Project Lyra: A Mission to 1I/'Oumuamua without Solar Oberth Manoeuvre

TL;DR

This paper proposes a feasible interstellar mission to 1I/'Oumuamua using a Jupiter Oberth Manoeuvre instead of the more challenging Solar Oberth Manoeuvre, reducing mission risk and complexity while maintaining similar performance.

Contribution

It introduces an alternative trajectory for interstellar object exploration that avoids the Solar Oberth Manoeuvre by employing a Jupiter Oberth Manoeuvre with comparable mission performance.

Findings

Total mission duration of around 26 years.

Total ΔV required is 15.8 km/s.

Arrival speed relative to 1I/'Oumuamua is approximately 18 km/s.

Abstract

To settle the question of the nature of the interstellar object 1I/'Oumuamua requires in-situ observations via a spacecraft, as the object is already out of range of existing telescopes. Most previous proposals for reaching 1I/'Oumuamua using near-term technologies are based on the Solar Oberth Manoeuvre (SOM), as trajectories without the SOM are generally significantly inferior in terms of lower mission duration and higher total velocity requirement. While the SOM allows huge velocity gains, it is also technically challenging and thereby increases programmatic and mission-related risks. In this paper, we identify an alternative route to the interstellar object 1I/'Oumuamua, based on a launch in 2028, which does not require a SOM but has a similar performance as missions with a SOM. It instead employs a Jupiter Oberth Manoeuvre (JOM) with a total time of flight of around 26 years or so. The efficacy of this trajectory is a result of it significantly reducing the $\Delta$V to Jupiter by exploiting the VEEGA sequence. The total $\Delta$V of the trajectory is 15.8 $kms^{-1}$ and the corresponding payload mass is 115 kg for a SLS Block 1B or 241 kg for a Block 2. A further advantage of the JOM is that the arrival speed relative to 1I/'Oumuamua is approximately 18 $kms^{-1}$, much lower than the equivalent for the SOM of around 30 $kms^{-1}$.