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Mission Statement

             Since the discovery of exoplanets (planets beyond our solar system) at the end of the 20^th century, scientists have dreamt of sending robotic probes to these distant worlds for observation. The distance is overwhelming, both from a travel and communications point of view. Under today’s propulsion options, the space probe would take many centuries to arrive at an exoplanet, making any recovered information a gift to a distant and successive generation of human beings.

 

But what a gift! To this end, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently awarded your university laboratory a small semester-long grant to perform a paper study design on the first potential mission to an exoplanet. You and your students must provide a design capable of sending high-resolution images back to earth from the nearest exoplanet populated star system, Epsilon Eridani (10.5 light years away).

 

Phaeton’s Chariot

             In an ancient Greek myth, Phaeton sought to prove that he was the son of Helios by obtaining permission to pilot the sun chariot. Unable to control the chariot, Phaeton was struck down by a thunderbolt from Zeus to avoid the disaster of the sun falling from the sky. The path he drove the chariot in the sky before dying is the constellation Eridanis, home of the star Epsilon Eridani, orbited by the nearest exoplanet to Earth.

            

             Named after Phaeton’s chariot in the heavens, this proposal documents the investigation and design of a probe capable of interstellar travel to Epsilon Eridani and communication back to Earth. Discarding the (impossible) need to achieve mission success within the lifetime of its designers, the three chief difficulties that comprise any deep-space probe are communications, power, and propulsion.

We overcome these three difficulties with the following overall strategies:

(1) Our mission design employs multiple launched vehicles to act as communication relays

(2) We implement high-power Ka-band amplifiers for reception and transmission based on the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) design

(3) Generate long-lasting power and thrust using matter-antimatter annihilation energy.

 

             The total proposed budget is $367.95 Billion and will take 105,055 years to reach the planet and take a picture.

 

Phaeton’s Chariot is:

             Laura Kitashima

             Eric Rhoden

             Andy Stark

             Tsung-Ting “Louis” Kao