re combo propulsion system in article may aurora alaska edu nsmca aurora alaska edu writes how hard or easy would it be to have a combo mission such as a solar sail on the way out to the outer planets but once in near to orbit to use more normal means if you ve got a good propulsion system that s not useful for deceleration sure you can use chemical rockets for that part but even just doing the deceleration chemically is a major headache we re talking seriously high cruising velocities taking the velocity down nearly to zero for a pluto orbit isn t easy with chemical fuels incidentally solar sails are not going to be suitable as the acceleration system for something like this they don t go anywhere quickly i speak as head of mission planning for the canadian solar sail project although that is more or less an honorary title right now because cssp is dormant they can t fly a mission like this unless you start talking about very advanced systems that drop in very close to the sun first svr resembles a high speed collision henry spencer u of toronto zoology between svr and sunos dick dunn henry zoo toronto edu utzoo henry
