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Exploration of the local solar neighbourhood I: Fixed number of probes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2013

Daniel Cartin
Daniel Cartin*
Affiliation:
Naval Academy Preparatory School, 440 Meyerkord Ave Newport, RI (USA) 02841-1519
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Abstract

Previous work in studying interstellar exploration by one or several probes has focused primarily either on engineering models for a spacecraft targeting a single star system, or large-scale simulations to ascertain the time required for a civilization to completely explore the Milky Way Galaxy. In this paper, a simulated annealing algorithm is used to numerically model the exploration of the local interstellar neighbourhood (i.e. of the order of ten parsecs of the Solar System) by a fixed number of probes launched from the Solar System; these simulations use the observed masses, positions and spectral classes of targeted stars. Each probe visits a pre-determined list of target systems, maintains a constant cruise speed, and only changes the direction from gravitational deflection at each target. From these simulations, it is examined how varying design choices – differing the maximum cruise speed, number of probes launched, number of target stars to be explored, and probability of avoiding catastrophic system failure per parsec – change the completion time of the exploration programme and the expected number of stars successfully visited. In addition, it is shown that improving this success probability per parsec has diminishing returns beyond a certain point. Future improvements to the model and possible implications are discussed.

Keywords

interstellar explorationnumerical simulationssimulated annealingSETI
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Astrobiology , Volume 12 , Issue 4 , October 2013 , pp. 271 - 281
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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