Could the soon to be launched Falcon Heavy be aimed at Oumuamua

[colbourne]

With a Falcon Heavy rocket due to be launched and no important mission for it planned (other than car delivery to Mars), would it be possible to grab the opportunity and aim to catch up with , film and gather as much information  on the Oumuamua, inter-stellar asteroid that recently passed Earth.

It is probably just a lump of rock but as its 1:10 shape and high rotation rate make it appear an interesting object, apart from it origin probably being from another star.

There are probably no other rockets planned to be launched soon that could undertake this task.

I also feel that we should have probes ready to be launched at short notice , if an event like this occurs again.

[woods170]

With a Falcon Heavy rocket due to be launched and no important mission for it planned (other than car delivery to Mars), would it be possible to grab the opportunity and aim to catch up with , film and gather as much information  on the Oumuamua, inter-stellar asteroid that recently passed Earth.

It is probably just a lump of rock but as its 1:10 shape and high rotation rate make it appear an interesting object, apart from it origin probably being from another star.

There are probably no other rockets planned to be launched soon that could undertake this task.

I also feel that we should have probes ready to be launched at short notice , if an event like this occurs again.

No chance. Oumuamua is leaving the solar system fast. So fast in fact that FH performance is nowhere near the performance required to catch up with Oumuamua.

And having expensive probes sitting around in storage, possibly for decades or even centuries, doesn't make any sense. For now we can make do with our "eyes in the skies" such as Hubble, Spitzer and other orbiting observatories, as well as many execellent ground-based observatories.

[jebbo]

And having expensive probes sitting around in storage, possibly for decades or even centuries, doesn't make any sense. For now we can make do with our "eyes in the skies" such as Hubble, Spitzer and other orbiting observatories, as well as many execellent ground-based observatories.

When LSST comes online, we should detect about 1 a year. This is derived from how long Pan-STARRS took to find 'Oumuamua so the error bars are large. But exceptionally unlikely to be decades.

Even before LSST, we might start finding more, now we know they really exist and start looking in ernest e.g. staring at the solar apex

So once we have a better idea of frequency and the velocity distribution, a probe isn't such a silly idea. After all, these objects are by far the easiest bulk non-solar material we could study.

--- Tony

[woods170]

And having expensive probes sitting around in storage, possibly for decades or even centuries, doesn't make any sense. For now we can make do with our "eyes in the skies" such as Hubble, Spitzer and other orbiting observatories, as well as many execellent ground-based observatories.

When LSST comes online, we should detect about 1 a year. This is derived from how long Pan-STARRS took to find 'Oumuamua so the error bars are large. But exceptionally unlikely to be decades.

Even before LSST, we might start finding more, now we know they really exist and start looking in ernest e.g. staring at the solar apex

So once we have a better idea of frequency and the velocity distribution, a probe isn't such a silly idea. After all, these objects are by far the easiest bulk non-solar material we could study.

--- Tony

Emphasis mine.

Never underestimate the power of the word "coincidence". Just sayin'...

[jpo234]

With a Falcon Heavy rocket due to be launched and no important mission for it planned (other than car delivery to Mars), would it be possible to grab the opportunity and aim to catch up with , film and gather as much information  on the Oumuamua, inter-stellar asteroid that recently passed Earth.

It is probably just a lump of rock but as its 1:10 shape and high rotation rate make it appear an interesting object, apart from it origin probably being from another star.

There are probably no other rockets planned to be launched soon that could undertake this task.

I also feel that we should have probes ready to be launched at short notice , if an event like this occurs again.

No way. Somebody did the math: https://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=38728

One potential mission architecture is to make use of SpaceX’s Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) and their in-space refueling technique with a launch date in 2025. To achieve the required hyperbolic excess (at least 30 km/s) a Jupiter flyby combined with a close solar flyby (down to 3 solar radii), nicknamed “solar fryby” is envisioned.

[Req]

I'm sure FH could easily launch a payload and/or kicker stage capable of catching up using either chemical or electric propulsion, and it would be able to deliver a viable and useful scientific payload mass to the vicinity at some point in the future, but no such payload and/or kicker stage currently exist.  They would take time and money to develop, and it's rather likely that said scientific payload would need an RTG, further complicating things.

[speedevil]

When LSST comes online, we should detect about 1 a year. This is derived from how long Pan-STARRS took to find 'Oumuamua so the error bars are large. But exceptionally unlikely to be decades.

