‘Voyager on steroids.’ Mission would probe region beyond our Solar System

Re:‘Voyager on steroids.’ Mission would probe region beyond ... by scohesc on Friday July 29, 2022 @10:55AM (#32277733)

Maybe someone with more knowledge/experience can chime in here since I'm fairly ignorant of the Voyager program - was a bit before my time.

From what I understand the voyager probe(s) did some pretty crazy gravity assists to launch themselves out of the solar system - flying close enough to different planets in our solar system to build up great speed.

Could we not throw a giant solar sail onto a probe and send it out? I guess the acceleration would be smaller and smaller when you get further and further out with the sun being further away, but at least you'd still be gaining velocity, right?

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Re:‘Voyager on steroids.’ Mission would probe region beyond ... by thechao on Friday July 29, 2022 @11:22AM (#32278111)

This is directly addressed in the paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2207.03005

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Re:‘Voyager on steroids.’ Mission would probe region beyond ... by scohesc on Friday July 29, 2022 @03:04PM (#32280618)

Thank you for mentioning this!

I don't have the time and mental resources to browse through these research papers all the time but knowing that what I'm asking is actually in the paper, maybe I'll give it a browse.

Thanks :)

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Re:‘Voyager on steroids.’ Mission would probe region beyond ... by floxy on Friday July 29, 2022 @01:57PM (#32279973)

If you like solar sails, you might like:

https://youtu.be/NQFqDKRAROI?t=858

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