Could We Launch a Mission to Chase Down Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS?
https://www.universetoday.com/articles/could-we-launch-a-mission-to-chase-down-interstellar-comet-3iatlas?fbclid=IwVERFWAMn87lleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHqDK0CRlmIMcFFUxNfI3UIyOZY7WxXMqt3xooIhb30ochiz11HBmy8q4dn8y_aem_EGP1zd08vXWknmjVWzqT
15 Comments
Don’t need to launch anything, they can repurpose the JUNO probe and intercept it with that. The probe is at nearing the end of its mission as it is and could send some great data back on this comet.
No, we could not (realistically) build and launch a mission to intercept an interstellar comet.
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With funding and the political climate as it is right now, I am happy if we just do the planned NASA missions
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60kps and accelerating? I don’t think we can launch anything meaningful at that speed.
I believe Neil DeGrasse Tyson discussed this on one of his Star Talk podcast episodes. He said it’s simply moving too fast relative to our solar system for us to intercept it. Even with the best planetary alignment we couldn’t do it, and the current alignment would not be even close to optimal.
No, next question
Not enough Delta vee, Wikipedia explained it
Remember, if the headline asks a question, the answer is “No”.
The point of the post is to discuss the linked article. OP isn’t actually asking the question. The article is a summation of [this](https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.15755) paper that posed the question as a thought experiment.
You should be watching “For All Mankind “ on Apple +. If you are fascinated by space, you will love this show.
Was wondering the same thing. Connect a “satellite” to it with a tether and hitchhike through the galaxy.
we could have if we’d known about years ago and had time to build the spacecraft and then launch it on a complex trajectory so that it could gain the necessary velocity to rendezvous with it.
Its travelling way too fast for anything we have available.
No, but what we could do is have two satellites that have all the instruments and propulsion needed to investigate the next on we find and have them on opposing slingshot loops around Venus, Mars and Jupiter, gaining speed constantly, with one heading away from the sun and the other heading toward the sun, both just in standby mode, until we have an interceptor that is going fast enough. The when we find the next one, we can nudge whichever one is going the right direction onto an intercept course.