Surveys of old images for finding asteroids often have limits on velocity, for practical reasons.
It is in principle possible to reprocess old images and see if similar objects happen to have been seen, and not realised they are the same object, as the surveys were limited to solar system bound orbits to optimise computation.

[jpo234]

I'm sure FH could easily launch a payload and/or kicker stage capable of catching up using either chemical or electric propulsion...

I don't think so. I doubt that even FH could launch enough chemical fuel to reach the required speed and electric propulsion as in SOLAR electric propulsion is not an option, because 'Oumuamua is already too far out.

[Req]

I'm sure FH could easily launch a payload and/or kicker stage capable of catching up using either chemical or electric propulsion...

I don't think so. I doubt that even FH could launch enough chemical fuel to reach the required speed and electric propulsion as in SOLAR electric propulsion is not an option, because 'Oumuamua is already too far out.

I don't doubt that your link is correct in that a BFS (or a Falcon second stage) could not give itself enough dV.  I am not talking about that at all.  A (for example) 50-ton(possibly multiple stage) kicker for a 250kg payload should have no problem.  WRT SEP, you used the word solar, not me, but that being said, there's no reason solar power couldn't be used for some significant period of time if that made any sense.  And there's always the possibilities of assists, potentially many, depending on how long you'd like to wait.

Edit - Having now read the link, it more or less says the same thing that I am saying.

[IRobot]

I also feel that we should have probes ready to be launched at short notice , if an event like this occurs again.

Probes are not inert things that can just be used at any time. As an example, even electronic components deteriorate with time, especially capacitors.

Not to mention that this is not Star Trek and probes must be made for a specific mission. As an example, power requirements differ a lot between missions.

[jpo234]

I also feel that we should have probes ready to be launched at short notice , if an event like this occurs again.

Probes are not inert things that can just be used at any time. As an example, even electronic components deteriorate with time, especially capacitors.

Not to mention that this is not Star Trek and probes must be made for a specific mission. As an example, power requirements differ a lot between missions.

We just learned that the soon to be launched GRACE-FO satellites are the flight spares of the original mission from 2002. That means they spent at least 15 years in storage.

[Lar]

With a Falcon Heavy rocket due to be launched and no important mission for it planned (other than car delivery to Mars), would it be possible to grab the opportunity and aim to catch up with , film and gather as much information  on the Oumuamua, inter-stellar asteroid that recently passed Earth.

It is probably just a lump of rock but as its 1:10 shape and high rotation rate make it appear an interesting object, apart from it origin probably being from another star.

There are probably no other rockets planned to be launched soon that could undertake this task.

I also feel that we should have probes ready to be launched at short notice , if an event like this occurs again.

I am not sure FH has the delta V for such an undertaking even with a very tiny probe, due to the dry mass of the second stage itself, so the payload would have to include further propulsion.

I don't think we are quite ready to have probes ready that way either. In a decade or two as we move outward and we see a robust interplanetary civlization developing, it will be far easier...

[IRobot]

I also feel that we should have probes ready to be launched at short notice , if an event like this occurs again.

Probes are not inert things that can just be used at any time. As an example, even electronic components deteriorate with time, especially capacitors.

Not to mention that this is not Star Trek and probes must be made for a specific mission. As an example, power requirements differ a lot between missions.

We just learned that the soon to be launched GRACE-FO satellites are the flight spares of the original mission from 2002. That means they spent at least 15 years in storage.

Flight spares is very different from a complete spacecraft.

[jpo234]

I also feel that we should have probes ready to be launched at short notice , if an event like this occurs again.

Probes are not inert things that can just be used at any time. As an example, even electronic components deteriorate with time, especially capacitors.

Not to mention that this is not Star Trek and probes must be made for a specific mission. As an example, power requirements differ a lot between missions.

We just learned that the soon to be launched GRACE-FO satellites are the flight spares of the original mission from 2002. That means they spent at least 15 years in storage.

Flight spares is very different from a complete spacecraft.

How is a probe different from a satellite (except for the trajectory)?

[Comga]

This is bordering on silly
Even if a probe was ready an interplanetary trajectory requires a precisely timed launch. That is incompatible with this being the first launch of the FH.
In science fiction books the first flights make great missions. In life, not.

Even if FH could launch a probe to this target, it would need nuclear power, an RTG. There are none available, they have never been given to commercial entities, and the Heavy isn’t rated to launch them and couldn’t be for many launches. Only the Atlas V is, to my knowledge. 

