starship-design: Some Suggested Robotic Missions to Gliese 411 (Lalande 21185)

["L. Parker" <lparker@cacaphony.net>]

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Some Suggested Robotic Missions to Gliese 411 
(Lalande 21185)


Frederick R. West
520 Diller Road, Hanover PA 17331-4805

Some suggested robotic missions to the nearby star Gliese 411 (Lalande 21185) are outlined. Gatewood (1996, BAAS, 28, 885) recently detected two Jovian-mass planets orbiting Gliese 411, which made it an interesting interstellar objective. The first mission has the spacecraft (SC) reach Gliese 411 near its closest approach to the solar system (predicted to be ~293,000 AU in about the year 22,000). Another mission requiring higher propulsive performance has the SC reach Gliese 411 as it crosses the ecliptic in ~15,050 at ~330,000 AU distance; en route it could accomplish many objectives of the TAU mission (Meinel & Meinel 1986, BAAS, 18, 1012), which requires similar propulsive performance.

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Read the mission dates CAREFULLY!

Lee Parker

Long experience has taught me not to believe in the limitations indicated by purely theoretical considerations. These - as we well know - are based on insufficient knowledge of all the relevant factors." 

Guglielmo Marconi