The interstellar conundrum: a survey of concepts and proposed solutions.

Once considered intractable, the problem of interstellar flight is slowly yielding to analysis. Although manned missions to the stars are exceedingly improbable in this century, the possibility of interstellar robotic probes should not be ruled out. Recent laboratory work and theoretical analysis suggest several near-term technologies that could, given the development of an adequate space-based infrastructure, provide the needed propulsion. Laser-driven lightsails offer the key advantage of leaving the fuel behind, with the laser beam focused by a large Fresnel lens in the outer Solar System. Perhaps more efficient is the use of a particle beam to boost a spacecraft by interacting with its magnetic sail, the latter a system already under intense scrutiny. Variations on "pellet" propulsion using macroscopic objects continue to surface, their mass converted to energy as they arrive at the departing starship. Interstellar flight will be both difficult and expensive, although it can no longer be considered an impossibility. This paper examines the above concepts and relates them to older ideas, such as the Bussard ramjet, that are currently out of favor. The vibrancy of interstellar flight studies is its syncretism-it was through analysis of the drag problem in fusion ramjet designs that a practical means of decelerating an interstellar probe by deployment of a magnetic sail emerged. The intermingling of such ideas offers the hope of robust hybrid concepts that may make interstellar flight a reality.