The Innovative Interstellar Explorer is a NASA "Vision Mission" study funded by NASA following a proposal under NRA-03-OSS-01 on 11 September 2003. This study has focused on the elusive quest to reach and measure the interstellar medium, the "undiscovered country" outside of the influence of the nearest star, our Sun.

Distances in space are big, and so propulsion is always the driving technical element for missions to new places to do new things. Our innovation has been to seek a technical solution using radioisotope propulsion (REP): the use of electricity from known deep space power source technologies to run an ion engine to achieve a "reasonable" speed. Miniaturization and lightweight, high-efficiency power conversion are key to such an approach.

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The vision of taking the first steps toward the stars has been one of the drivers and setters of paradigms throughout technical history. From the Montgolfiers’ flight over Paris to that of the Wrights over Kitty Hawk, Goddard’s first rocket to Explorer 1, and finally Pioneer 10 to the Voyagers, we keep reaching out. As history has shown time and again, to do otherwise is to slip toward decline and superstition.

Ours is a possible approach to continue in that quest.

Si requiritis futurum nostrum, spectate astra!
(If you seek our future, look to the stars!)

Time to opening of first launch window 12 Noon Eastern Daylight Time 22 October 2014

Time to Window Opening 22 October 2014, 16:00:00 UTC
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Acknowledgments

The work was supported by NASA "Vision Mission" grant NNG04GJ60G. We acknowledge contributions of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Team-X. We also acknowledge the use of the images of Jupiter in the artwork from the Cassini Imaging Team. The views expressed herein are not necessarily endorsed by the sponsor.