
Small Asteroid or Comet 'Visits' from Beyond the Solar System - mudil
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6983
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ChuckMcM
This is a pretty cool story, and once again I really wish we had some sort of
on orbit fueling system so that a chemical rocket in orbit would have enough
delta-V to manage a rendezvous with it and possibly sample it.

Consider that a sample from this asteroid would be the equivalent of a sample
return mission from a different star system. The latter is currently beyond
our technology, this one was dropped into our lap.

~~~
wcoenen
> enough delta-V to manage a rendezvous with it

It is currently moving at 44 km/s (relative to sun) in a direction that is
almost perpendicular to the ecliptic.

For comparison: New Horizons was accelerated to an amazing 16 km/s (relative
to Earth). Assume orbital refueling gets you another 10 km/s (because that is
roughly the delta-v needed to get to orbit). Still not enough by a long shot.

