Given the ongoing investments into sunsail and Direct Fusion, outer system missions are coming into view. In one case, the outer system is coming to us: Sedna. We have until 2075 when this visitor from the Oort gets into perihelion (76 AU). Last year, Elena Ancona, Roman Ya. Kezerashvili, Savino Longo compared the two methods.
Other methods had earlier been mooted such as VASIMR (perhaps-foremost), but these run in the timeframes of decades. Democracies don't build cathedrals.
Other important constraints include that the mission requires a power source that isn't solar, that far away. It also needs communication with Earth. These techs were last refined in New Horizons - a flyby.
This DFD, which is assumed Princeton's Starfire, would be running 1.6 MW under its own power. This is to extend the lifetime of the superconductor over ten years; the ceiling would be thirteen.
With as much time as they have, either could (and should) borrow Jupiter for gravity-assist, probably Venus too. Dunno about outer planets. The DFD would further be able to flip-n'-burn and inject into the planetoid's orbit. That would however add some years onto the trip.
One-way sunsail would get out there in seven years; the Starfire in ten. There is no reason that exploration-agencies cannot do both, given that a sunsail might be cheaper. Especially given that other missions will be bidding against Princeton for its 300g of He-3.
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