4 ms·

We have! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ʻOumuamua https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ʻOumuamua But it’s small and moving away from us fast. We couldn’t build an

• jacobush 6y ago
  Politically no. When we first saw it, technically maybe yes. In an all stops pulled scenario, an improvised rocket could have been sent and at last had a fly-by look. Now... doubtful it could be done at all.
• avian 6y ago
  > We couldn’t build anything We could, but we didn’t. https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.03155 https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.03155
• person_of_color 6y ago
  Interesting. The trajectory of O'uamuamua seems almost.. designed to scout the Sun's habitable zone. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Oumuamua-solar_system-ecliptic-normals.png/1024px-Oumuamua-solar_system-ecliptic-normals.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f5/Ou...
  • postalrat 6y ago
    I think the theory is that it wasn't really moving relative to the sun and kinda just fell in.
• Nicksil 6y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ʻOumuamua https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ʻOumuamua
• misanthropian00 6y ago
  A nuclear pulse vehicle could catch it easily even if we waited 50 years to launch. Its slow speed is actually the best argument against it really being an active spacecraft because even we could do better. Much better. It could be part of a swarm of millions of low tech ships assembled from local resources though.