Why?
I appreciate the coolness factor. But, unless the payload can be enough to pull off a 1998 Bruce Willis, what's the immediate benefit? Or, would this be fundamental to some research?
I appreciate the coolness factor. But, unless the payload can be enough to pull off a 1998 Bruce Willis, what's the immediate benefit? Or, would this be fundamental to some research?
It's an opportunity to pull off a speed and distance record, visit something from another solar system, resolve big research questions about its shape, composition, origin and rule out any theories of its possible intelligent origin. They are also pursuing it to showcase the benefits of nuclear heat for space.
earth science - the sun and the group of planets that move around it, or a similar system somewhere else in the universe
(Definition of the solar system from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/solar-sy...
Search for evidence of life outside the solar system. Unless you're planning a trip to another star system this is all we've got in our lifetimes.
Hitching a fast ride to the outer edges of the solar system since it's on a hyperbolic trajectory.
What is the asteroid made of? That shape of asteroid is not normal. Usually they're rubble piles, these were different. Is there formation methods we don't yet know? Were they fragments of a planet's destruction?
On an engineering level, we've never had to rendezvous with something on this trajectory before. Can we?
We need more coolness in public policy.
And if it is indeed relatively cheap, it doesn't need to be "fundamental".