Adam Hibberd
‘Oumuamua is inexorably receding from the sun, travelling farther and farther away as time goes by, it is now well beyond the orbit of Neptune, and even beyond the Kuiper Belt.
The opportunity is ebbing with every tick of the clock.
I, and others of the i4is team, are trying to stimulate interest in a mission to ‘Oumuamua, but however you care to look at the prospect, it throws up loads of problems and difficulties which are, though challenging, not insurmountable.
Q: ‘Oumuamua is travelling at speeds of 26.3km/s, how can we possibly catch it?
A: We can catch up using gravitational assists and slingshots of the Sun and Jupiter.
Q: ‘Oumuamua was only visible in telescopes for less than three months and because of limited observations we don’t have an accurate fix on where it will be at intercept distances needed by Project Lyra.
A: With the same sort of LORRI telescope used on-board the New Horizons s/c encountering Pluto, we would be able to detect ‘Oumuamua at the expected distances of intercept. Also using more than one probe would help, in fact various mission architectures exist.
Q: The s/c will be travelling in excess of 20km/s w.r.t ‘Oumuamua, will we be able to image anything?
A: The Earth travels at 30km/s w.r.t. sun, does this prevent us from viewing celestial bodies in our own solar system?
The above are just three questions but there are many, many more associated with Project Lyra. Answering them is a matter of science and engineering, and also creativity and imagination. With all humanity aboard, there would be NO STOPPING US, what is it exactly that is holding us back?
The monsters of the Id?