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Hypothetical space missions

‘Oumuamua is traveling too fast for any existing spacecraft to reach. The Initiative for Interstellar Studies (i4is) has launched Project Lyra for assessing the feasibility of a mission to ‘Oumuamua. Several options for sending a spacecraft to ‘Oumuamua within a time-frame of 5 to 10 years were suggested. One option is using first a Jupiter flyby followed by a close solar flyby at 3 solar radii (2.1×106 km; 1.3×106 mi) in order to take advantage of the Oberth effect. More advanced options of using solar, laser electric, and laser sail propulsion, based on Breakthrough Starshot technology, have also been considered. The challenge is to get to the asteroid in a reasonable amount of time (and so at a reasonable distance from Earth), and yet be able to gain useful scientific information. To do this, decelerating the spacecraft at ‘Oumuamua would be “highly desirable, due to the minimal science return from a hyper-velocity encounter”. If the investigative craft goes too fast, it would not be able to get into orbit or land on the asteroid and would fly past it, moving at many asteroid diameters per second. The authors conclude that, although challenging, an encounter mission would be feasible using near-term technology. Astronomers estimate that several interstellar objects similar to ‘Oumuamua pass inside the orbit of Earth each year. If true, this provides possible opportunities for future studies of interstellar objects, although with the current space technology, close visits and orbital missions are impossible due to their high speeds.


56 posted on 12/20/2017 8:53:28 AM PST by Moonman62 (Make America Great Again!)
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To: Moonman62; blam

The other angle was discussed in the postwar years — planting a probe on such an object would give our technology a nice boost out of the Solar System in a timeframe we can’t manage with available propulsion.


66 posted on 12/20/2017 10:33:04 AM PST by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
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