3 ms·

Probably. Strap a big overpowered upper stage behind a little lightweight payload and you can fire something pretty fast.

• valuearb 9y ago
  Unfortunately it's almost impossible at this point. The object passed pedigree a while ago and is headed back out, earth is in a very poor position for an intercept. The calculations I've seen say even if you use the largest possible booster, the SLS (which doesn't exist now, won't exist for another 3 years, if ever) it couldn't even get a small probe to catch up for a very long time, if ever. There may be options in using Jupiter for slingshot maneuvers to overcome our bad positioning, and using super advanced hall effect motors, or project slingshot type probes. But it seems pretty slim at this point. UPDATE: The reddit thread has this comment "Not a chance. Velocity relative to the sun is presently > 39 km/sec and relative to the earth is > 64 km/sec. This is far faster than anything we have ever launched or even could plausibly launch in the near future". Which explains why you need Jupiter to redirect your probe so you can have it go only 40Km/sec to catch up, rather than 65 Km/sec direct from earth.