We finally have the technological tools to detect interstellar objects. We’ve discovered two in the last few years,”Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov“And there’s undoubtedly more. So there was a lot of interest in developing a mission that could visit one of them once we discovered it. But what would such a mission look like?

The draft paper, now by a team of mostly American scientists, sought to answer that question and brings us one step closer to launching such a task. One of the things that makes the interstellar visitor mission interesting is that the interstellar visitors are so weird. When Borisov entered the Solar System, it behaved like a typical comet, but ‘Oumuamua was a completely different beast.

It never had a comet tail, as many scientists expected. It also exhibited unexplained acceleration due to radiation or other causes, leading some leading scientists to suggest that there might be an alien probe.

The best way to combat such fictitious claims is to scrutinize them. And for that we need a mission that can catch it. But we’ll have to see it first, and astronomers are already working on it. According to the authors’ calculations, the Vera C Rubin Legacy Space and Time Survey (LSST) observatory will be able to detect anywhere from 1 to 10 interstellar objects of the size ‘Oumuamua’ each year.

This is a great opportunity to find the right candidate. But what criteria should this candidate meet?

Most importantly: “Where does it come from?” While there is no “best” angle to approach an interstellar object (ISO), it does matter where we hide the “interstellar interceptor” (ISI). According to the article, the best place for this is most likely the L2 Earth-Sun Lagrange point. It has multiple advantages – first, very little fuel is required to stay on station, and any ISI may need to sit in storage mode for years.

He must react quickly when called to action, and another L2 resident can help him do that. NASA’s Time Domain Spectroscopic Observatory (TSO) is a 1.5-metre telescope planned to be located at the L2 Lagrange point, along with more established telescopes such as the JWST.

For all its incredible ability to capture stunning images, JWST has one major drawback – it’s slow. It can take 2-5 days to focus on a specific object, making it useless when tracking ISO. TSO, on the other hand, only takes a few minutes.

It could be complemented by another telescope called the Near-Earth Object Surveyor, which is planned to be located at the L1 Lagrangian point of the Earth-Moon system. Along with TSO, these two fast-response telescopes should be able to view any ISO entering the inner Solar System that is not in an orbit directly along the L1-L2 baseline.

The next task after detection is to get the ISO. Some, unfortunately, will be unattainable in terms of orbital mechanics. However, the authors estimate that an ISI stored at the L2 level has an 85 percent chance of finding a suitable ‘Oumuamua-sized object of interest within 10 years.

Basically, once we’re able to detect the ISO, it’s just a matter of patiently waiting for the right opportunity. Once ISI reaches ISO, it can begin close observations that include a full spectroscopic map of both natural and man-made materials, which could help settle the debate over whether such objects are alien probes.

He can also observe any outbursts that could explain the mysterious forces at work in ‘Oumuamua. Undoubtedly, there are many interesting things scientists still want to understand about the first interstellar object we will visit. But based on the calculations in this article, there will be ample opportunity to do so and lots of data to collect when we do. Then it’s time to move on to the planning stages! Source