How about installing scientific instrument on a comet?

[alpha2cen]

I think it'll be very useful to install scientific instruments on a comet.

We do'nt know detail information about the Oort cloud.

To launch the spacecraft for going there would be very expensive.

So I suggest we launch the satellite for installing instruments to the comet which ll pass nearby the Earth.

It'll be very useful for doing future scientific research.

 

[MeteorWayne]

It's a good idea, but...

Very few Oort cloud comets pass by the earth. (Almost none from the outer Oort Cloud)

When they do, they are traveling VERY fast, so would require a VERY powerful rocket.

We have little warning when they are coming by. So you would have to have an instrument package built and standing by all the time. Who would pay for it?

When they are close to earth they have jets erupting all over the place, so your package could be destroyed. Therefore, it would have to be cheap.

Since the comet nucleus is rotating, you would not be able to have a high gain antenna pointing at earth. And an omnidirectional antenna would create too weak a signal to be tracked anywhere close to the distance of the Oort cloud.

Oort cloud comets are millions of miles apart out there, so the chance of even detecting another one are near zero.

Other than that, great idea

Wayne

 

[kg]

Would the Philae lander do? This is an amazing mission, keep an eye on this one!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philae_lander
"Philae (previously known as RoLand) is the lander that accompanies the Rosetta spacecraft. It is designed to land on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko shortly after arrival....."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_(spacecraft)
"Rosetta is a European Space Agency-led robotic spacecraft mission launched in 2004, intended to study the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. It is intended to orbit the comet and place a lander upon it, in 2014.....

 

[MeteorWayne]

Well, that is in line with the topic title, but not the content of the original post.

Lasting a week on the surface of an inner solar comet will return a treasure trove of data, but is far different than a 2,000 year mission to the Oort cloud

 

[Gravity_Ray]

I think it'll be very useful to install scientific instruments on a comet.

We do'nt know detail information about the Oort cloud.

To launch the spacecraft for going there would be very expensive.

So I suggest we launch the satellite for installing instruments to the comet which ll pass nearby the Earth.

It'll be very useful for doing future scientific research.

Well I love this idea and I was with you until you went Oort cloud on me. As Wayne has pointed out, there are many issues with that mission. All are manageable except time scales, and the antenna issue. IMO that makes the Oort cloud missions un-doable.

However, there are harder asteroids closer by (not Oort cloud) that are not out gassing like crazy and have lower rotations where a scientific instrument can be landed on. For example 99942 Apophis. That one will keep coming back from time to time which means the instruments can record and then when it passes close by Earth data can be beamed back.

There is no reason why we cannot take advantage of special circumstances when they present themselves.

 

[alpha2cen]

Whichever we sent there, communication problem occur.
I think middle size telescope and plasma diagnosis instrument, cosmic ray detector installing would be very useful.
We don't really know what the cosmic environmental condition of external heliosphere.
We've never been there before.
We only say what we observed by telescope.
Choosing a comet which has good physical condition would be important thing.
Less vibration, less rolling and more hard ground comet would be better. :idea:

 

[kg]

Sorry, I didn't get the original question. I thought it ment landing on a comet nearby to prepare for a mission to the Oort cloud. I guess he ment landing on a comet that was heading back to the Oort cloud? How many objects from the Oort cloud make it to the inner solar system? Would more missions like Stardust be a better way to learn about them instead of trying to land on one or a mission to the outer solar system?

 

[adrenalynn]

Whichever we sent there, communication problem occur.
I think middle size telescope

I think you weren't paying attention to what MeteorWayne was saying. Maybe go back and reread it.

I would add power storage as being insurmountable with current technologies. Especially for the package you're talking about.

 

[3488]

Also how long would it take a comet to reach the Oort Cloud (which is theoretical, probably does exist but as yet direct proof is lacking)? IIRC it takes at least a million years each way!!!!!

A comet slows down as it moves away from the sun & at aphelion at Oort Cloud distances, it is moving no faster than a normal car, so it is literally crawling at that point. As it slowly draws nearer, it picks up speed.

As Wayne says & Adrenalynn reminded, the problems are huge. What sort of antenna are you going to use?? The comet is rotating on an axis, like every other solar system body, it may also be tumbling more slowly around a secondary axis & how the hell are you going to transmit data from that distance??? What are you going to use for power??

It's approx 1 light year away, almost 25% of the distance to the Alpha Centauri system.

The Oort Cloud if it exists, will not be crowded, individual cometary nuclei there will be on average separated by almost the Sun to Uranus distance. So it would be sheer dumb luck if the comet chosen happened to pass close to another in the Oort Cloud. Also it is so dark at that distance, the Sun would only be of around magnitude -3, fainter than Venus appears to us & only marginally brighter than Jupiter currently appears!!!

Andrew Brown.

 

[alpha2cen]

I think this is not a perfect idea.
But we've never been outside of the heliosphere.
It would be very difficult.
Untill now we don't know what kind of thing will be happened when space craft pass through the helioshpere sheet.
The sheet was supposed to be filled with high energy ionic particles.
So eletronic divice would not work well.
And, communication to Earth would be almost impossible.
So my idea is one of its alternatives to go to outside of the heliosphere.
Installing instrument will be difficult, but Its not meaning nothing.
We develop commucation technology. And that communicate with that far away scientific instruments as possible as we can communicate.

Simillar idea can be applied to other asteroids.
For example, we can apply this concept to the Kuip belt asteroid.
I dont have a detail information about the Kuiper belt astroids.
But we can use them as good natual transport for exploring our solar system.