During the course of its evolution, our Sun and its protective magnetic bubble have plowed through dramatically different interstellar environments throughout the galaxy. The vast range of conditions of interstellar plasma, gas, dust and high-energy cosmic rays on this “solar journey” have helped shape the solar system that we live in. Today, our protective bubble, or Heliosphere, is likely about to enter a completely new regime of interstellar space that will, yet again, change the entire heliospheric interaction and how it shields us from the interstellar environment. Interstellar Probe is a mission concept to explore the mechanisms shape our heliosphere and that takes the first step beyond our home, into the interstellar cloud to understand the evolutionary journey of our Sun, Heliosphere and Solar System. The idea of an Interstellar Probe dates back to the 1960's, when also the ideas of a probe to the Sun and its poles were formed. An international team of scientists and a team of engineers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) are funded by NASA to study pragmatic mission concepts that would make a launch in the 2030's a reality. The ground breaking science enabled by such a mission spans not only the discipline of Solar and Space Physics, but also Planetary Sciences and Astrophysics. Detailed analyses including the upcoming SLS Block 2 and powerful stages demonstrate that asymptotic speeds around 7 Astronomical Units (au) per Year are already possible with a Jupiter Gravity Assist. Here, we give an overview of the science discoveries that await along the journey, including the physics of the heliospheric boundary and interstellar medium, the potential for exploration of Kuiper Belt Objects, the circum-solar dust disk and the extra-galactic background light. The scientific rationale, investigations and implementation of an Interstellar Probe are discussed including also example payload, trajectory design and operations.

在其演化过程中，我们的太阳及其保护性磁泡在整个银河系中穿越​​了截然不同的星际环境。在这次“太阳之旅”中，星际等离子体、气体、尘埃和高能宇宙射线的广泛条件有助于塑造我们生活的太阳系。今天，我们的保护性气泡或日球层可能即将进入全新的星际空间体制将再次改变整个日光层的相互作用以及它如何保护我们免受星际环境的影响。星际探测器是一项探索日球层形成机制的任务概念，它迈出了超越我们家园的第一步，进入星际云，了解我们的太阳、日球层和太阳系的进化之旅。星际探测器的想法可以追溯到 1960 年代，当时还形成了探测太阳及其两极的想法。约翰霍普金斯大学应用物理实验室 (APL) 的一个国际科学家团队和一个工程师团队由美国宇航局资助，以研究将在 2030 年发射成为现实的实用任务概念。这样的任务所带来的突破性科学不仅涵盖了太阳和空间物理学学科，还涵盖了行星科学和天体物理学。包括即将到来的 SLS Block 2 和强大阶段在内的详细分析表明，借助木星重力辅助，每年大约 7 个天文单位 (au) 的渐近速度已经成为可能。在这里，我们概述了沿途等待的科学发现，包括日球层边界和星际介质的物理学、柯伊伯带天体的探索潜力、环绕太阳的尘埃盘和银河系外背景光。讨论了星际探测器的科学原理、调查和实施，还包括有效载荷示例、轨迹设计和操作。