NASA’s Space Launch System: Capabilities for Ultra-High C3 Missions

Analysis of Low $ΔV$ Spacecraft Missions to Oort Cloud Comet C/2014 UN$_{271}$

“…However there are also regions of feasibility and to take a case in point, we assume a launch in 2032 and flight duration 15 years from Figure 10 and we get the trajectory shown in Figure 11. Observe that the C 3 for this mission is 117.3 km 2 s −2 is achievable by an SLS Block 2 + Centaur Upper Stage with a payload mass of approximately 10.0 t (Stough et al 2021). A STAR 63F could then deliver the 2.1 km s −1 at Jupiter (with perijove altitude 3049 km) propelling a payload of 3.9 t toward UN 271 .…”

“…Note therefore that these results indicate that for a launch in the '30s, a more powerful lift vehicle than used by New Horizons would be required (it used an Atlas V (551) AV-010 + Star 48B 3rd stage), in fact even an Atlas V Heavy with Centaur 3rd stage would be inadequate. However, referring to Stough et al (2021), an SLS Block 2 with Centaur upper stage would be capable of doing the job (payload 3.2 t) or with a CASTOR 30B (payload 1.6 t). Furthermore observe that the alternative of a direct mission in the '30s would not be able to achieve intercept in the same time frame as this indirect mission (9-12 years) and with as low a C 3 at Earth (refer Table 1 last row).…”