5 papers
High-temperature photovoltaics for solar-electric Oberth maneuvers: ton-class payload feasibility for interstellar-precursor missions
Nadim Maraqten, Willem van Lynden, Carlos Gómez de Olea Ballester +1
In-situ exploration beyond the giant planets remains rare because timely Solar System escape demands very high specific orbital energy, which existing concepts typically achieve on…
Science from the In Situ Exploration of the Proxima Centauri System
T. Marshall Eubanks, Jean Schneider, Bruce Bills +11
In the future interstellar exploration at near-relativistic speeds will be possible using beamed energy laser propulsion. With this, spacecraft as small as gm mass picospacecraft b…
Catching 3I/ATLAS Using a Solar Oberth
Adam Hibberd, T. Marshall Eubanks, Andreas Hein
The third interstellar object to be discovered, 3I/ATLAS, has a unique and continually unfolding story to tell about its nature and origin as it is monitored by telescopes on Earth…
Tracking the Activity of the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS through its Perihelion
T. Marshall Eubanks, Craig E. DeForest, Kevin J. Walsh +10
In order to facilitate interplanetary spacecraft observationsof 3I/ATLAS, we have monitored and predicted the optical properties of its coma using both ground and space-based obser…
3I/ATLAS (C/2025 N1): Direct Spacecraft Exploration of a Possible Relic of Planetary Formation at "Cosmic Noon"
T. Marshall Eubanks, Bruce G. Bills, Adam Hibberd +7
The interstellar object 3I/ATLAS (also C/2025 N1 (ATLAS), henceforth, 3I), discovered by the ATLAS Chile telescope on 2025 July 1, was rapidly revealed to be the third known inters…