Propulsion Trades for a 2035-2040 Solar Gravitational Lens Mission
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| _version_ | 1866909054688821248 |
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| author | Turyshev, Slava G. |
| author_facet | Turyshev, Slava G. |
| contents | The Solar Gravitational Lens (SGL) enables resolved imaging and spectroscopy of nearby terrestrial exoplanets, but useful science begins only after a spacecraft reaches roughly 650-900 astronomical units (AU). A 20 yr lower-bound trip to 650 AU requires an average radial speed of 32.5 AU per year, or 154 km/s, before launch, targeting, steering, and operations margins. We compare close-perihelion solar sailing, fission-electric nuclear electric propulsion (NEP), and high-thrust Oberth injection followed by NEP cruise using common lower-bound outbound-leg architecture envelopes, not closed end-to-end trajectories. For an ideal sail passing 0.05 AU from the Sun, total sailcraft areal density must be about 4.9 grams per square meter to reach 105 km/s, and 2.3 grams per square meter to reach 155 km/s. Thus sub-20 yr sail-only access requires ultra-low areal density plus deep-perihelion thermal qualification. For a 20 t NEP spacecraft with 800 kg payload and Isp=9000 s, optimized constant-power transfers reach 650 AU in t_rep ~ 27-33 yr when the integrated power-plus-propulsion specific mass is 10-20 kg per electric kilowatt, requiring 0.18-0.30 megawatt-electric (MWe) and few-newton thrust. NEP-only t_rep <20 yr requires <3 kg per electric kilowatt, while hybrid architectures can approach t_rep ~ 20 yr if an upstream injection stage supplies 50-70 km/s. Thus sail-first is the nearer-term lightweight-access path; hybrid injection+NEP is higher-capability but requires prior high-energy-injection and 0.2-0.4 MWe integrated NEP demonstrations. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_04198 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Propulsion Trades for a 2035-2040 Solar Gravitational Lens Mission Turyshev, Slava G. Earth and Planetary Astrophysics Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology The Solar Gravitational Lens (SGL) enables resolved imaging and spectroscopy of nearby terrestrial exoplanets, but useful science begins only after a spacecraft reaches roughly 650-900 astronomical units (AU). A 20 yr lower-bound trip to 650 AU requires an average radial speed of 32.5 AU per year, or 154 km/s, before launch, targeting, steering, and operations margins. We compare close-perihelion solar sailing, fission-electric nuclear electric propulsion (NEP), and high-thrust Oberth injection followed by NEP cruise using common lower-bound outbound-leg architecture envelopes, not closed end-to-end trajectories. For an ideal sail passing 0.05 AU from the Sun, total sailcraft areal density must be about 4.9 grams per square meter to reach 105 km/s, and 2.3 grams per square meter to reach 155 km/s. Thus sub-20 yr sail-only access requires ultra-low areal density plus deep-perihelion thermal qualification. For a 20 t NEP spacecraft with 800 kg payload and Isp=9000 s, optimized constant-power transfers reach 650 AU in t_rep ~ 27-33 yr when the integrated power-plus-propulsion specific mass is 10-20 kg per electric kilowatt, requiring 0.18-0.30 megawatt-electric (MWe) and few-newton thrust. NEP-only t_rep <20 yr requires <3 kg per electric kilowatt, while hybrid architectures can approach t_rep ~ 20 yr if an upstream injection stage supplies 50-70 km/s. Thus sail-first is the nearer-term lightweight-access path; hybrid injection+NEP is higher-capability but requires prior high-energy-injection and 0.2-0.4 MWe integrated NEP demonstrations. |
| title | Propulsion Trades for a 2035-2040 Solar Gravitational Lens Mission |
| topic | Earth and Planetary Astrophysics Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.04198 |