Plan to launch spaceship chasing asteroid

Experts plan to launch a ship using solar sail technology as early as 2028 to fly to study the asteroid 'Oumuamua.

'Oumuamua is the first interstellar object to "visit" the Solar System, having a strange shape resembling a cigarette. A team of scientists has made an ambitious plan to send a spacecraft to chase this mysterious space object as it moves further and further away from Earth, Interesting Engineering reported on January 20.

Simulation of the interstellar asteroid 'Oumuamua.

After the Pan-STARRS1 Near-Earth Object survey program discovered 'Oumuamua on October 19, 2017, astronomers pointed out a number of anomalies that showed it was not like other asteroids in the Solar System. God.

For example, shortly after 'Oumuamua was first detected, it changed speed, deviating from its original predicted flight path. The strange object also did not leave a dust tail when it flew past. Professor Avi Loeb, an astrophysicist at Harvard University, and his research team once suggested that 'Oumuamua is an interstellar alien spacecraft, or at least a piece of spaceship.

'Oumuamua is now beyond the reach of the most powerful telescopes, but it remains a particularly curious object. This is why the team at Initiative for Interstellar Studies (I4IS) came up with the plan for Project Lyra - a project to send a solar sail probe to chase and analyze 'Oumuamua before it disappears.

The spacecraft could launch as early as 2028 and reach 'Oumuamua around 2050 - 2054, given its speed and direction of travel when it leaves the Solar System. During the first four years, the spacecraft will orbit Earth twice, Venus and Jupiter once, supported by gravity, sending it to the mysterious space object.

Solar sail technology (which uses large reflective sails to capture light pulses from the Sun and use that momentum to propel spacecraft forward) will power the probe chasing 'Oumuamua. However, it will also use a photon sail powered in part by lasers on Earth.

Several other research groups have proposed the idea of ​​​​launching spacecraft to 'Oumuamua, but most will perform the maneuver of moving Oberth around the Sun. Specifically, when the probe begins to fall into the Sun's gravitational well, the thrusters will be activated to help the spacecraft accelerate significantly. However, this method requires a giant shield that protects the ship from the heat and radiation of the Sun. Instead, the I4IS team proposes to perform the Oberth maneuver around Jupiter, and the expected launch date is no earlier than February 2028 due to the planet's current orbit.