Re:Could 'Oumuamua be an icy fractal aggregate ejected from ...
by sp332 on Tuesday February 19, 2019 @03:30PM
(#19202478)
Oh it would be crazy expensive. But we have the tech. (Wait, do we have tech for in-orbit refueling? Anyway we're developing that for Mars missions already so we'll have it soon.)
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Re:Could 'Oumuamua be an icy fractal aggregate ejected from ...
by lucb1e on Wednesday February 20, 2019 @02:55AM
(#19206374)
We resupply the international space station, so even if we couldn't carry great loads of fuel up at a time, orbital refueling is clearly within the realm of the possible.
More interesting would be if we could beam up energy to refuel, but for that we'd probably need yet-to-be-invented drives which use loads of energy per amount of matter to accelerate it further. Kind of like a particle collider but for propulsion.
Re:Could 'Oumuamua be an icy fractal aggregate ejected from ...
by rbanffy on Wednesday February 20, 2019 @10:43AM
(#19208718)
My bet would be an RTG powering a dozen electric thrusters packing a lot of propellant and a relatively small probe.
Still, it'd mean reaching Uranus' orbit in about a year. That's a lot to ask for.