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Interstellar Object 'Oumuamua' Appears To Be Wrapped In An Organic Insulation Layer (theguardian.com)
dryriver writes: Oumuamua is the cigar-shaped object -- about 400 meters long and only 40 meters in the other dimensions -- that originated from somewhere else in the Galaxy and visited our Solar system while moving at nearly 130,000 miles per hour. Scientists do not know where Oumuamua came from or what it is made of -- it is not shaped like commonly seen asteroids, and unlike comets, it does not leave a trail behind it, not even when it flew past the Sun. Oumuamua seems to be wrapped in a strange organic coat made of carbon-rich gunk that it likely picked up on its long travels through space. The coat, which gives Oumuamua a dark red appearance according to scientists, was examined by using spectroscopy, which looks at the light being reflected from its surface and splits it down into its wavelengths. By looking at those measurements, scientists can work out what the object might be composed of. Scientists regard it as likely that Oumuamua may be of icy composition on the inside, but that the ice doesn't come off the object due to the thick organic crust that is wrapped around it. Oumuamua has also got extraterrestrial watchers excited. Some believe that its strange, long shape suggests that it is a spaceship of some sort passing through our Solar system. Whatever Oumuamua turns out to be, it certainly has researchers and space watchers around the world fascinated and puzzled at the same time.
Impossible for now. If we manage to survive long enough, we may eventually come up with a really fast method of space travel and chasing down this thing would be a good use for it, as it will probably be closer than the nearest stars for a very long time to come.
Even if it takes 100 years, it will still be "only" 0.02 light years away if it maintains its speed of 210,000kph. It will take around 400 years to reach the inner edge of the Oort cloud.
This thing is going to be in the Sol system for a long time. We can go see it. Well, probably not we. But descendants of ours could.
Sig for hire.
Ars technica covered this https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/11/so-you-want-to-send-a-probe-to-catch-up-to-oumuamua/
Best bet is those tiny starshot space probes that are still in development.
There's no need to "pick up" tholins; they seem to naturally form everywhere we look in the distant solar system, from simple carbon and nitrogen compounds. Kuiper belt objects are a mix of red (tholins) and white (ices); where you see ices, that's generally young terrain. Actually, to be fair, tholins are more of a rust brown than "red", but that's picking at straws ;) Tholins are an extremely broad range of chemical compounds (some very long), and probably differ significantly in ratios from place to place, but form a family of common celestial organic "gunk".
"This wallpaper is killing me. One of us has got to go." -- Oscar Wilde on his deathbed
We could *already* get to it, if we really wanted. Dawn has reached a 10 km/s delta-v even with primitive ion thrusters and simple solar panels. With the DS4G thrusters currently in development, you could do twenty times as much.
Ezekiel 23:20
Sample return would be somewhat more complicated, but since the object's velocity at infinity is around 26 km/s, anything over 100 km/s is going to catch up fairly quickly and even ~50 km/s could be usable. In fact, your egress speed could even limited by your ability to decelerate in deep space quickly enough not to , although I'd have to do some calculations for that. Anyway, given this object's trajectory, your best bet with what we have available (or will have available in the next fifteen years or so) is a Ulysses-like maneuver to change your orbital plane inclination in a Jupiter flyby, then using the Oberth effect as close to the Sun as possible to maximize the benefits of high-thrust propulsion, then a period of electric thruster acceleration and deceleration. Note that on its own, a 6 km/s Oberth maneuver close to the Sun from parabolic velocity could give you about 40 km/s at infinity even at a reasonably survivable distance from the Sun. The other variables are much more variable. I'd have to write a numerical model for that.
Ezekiel 23:20