Interstellar object ‘Oumuamua covered in 'thick crust of carbon-rich gunk'

Re:Interstellar object ‘Oumuamua covered in 'thick crust of ... by codezero on Monday December 18, 2017 @05:42PM (#15956162)

For an analysis of possible launch dates / trajectories to intercept, check out this paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1711.03155.pdf

In summary, you're pretty much right. If we could launch in 2017, we could have done it, but I don't think we have any spares of Rosetta or similar intercept missions sitting around.

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Re:Interstellar object ‘Oumuamua covered in 'thick crust of ... by planteen on Monday December 18, 2017 @06:29PM (#15956423)

Cool paper. I used to work in the space industry. When I said "We don't have the technology", I meant there is nothing at Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6 using NASA's ratings. Current state of the art is TRL 1 or TRL 2.

https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/trl.png

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Re:Interstellar object ‘Oumuamua covered in 'thick crust of ... by andybak on Tuesday December 19, 2017 @02:26AM (#15958408)

That image will prove valuable to me.

Now - whenever people accuse me of never finishing anything I shall respond that I'm actually achieving TRL2 across a broad front.

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