Adam Hibberd
As a consequence of exploring the Solar Oberth option to catch up with 3I/ATLAS I have, using my software development Optimum Interplanetary Trajectory Software (OITS), discovered that a mission exists IN THE FUTURE, with a launch in 10 years time, i.e. in 2035.
The video animation can be found on my YouTube channel here, or alternatively look below.
It involves approaching within a solar-distance of 2 Solar Radii, that’s very close to the Sun indeed, to exploit maximum benefit from the so-called Oberth Effect, where all the thrust is applied at the closest approach to the Sun, perihelion.
By so-doing the spacecraft maximises the increment in kinetic energy and heads off towards the target at a huge speed, in this case in excess of 100 km/s (or 0.03% light speed).
The journey takes around 20 years. As a comparison the Voyager probes were launched in 1977 and are still to a limited extent operational after ~48 years, nearly half a century later.
Look below for my demonstration of the Oberth Effect: