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Aren't NASA considering the proposal to rendez-vous with 3I/ATLAS (aka C/2025 N1 ATLAS)??? [1] 1: https://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-probe-could-intercept-inter

Aren't NASA considering the proposal to rendez-vous with 3I/ATLAS (aka C/2025 N1 ATLAS)??? [1] 1: https://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-probe-could-intercept-interstellar-comet-scientists-say https://www.sciencealert.com/nasa-probe-could-intercept-inte...

jfengel 1y ago
Nobody at NASA takes anything Avi Loeb says seriously. It also happens that NASA is too busy doing damage control to consider anything new. But even if they were, it won't be because Loeb suggested it.
- alsobrsp 1y ago
  I have seen him speak several times. Does anyone take him seriously?
  - Yeul 1y ago
    We live in an age were people take Trump seriously.
    - alsobrsp 1y ago
      Quite sad really
- lucb1e 1y ago
  In case anyone else is wondering, it's this guy: "Since 2017, Loeb has argued that alien space craft may be in the Solar System [like] ʻOumuamua" What I don't understand on his Wikipedia page is this bit in the second sentence: "Loeb is the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University". Does he work there under the alias "Frank B. Baird Jr." or what does this sentence mean? Or is the position called one person but another person fulfills the role?
  - kfichter 1y ago
    Usually just means the position is sponsored by a donor (in this case Frank B. Baird Jr.). Salary and sometimes other funding gets paid via endowment set up by the named person or someone else on behalf of the named person.
  - GolfPopper 1y ago
    While I am not familiar with this particular instance, universities will often have a permanent professorship, or chair, with a specific focus that is named either after a renown expert in the field who taught at that institution, or after the person or organization who funded (endowed) the establishment of that position. As for Loeb himself, I'm only passingly familiar with him in passing because of coverage since ‘Oumuamua, but it seems like he is a fairly typical asgtrophysicist who decided for some reason that he would launch a crusade declaring anything entering the Solar System from interstellar space must be an alien probe or spaceship.
  - JdeBP 1y ago
    Frank B. Baird Jr. was the son of Frank B. Baird, of Buffalo New York, who died some time around 1947. His son, and Flora M. Baird, his widow, set up a charitable trust in his name which did things like donate to the Buffalo Museum of Science. The later Frank B. Baird Jr. Foundation made several donations to Harvard for scholarships and the like in the 1950s.
    - lucb1e 1y ago
      [flagged]
      - JdeBP 1y ago
        You're yet more proof that humans cannot competently administer the Turing Test. That was me writing.
      - tomhow 1y ago
        Please don't do this here. If a comment seems unfit for HN, please flag it and email us at hn@ycombinator.com so we can have a look.
- ricksunny 1y ago
  >Nobody at NASA takes anything Avi Loeb says seriously. source > bloviating >But even if they were, it won't be because Loeb suggested it. Wow, what an utter arbitrarily position-hedging comment
Tuna-Fish 1y ago
No, they are not, because the probe doesn't have anywhere near enough fuel to do this. I suggest stopping use of any news source you have that would print this crap.
- perihelions 1y ago
  You can read their paper here[0]. I agree it's very dodgy (and without even looking at that author's past). While the comet 3I/ATLAS approaches within 53 million km of Jupiter (0.3 au), all they can propose is, optimistically, to bring Juno to within half that distance–27 million km. Hardly seems worth the risks? And that'd end all of Juno's remaining Jupiter science (assuming the MAGA! FY26 budget doesn't get to it first. It's fully defunded, if anyone hadn't heard). Referring to their figs. 3–7, that distance figure is a hard limit—there's no possibility they have of getting closer to the comet than that. (Keep in mind this is just one random interstellar comet; there are many, many others like it—there will be infinite opportunities to study one—and Avi Loeb is a proven clown who consistently misrepresents these things for drama). [0] https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.21402 https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.21402 ("Intercepting 3I/ATLAS at Closest Approach to Jupiter with the Juno spacecraft") Tangential remark: there was a similar proposal for the end-of-life of the Cassini orbiter—it didn't happen, but, there was enough delta-v for the theoretical option, of escaping Saturn and redirecting it to a second mission at Uranus[1]. It was also a dodgy idea, since the transfer time would have been ridiculous (~20 years)—it'd have been a long-shot for Cassini to have survived that long. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassini_retirement#End_of_mission_options https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassini_retirement#End_of_miss... ("Cassini retirement#End of mission options")
  - btown 1y ago
    > without even looking at that author's past It is worth noting that this comes two weeks after the authors posted https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.12213 https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.12213 "Is the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Alien Technology?" They describe this first paper as "largely a pedagogical exercise" - clearly, if they're now providing emails to news outlets recommending this course change, their view of the target audience has certainly evolved. Orson Welles would be proud.

jfengel 1y ago

Nobody at NASA takes anything Avi Loeb says seriously. It also happens that NASA is too busy doing damage control to consider anything new. But even if they were, it won't be because Loeb suggested it.

alsobrsp 1y ago
I have seen him speak several times. Does anyone take him seriously?
- Yeul 1y ago
  We live in an age were people take Trump seriously.
  - alsobrsp 1y ago
    Quite sad really
lucb1e 1y ago
In case anyone else is wondering, it's this guy: "Since 2017, Loeb has argued that alien space craft may be in the Solar System [like] ʻOumuamua" What I don't understand on his Wikipedia page is this bit in the second sentence: "Loeb is the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University". Does he work there under the alias "Frank B. Baird Jr." or what does this sentence mean? Or is the position called one person but another person fulfills the role?
- kfichter 1y ago
  Usually just means the position is sponsored by a donor (in this case Frank B. Baird Jr.). Salary and sometimes other funding gets paid via endowment set up by the named person or someone else on behalf of the named person.
- GolfPopper 1y ago
  While I am not familiar with this particular instance, universities will often have a permanent professorship, or chair, with a specific focus that is named either after a renown expert in the field who taught at that institution, or after the person or organization who funded (endowed) the establishment of that position. As for Loeb himself, I'm only passingly familiar with him in passing because of coverage since ‘Oumuamua, but it seems like he is a fairly typical asgtrophysicist who decided for some reason that he would launch a crusade declaring anything entering the Solar System from interstellar space must be an alien probe or spaceship.
- JdeBP 1y ago
  Frank B. Baird Jr. was the son of Frank B. Baird, of Buffalo New York, who died some time around 1947. His son, and Flora M. Baird, his widow, set up a charitable trust in his name which did things like donate to the Buffalo Museum of Science. The later Frank B. Baird Jr. Foundation made several donations to Harvard for scholarships and the like in the 1950s.
  - lucb1e 1y ago
    [flagged]
    - JdeBP 1y ago
      You're yet more proof that humans cannot competently administer the Turing Test. That was me writing.
    - tomhow 1y ago
      Please don't do this here. If a comment seems unfit for HN, please flag it and email us at hn@ycombinator.com so we can have a look.
ricksunny 1y ago
>Nobody at NASA takes anything Avi Loeb says seriously. source > bloviating >But even if they were, it won't be because Loeb suggested it. Wow, what an utter arbitrarily position-hedging comment

Tuna-Fish 1y ago

No, they are not, because the probe doesn't have anywhere near enough fuel to do this. I suggest stopping use of any news source you have that would print this crap.

perihelions 1y ago
You can read their paper here[0]. I agree it's very dodgy (and without even looking at that author's past). While the comet 3I/ATLAS approaches within 53 million km of Jupiter (0.3 au), all they can propose is, optimistically, to bring Juno to within half that distance–27 million km. Hardly seems worth the risks? And that'd end all of Juno's remaining Jupiter science (assuming the MAGA! FY26 budget doesn't get to it first. It's fully defunded, if anyone hadn't heard). Referring to their figs. 3–7, that distance figure is a hard limit—there's no possibility they have of getting closer to the comet than that. (Keep in mind this is just one random interstellar comet; there are many, many others like it—there will be infinite opportunities to study one—and Avi Loeb is a proven clown who consistently misrepresents these things for drama). [0] https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.21402 https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.21402 ("Intercepting 3I/ATLAS at Closest Approach to Jupiter with the Juno spacecraft") Tangential remark: there was a similar proposal for the end-of-life of the Cassini orbiter—it didn't happen, but, there was enough delta-v for the theoretical option, of escaping Saturn and redirecting it to a second mission at Uranus[1]. It was also a dodgy idea, since the transfer time would have been ridiculous (~20 years)—it'd have been a long-shot for Cassini to have survived that long. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassini_retirement#End_of_mission_options https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassini_retirement#End_of_miss... ("Cassini retirement#End of mission options")
- btown 1y ago
  > without even looking at that author's past It is worth noting that this comes two weeks after the authors posted https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.12213 https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.12213 "Is the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Alien Technology?" They describe this first paper as "largely a pedagogical exercise" - clearly, if they're now providing emails to news outlets recommending this course change, their view of the target audience has certainly evolved. Orson Welles would be proud.