Adam Hibberd
Discussing this with a friend of mine recently, what would it take for Elon Musk to use one of his SpaceX launchers for a mission to ‘Oumuamua?
Well I’ve done a large degree of the groundwork to prove missions are theoretically VIABLE, it’s now a question of convincing the man himself.
This would be a massive PR coup for Musk, however there are problems in terms of the practicalities of accomplishing a close enough approach to ‘Oumuamua when it is in excess of 200 Sun-Earth distances away from the main light source – our Sun.
There is also some uncertainty in ‘Oumuamua’s direction of escape from the Solar System, so just setting a spacecraft off in this direction might result in a huge miss distance by the time we are near to catching ‘Oumuamua up.
If the spacecraft had a LORRI type telescope on board – the very kind used by the New Horizons probe to Pluto – then the spacecraft might be able to pick out ‘Oumuamua in the gloom.
However, it’s almost certain that more than one spacecraft would be needed for the three main steps of 1) Detection, 2) Orbit Determination, 3) Close flyby and imaging.
But this is NOT beyond the wit of man and an ego like Elon’s would love to be able to prove that, I’m sure.