Peeping at Antipodes: How long would it take to peek around the sun using modern technology?

Assuming humanity was suddenly highly motivated to do it, how long would it take a probe launched from Earth to get into a position to record and broadcast images of the position in the opposite orbit to Earth?

(i.e. the stable orbit position on far side of Sol from Earth, aka. Lagrange 3)

Assume this is present-day Earth.

Required features of the probe:

• Navigate to a point with a view of the far side of the sun with position accurately known
• Take infrared images (Resolution for spy satellites from the 80s would probably suffice. Hi-res cameras are pretty amazingly cheap, these days.)
• Get the images and position/attitude back to Earth ASAP

Mission is only to take pictures with spatial information and report. (Edit: Don't get tied up trying to figure out stable orbit out retrieval requirements. The mission is to look and report. The probe can burn up in the sun or get hit by a comet and still be successful as long as it's report gets through.)

Nice if the images include visible light, also, and if the probe can have some sort of defense, whether by being quiet most of the trip or having a swarm of buddies or whatever else would make it hard to prevent the mission.

(I'd also love to hear ideas on short-path development: time estimates, features, or ways to retrofit existing technologies, but none of those aspects are the actual question I'm looking for, just now. Time to launch isn't the question, time from launch is.)

posted about 6 years ago

The Nate‭

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