Table 4.

Major scientific targets and mission events of an Interstellar Probe and corresponding flight times assuming 7.0 au/year at 100 au

Target/event	Distance	Flight time from launch
Hydrogen ionization cavity	∼3 au	6 months
JGA	∼5 au	9 months
Change in ribbon view	∼10 au	∼1 year
Solar wind slowdown	30 au (5% decrease line) (Elliott et al. 2019)	∼4 years
Termination shock	84 au ± 10 au	11–13 years
Heliopause	120–200 au ± 10 au (Krimigis et al. 2019; Reisenfeld et al. 2021)	17–29 years
Bow wave (existence)/hydrogen wall	200–300 au (Zank et al. 2013)	29–43 years
Unperturbed (pristine) VLISM	∼300–600 au (Izmodenov and Alexashov 2020; Kim et al. 2017)	43–86 years