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Small Asteroid or Comet 'Visits' from Beyond the Solar System

• ChuckMcM 9y ago
  This is a pretty cool story, and once again I really wish we had some sort of on orbit fueling system so that a chemical rocket in orbit would have enough delta-V to manage a rendezvous with it and possibly sample it. Consider that a sample from this asteroid would be the equivalent of a sample return mission from a different star system. The latter is currently beyond our technology, this one was dropped into our lap.
  • wcoenen 9y ago
    > enough delta-V to manage a rendezvous with it It is currently moving at 44 km/s (relative to sun) in a direction that is almost perpendicular to the ecliptic. For comparison: New Horizons was accelerated to an amazing 16 km/s (relative to Earth). Assume orbital refueling gets you another 10 km/s (because that is roughly the delta-v needed to get to orbit). Still not enough by a long shot.
  • deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]