Visiting Our Neighbor Sedna: Feasibility Study Of A Mission To This Planetoid

Reference: See here

This obviously invites the notion of sending an exploration mission to Sedna, much as was done with Pluto and a range of other TNOs through the New Horizons spacecraft. How practical this would be is investigated in a recent study by [Elena Ancona] and colleagues .

The focus is here on advanced propulsion methods, including nuclear propulsion and solar sails.

Although it's definitely possible to use a similar mission profile as with the New Horizons mission, this would make it another long-duration mission. Rather than a decades-long mission, using a minimally-equipped solar sail spacecraft could knock this down to about seven years, whereas the proposed Direct Fusion Drive ( DFD ) could do this in ten, but with a much larger payload and the ability do an orbital insertion which would obviously get much more science done.

As for the motivation for a mission to Sedna , its highly eccentric orbit that takes it past the heliopause means that it spends relatively little time being exposed to the Sun's rays, which should have left much of the surface material intact that was present during the early formation of the Solar System. With our explorations of the Solar System taking us ever further beyond the means of traditional means of space travel, a mission to Sedna might not only expand our horizons, but also provide a tantalizing way to bring much more of the Solar System including the Kuiper belt within easy reach.

Good science fiction is a form of science, I'd say. :)
The main difference is that it is being excercised in the minds of people.
In a psychical environment, rather than a physical environment.