Missed some from the June issue of Acta Astronautica (vol. 219). This one features speed, lots of speed:
Salotti, J.-M. Can humanity survive to a giant comet impact? p. 603 .03.050
Karlapp, J. Heller, R. Tajmar, M. Ultrafast transfer of low-mass payloads to Mars and bey… p. 889 .03.024
Blättermann, H. Kottke, N. G. Vaupel, M. et al. Endurance testing and characterizatio … p. 906 .03.074
I, personally, don’t like to dwell on disasters and fear, but the comet question is a legitimate question. We have discovered 95+ percent of the truly disastrous asteroids (diameter >1 km) We have discovered a good bulk of the continent-buster asteroids (<1 kilometer, but still hundreds of meters). That leaves metropolitan/regional destruction cases (~140 m diameter)… and comets. Due to the inherent distance and residence times of long-period orbits, plus a higher crossing speed and thus kinetic energy, Long-Period Comets (LPCs) are both harder-hitting, and harder to spot.
Karlapp et al. study the use of new sails to allow hurling probes through the Solar System. That’s Mars, and beyond, including the Mars-crossing asteroids and Trojans, the Main Belt, Jupiter Trojans, and those comets with favorable orbits. Combining fast transfer, micro- to nano-sat sizes, and the likely production rates of these probes (that’s probeS- more than a few), this could enable a disruptive generation of space missions.
Short of ultrafast, the world of small body flights requires nontrivial propulsion. Even if primary propulsion is a highly efficient sail, or ion drive or whatever, the use of advanced thrusters is implied. Small bodies, with their logarithmically-lower gravities (one sixth? ha- that’s still considered Earthlike) cause logarithmically-lower accelerations and allow logarithmically-longer maneuver times. A small-body explorer or deflector or miner or whatever could use a low-mass, efficient prop system just for its Attitude Control or midcourse trim or wheel desaturation needs. And, of course, you never know with a new technology. Life is funny: if Blättermann et al.’s cusp field thruster doesn’t pan out for its intended purpose, some mission planners might find a use they never thought of. Clementine comes to mind…