Otkrivenje i pozivi na presretanje

Astronomi su ranije ove godine uočili misteriozni interstelarni objekt 3I/ATLAS kako prolazi kroz Sunčev sistem velikom brzinom. Zbog boljih teleskopa i opreme sve više se otkrivaju takvi interstelarni objekti, pa naučnici žele detaljnije istražiti 3I/ATLAS. Harvard astronom Avi Loeb predložio je da se NASA-ina letjelica Juno prerasporedi da presretne putanju 3I/ATLAS pri prolasku pored Jupitera: "close encounter of 3I/ATLAS to Jupiter provides a rare opportunity to shift Juno from its current orbit around Jupiter to intercept the path of 3I/ATLAS at its closest approach to Jupiter."

Politička podrška i logistika

Zbog te ideje poslanica je od NASA-e tražila studiju goriva i produženje misije: "It is recommended that NASA conduct a study to assess how much fuel is left in Juno's engine, and I support an extension of the Juno mission at least until mid-March 2026 at a cost of about $15M per 6 months from the current expiration date of mid-September 2025,"

Stručnjaci upozoravaju na prepreke

Međutim, stručnjaci ukazuju na tehničke probleme: "Juno does not have enough fuel to visit 3I/ATLAS," i dalje: "Its main engine is also malfunctioning. [Loeb] does (or should) know this because his team was in touch with [Juno principal investigator Scott Bolton]." Također: "An extended mission for Juno would be awesome, but a visit to 3I/ATLAS makes no sense,"

Profesor Mark Burchell primjećuje: "So it is no surprise it is now showing anomalies in performance that need rebooting." I pita: "Could it be re-tasked?" te napominje: "In theory, if it can be done, and the instruments work, then there is novel data there."

Alternativne opcije i vremenski okvir

Studija pokazuje da bi nova misija trebala izuzetno brzo ubrzati, a perihel objekta i blizina Marsa otvaraju druge mogućnosti: "The perihelion of 3I/ATLAS will not be easily observable from Earth-based observatories, as the object will be on the opposite side of the Sun and at a low solar elongation angle," i "However, the object will approach within 0.19 au [or 17.6 million miles] of Mars, and we encourage nearby spacecraft equipped with visible, UV, and IR spectrographs and cameras to attempt to capture data on this object’s closest approach."

Predstavnik misije JUICE napominje: "I’m not sure it is feasible to send it to the comet: unfortunately astro-dynamics is more complicated than what we see in sci-fi movies," i dodaje: "and it is not easy to change the course of spacecraft." Studenti upozoravaju na hitnost: "The closest approach to Earth will be in December," i podsjećaju: "But getting close to an interstellar object could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,"