Plus the speed required is excessive. New Horizons, the fastest direct launch ever, did not achieve that velocity. And it used the Centaur, with LOX-LH2, which is much better suited for interplanetary velocities.

And the time to launch would have been last year. If all the impossible conditions were met, launching now and catching up in less than a decade would result in a high speed flyby without more propulsion magic.

And it goes on and on.
It’s a cute coincidence, the first interstellar asteroid flying by the first Heavy being assembled. But that’s as close as they get.

[envy887]

This is bordering on silly
Even if a probe was ready an interplanetary trajectory requires a precisely timed launch. That is incompatible with this being the first launch of the FH.
In science fiction books the first flights make great missions. In life, not.

Even if FH could launch a probe to this target, it would need nuclear power, an RTG. There are none available, they have never been given to commercial entities, and the Heavy isn’t rated to launch them and couldn’t be for many launches. Only the Atlas V is, to my knowledge. 

Plus the speed required is excessive. New Horizons, the fastest direct launch ever, did not achieve that velocity. And it used the Centaur, with LOX-LH2, which is much better suited for interplanetary velocities.

And the time to launch would have been last year. If all the impossible conditions were met, launching now and catching up in less than a decade would result in a high speed flyby without more propulsion magic.

And it goes on and on.
It’s a cute coincidence, the first interstellar asteroid flying by the first Heavy being assembled. But that’s as close as they get.

Such a mission would be interstellar, not interplanetary, so there is no launch "window", just a ridiculously high velocity requirement (that gets worse the longer you wait).

[Jim]

I also feel that we should have probes ready to be launched at short notice , if an event like this occurs again.

Probes are not inert things that can just be used at any time. As an example, even electronic components deteriorate with time, especially capacitors.

Not to mention that this is not Star Trek and probes must be made for a specific mission. As an example, power requirements differ a lot between missions.

We just learned that the soon to be launched GRACE-FO satellites are the flight spares of the original mission from 2002. That means they spent at least 15 years in storage.

That was the just the structure.  They were gutted and rebuilt.  Also, they were for the same mission. 

[Jim]

I also feel that we should have probes ready to be launched at short notice , if an event like this occurs again.

Probes are not inert things that can just be used at any time. As an example, even electronic components deteriorate with time, especially capacitors.

Not to mention that this is not Star Trek and probes must be made for a specific mission. As an example, power requirements differ a lot between missions.

We just learned that the soon to be launched GRACE-FO satellites are the flight spares of the original mission from 2002. That means they spent at least 15 years in storage.

Flight spares is very different from a complete spacecraft.

How is a probe different from a satellite (except for the trajectory)?

GNC, thermal control, attitude control, etc.  Earth satellites take advantage of being in close proximity to earth

[jpo234]

We just learned that the soon to be launched GRACE-FO satellites are the flight spares of the original mission from 2002. That means they spent at least 15 years in storage.

That was the just the structure.  They were gutted and rebuilt.  Also, they were for the same mission.

Thanks for the clarification.

The point was, that one can keep space hardware in storage for a long time. GRACE-FO seems not to be the best example, but I think there are others. CASSIOPE comes to mind, which spent years in storage or the donated NRO space telescopes, one of which will become WFIRST. They were probably built a long time before they were donated to NASA.

I think it would be possible to build and store a general purpose imaging probe that can be launched when an unexpected opportunity arises. I wouldn't be surprised if there are in fact a few of them secretly waiting to be used.

However, to get back on topic, this won't help with 'Oumuamua.

[jpo234]

I also feel that we should have probes ready to be launched at short notice , if an event like this occurs again.

Probes are not inert things that can just be used at any time. As an example, even electronic components deteriorate with time, especially capacitors.

Not to mention that this is not Star Trek and probes must be made for a specific mission. As an example, power requirements differ a lot between missions.

We just learned that the soon to be launched GRACE-FO satellites are the flight spares of the original mission from 2002. That means they spent at least 15 years in storage.

Flight spares is very different from a complete spacecraft.

How is a probe different from a satellite (except for the trajectory)?

GNC, thermal control, attitude control, etc.  Earth satellites take advantage of being in close proximity to earth

I knew and understand this. What I meant in this context is: Why would one be able to keep a satellite in storage waiting for a mission and not a deep space probe?