@ToughSf Hopefully this edge-on view of the post-Jupiter- encounter transfer to the Solar Oberth will clarify
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. when it struck the car, not the other way around. Given that 'Oumuamua had this apparent, inherent velocity, what one can do is fire in a simulation loads and loads of 'Oumuamua's at the Solar System, and see what happens.
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Do remember that the Voyager spacecraft were launched way back in 1977, and are still operating on a very basic level at this very time, 46 years later!.
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I was tasked to summarise a presentation given at an interstellar symposium held in Canada earlier last year, with a view for my summary being included in the last November's issue of Principium. Principium is the publication of the Initiative for Interstellar Studies btw.
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My latest research is all about exploiting what I have developed already - that is Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software (OITS) - but using it for alternative applications, such as laser sail trajectories to objects belonging to our Solar System.
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A mission to it would also have various side-benefits such as exploration and study of the Very Local Interstellar Medium, a scientific agenda which has a dedicated team of its own in the form of the Interstellar Probe project.
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A report by Universe Today on my latest paper with Manasvi Lingam and Andreas Hein. I was responsible for the theory, development and application of the software used, which is a derivative of OITS (Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software).
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@BCardinet @tony873004 Hi Benoit! Yes this is known as a Solar Oberth, which is where the onboard rockets burn at the perihelion point which, given any available impulse, results in maximum increase in kinetic energy of the spacecraft and propels the s/c at high speed towards the destination, 'Oumuamua.
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An important stepping stone in humanity's exploration of our celestial neighbourhood:. #space #trajectory #i4is #rocket #Planet9 #spaceindustry.
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That might seem a bit odd, but if you look at 'Oumuamua's entry point into the Solar System - its entry asymptote - it is very much indicative that this is indeed the case.
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An article I wrote for UK Midlands magazine on space, CAPCOM concerning my personal software development OITS (Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software), intended for the layperson:.
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In my view, to not mount a mission to 'Oumuamua in light of the very many unusual properties of this object is short-sightedness beyond belief.
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In my view 'Oumuamua forces us to focus on our ultimate destination - the stars.
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My most recent published paper with Manasvi Lingam and Andreas Hein:.
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@eterevsky @deeperflows @tony873004 Note that I have investigated approaches of 10 solar radii for Project Lyra, and they are definitely feasible, just with a slightly longer flight duration to 'Oumuamua.
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@PhilosopherZen You want to get there sooner? There are other ways. One is to use Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP), which NASA and DARPA are intending to develop and demo by the end of the decade. With NTP missions direct to 'Oumuamua become possible, with flight durations cut by up to a decade.
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The clock's ticking down and still no action on Project Lyra. To see the countdown to what is (atm) merely a hypothetical Lyra mission, go to my website here:.
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@PhilosopherZen Laser sails would also be possible with precursor missions to the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative, starting from the mid '30s or so, when the tech becomes available. Go to this presentation and look at slide 17:.
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The key question is as follows: Can we get a spacecraft to 'Oumuamua with a launch after 2030 or so, within a span of say 30 years from launch (preferably less)?.
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@mikeharrisNY @tony873004 This would be a reverse gravitational assist at Jupiter. A normal GA accelerates the probe wrt the sun. Deceleration wrt Sun is possible too. Essentially the probe gets slung out of Jupiter's sphere of influence in the opposite direction to Jupiter's velocity, so they cancel out.
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My latest research into Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) for Project Lyra (the study of missions to 1I/'Oumuamua), I conducted on behalf of the Initiative for Interstellar Studies (:.
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I guess from being dead (like my gran or the person who invented the wheel) at the bottom of the scale to being a big celebrity (like George Clooney or Donald Trump) at the top, I have 28 followers on Twitter so that ranks me as being about comatose.
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The only real problem would be the huge encounter speed between the spacecraft and the ISO which would be way in excess of 6 km/s , and particles from the dust cloud might damage the spacecraft and impact on its ability to return home, but is this a risk worth taking?.
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I get a mention in here. It's the journal for the Initiative for Interstellar Studies (i4is):.
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Thus it sets up the correct conditions for the Solar Oberth burn to take place and accelerate the craft at high speed towards the destination: 'Oumuamua.
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@Tom_Ruen Predictions of the arrival rate of 'Oumuamua-type objects are based on an approx upper-bound and the actual number could be far fewer. I predict 'Oumuamua is a rare object, and an opportunity not to be missed. We know of no other like it, in my view we must go for it.
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@BingoBoca @tony873004 The relative speed at intercept would be 30 km/s, Giotto encountered halley at 69km/s, so it's fast but not unprecedented. I reckon the flyby assuming detection by a Lorri telescope at 500,000 km distance would take ~9 hours.
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@IbnulHussaini Borisov was, to all intents and purposes, a comet quite similar to those belonging to our own solar system, and had none of the strange attributes of 'Oumuamua. There have been various architectures proposed, all of which require more than one craft. Like:.
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For 'Oumuamua, we HAVE the technology, we can get there in only 20 odd years. Therefore in my view 'Oumuamua is a gift we mustn't ignore. Do we want a legacy for humanity to extend beyond this solar system?.
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In my view 'Oumuamua forces us to focus on our ultimate destination - the stars. The paper, written in conjunction with Andreas Hein, T Marshall Eubanks & Robert Kennedy III, can be found here:.The animation can be found here:.
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This is a waiting game we cannot afford to play, we HAVE an 'Oumuamua, only one so far, let's go for it (a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush).
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My approach is now to assume we have a particular launcher and propulsion system (chemical rocket) on-board the spacecraft then DERIVE the available DeltaV (the velocity increment from the propulsion system), and work out TIME OPTIMAL trajectories based on this available DeltaV.
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For those of you into music, and with apologies for those who are not, pardon my self-indulgence by providing a link to one of my compositions on YouTube:.
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Well this trajectory gives an answer. We could have done so if:.(1) we had detected 'Oumuamua early enough.(2) we had a s/c lying in wait at the Sun/Earth Lagrange 2 Point (L2).
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With missions to 2I/Borisov, the second interstellar object (ISO) to be discovered (it was first detected in 2019), the best year to launch a mission is open to debate - there are two choices: 2030 and 2031.
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A trajectory solved by my software development known as Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software (OITS) showing a launch opportunity to Venus later this year. Does the atmosphere of Venus support life? The only way of being sure is to send a mission.
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This assumes a flight from Earth to Jupiter, followed by a Solar Oberth (SO, i.e. a sling shot close to the sun) then a long journey to 2I/Borisov. (For the paper : .
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Go to my latest Project Lyra research assuming NTP, here:.
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@xiaoqianWX This is an excellent can-do attitude! We would need a heat shield like the Parker Solar Probe. The Solar Oberth has also been studied extensively by the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) APL Interstellar Probe team. They prefer the Jupiter Oberth option, and this would also suit PL.
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What has essentially happened is that I can NO LONGER ACCESS any emails, outgoing or incoming, either old ones or any further ones which may be sent to this address, and Virgin are actually denying I ever owned this particular email address. Bear in mind this is my WORK email.
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The 'variables' might be the precise encounter time for instance, or alternatively two other parameters (its Beta angle or its impact parameter), all three of which could be just about any random value possible.
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