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How much would it cost to go grab this thing and plonk it onto the moon for studying, in the event the object is harboring a contagious disease? Could a privat
by LinuxBender 8y ago
How much would it cost to go grab this thing and plonk it onto the moon for studying, in the event the object is harboring a contagious disease? Could a private company accomplish this?
- pjc50 8y agoNothing like that has ever been done, and the object is potentially huge and heading away from us at speed. I doubt even a photo intercept is now feasible at all.
- LinuxBender 8y agoThat is unfortunate. That makes me curious about Voyager 1/2. We put drawings and objects on it for other civilizations to study. I wonder if they will have a similar dilemma; in that, it is moving too fast.
- isostatic 8y agoIf you can detect voyager, you’d be advanced enough to be able to catch it, as you’d be almost on top of it. We can barely see Ultima Thule as a pixel, which is closer, and the size of a city. Voyager is the size of a pinto.
- tejtm 8y agoGetting a probe going fast enough to catch it is currently beyond us; never mind bringing it back. But if we start burning money now we might have a chance for (at least a better peek) at the next one
- LinuxBender 8y agoCurious if any billionaires have rock collections. This should qualify as a rare rock.
- isostatic 8y agoWe could get a probe to encounter it, however it would be a high speed encounter - far faster than new horizons encounters. Interception seems off the table currently.
- HeyLaughingBoy 8y agoYou mean to build a spacecraft capable of getting there in the time available, and assembling a company to do the necessary operations of launching the spacecraft and managing its operations, and funding those operations, etc.? What would be that private company's incentive?
- LinuxBender 8y agoHonestly I am not sure. Perhaps if they suspected great mineral value, or perhaps using that as a PoC to prove they can do it for future military contracts, but I don't know. There are many projects I can't wrap my head around due to the great costs. When I suggest we should not spend trillions on going to mars without having a specific need to do so, people reject that notion.