Project Icarus (interstellar)

Project Icarus is a theoretical design study aimed at designing a credible, mainly nuclear fusion-based unmanned interstellar space-probe. It started out as an initiative of members of The British Interplanetary Society (BIS) and The Tau Zero Foundation (TZF), but is now a project currently managed by the same people under the umbrella of the non-profit organization Icarus Interstellar. It was motivated by the BIS Project Daedalus, a similar study that was conducted between 1973 and 1978 by the BIS.

The project is planned to take around five years and began on September 30, 2009. An international team of dozens of scientists and engineers has been assembled. The project web site reveals the evolving team:Project Icarus.

History

Project Icarus was founded mainly by Kelvin Long and Richard Obousy. The project was first announced at a conference at the UK Space Conference, held at Charterhouse, Surrey, UK on 4th April 2009 when Kelvin Long had organized the first interstellar session there. He then then approached Richard Obousy about helping to set up the project. A symposium was organized by Kelvin Long and Ian Crawforda at the British Interplanetary Society to review "Daedalus after 30 years". As well as presentations from Long, Obousy and Crawford, it also included presentations from future team members Richard Osborne, Martyn Fogg and Andreas Tziolas. Other future team members were in the audience that day including Pat Galea and Rob Swinney. The genesis of the project is described in the original paper as well as a history paper .

Project Icarus was mainly formed as an initiative to re-energize the interstellar community, where it had been observed that many of the 'design capable' people had either retired or died. With this in mind Project Icarus is mainly a 'designer capability exercise'. The choise of mainly fusion fuel did not neccessarilly indicate the team were advocates of fusion propulsion, but was merely a vehicle for providing for a design study, within design constraints. The purpose behind Project Icarus has been defined to be:

• 1. To design a credible interstellar probe that is a concept design for a potential mission in the coming centuries.
• 2. To allow a direct technology comparison with Daedalus and provide an assessment of the maturity of fusion based space propulsion for future precursor missions.
• 3. To generate greater interest in the real term prospects for interstellar precursor missions that are based on credible science.
• 4. To motivate a new generation of scientists to be interested in designing space missions that go beyond our solar system.

The team set out to describe the project requirements in the form of a set of Terms of Reference which is what has to be accomplished by the design study:

• 1. To design an unmanned probe that is capable of delivering useful scientific data about the target star, associated planetary bodies, solar environment and the interstellar medium.
• 2. The spacecraft must use current or near future technology and be designed to be launched as soon as is credibly determined.
• 3. The spacecraft must reach its stellar destination within as fast a time as possible, not exceeding a century and ideally much sooner.
• 4. The spacecraft must be designed to allow for a variety of target stars.
• 5. The spacecraft propulsion must be mainly fusion based (i.e. Daedalus).
• 6. The spacecraft mission must be designed so as to allow some deceleration for increased encounter time at the destination.

There is also the addition of a project scope: "The required milestones should be defined in order to get to a potential launch of such a mission. This should include a credible design, mission profile, key technological development steps and other aspects as considered appropriate".

Members of the Project Icarus Study Group went onto form a non-profit organization called Icarus Interstellar which then launched various other projects other than just Project Icarus. Icarus Intersellar has the mission of seeing interstellar flight achieved by the year 2100.

Structure

The project is managed to a core design team, surrounded by many designers, which includes some students. The project management is designed to rotate whenever any major phase changes occurs over the ten phases of the project. A Project Manager (PM) and Deputy Project Manager (DPM) is promoted on each cycle to manage the project. The team leadership so far has been:

• Kelvin Long (1st PM), Richard Obousy (1st DPM)
• Richard Obousy (2nd PM), Andreas Tziolas (2nd DPM)
• Andreas Tziolas (3rd PM), Pat Galea (3rd DPM), Rob Swinney (4th DPM), Robert Freeland (5th DPM).

Project Icarus is divided into twenty research modules which encompass al of the spacecraft systems and sub-sytems, as well as the mission architecture. This includes:

• Module 1.0: Astronomical Target.
• Module 2.0: Mission Analysis & Performance.
• Module 3.0: Vehicle Configuration.
• Module 4.0: Primary Propulsion:
• Module 5.0: Secondary Propulsion:
• Module 6.0: Fuel & Fuel Acquisition:
• Module 7.0: Structure & Materials:
• Module 8.0: Power Systems.
• Module 9.0: Communications & Telemetry.
• Module 10.0: Navigation & Guidance Control.
• Module 11.0: Computing & Data Management.
• Module 12.0: Environmental Control.
• Module 13.0: Ground Station & Monitoring.
• Module 14.0: Science.
• Module 15.0: Instruments & Payload.
• Module 16.0: Mechanisms.
• Module 17.0: Vehicle Assembly.
• Module 18.0: Vehicle Risk & Repair.
• Module 19.0: Design Realisation & Technological Maturity.
• Module 20.0: Design Certification.

External links

• Project Icarus
• Project Daedalus Symposium
• Centauri Dreams
• SPACE.com]