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A comment on First possible interstellar object detected in our solar system. Parent comment

Re:First possible interstellar object detected in our solar ... by TeMPOraL on Friday October 27, 2017 @06:55AM (#15567208)
Probably not; we won't be able to scramble a mission fast enough.

That said, this was literally my first thought when I saw the headline on HN - that I can't wait until we have a space presence good enough that, the next time this happens, we'll be able to quickly send a probe to such an object.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:First possible interstellar object detected in our solar ... by throwanem on Friday October 27, 2017 @06:58AM (#15567222)
It's doing ~40km/s almost directly away from us. We could launch yesterday and still never catch up. Best we could have done would be a flyby as it passed beneath the ecliptic - not nothing, to be sure, but not nearly close enough for sample return, either.
[ Parent | on HN ]