We are excited to finally announce the formal creation of the Extremis program! We have been teasing this program for several months now, and numerous setbacks in the Progenitor program have continually delayed us from focusing on the endeavor. With the earliest launch window fast approaching at the end of 2018 we have decided we need to really start dedicating time & effort towards finalizing our plans for this ambitious undertaking. The goal of the Extremis program is to explore the entire Kerbol system – and beyond! All of the currently planned missions will fly by several of the planets in a series of gravity assist maneuvers that will ultimately fling the probes out of the Kerbol system entirely and into the void of interstellar space. You can see the route each probe will take on the program patch to the right. The colors of the lines are a mix of all the colors represented by the planets visited on their trip. So yes, they don’t look very pretty but that’s functional design for you 🙂
The patch design may be subject to change in the future however; although our original flight plans are represented in the current patch, our astrodynamicists have made great improvements to their software since late last year & we will be running some more simulations over the coming months to see if there are better fly by possibilities. As things stand now however, our current departure times are:
Extremis 1: 11/29/18 | Extremis 2: 9/2/19 | Extremis 3: 8/31/20
