Comments on: A Monster Comet – 2014 UN271 https://www.star-gazing.co.uk/WebPage/2014-un271-20210625/ Encouraging Astronomy Fri, 01 Oct 2021 09:01:53 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.2 By: Dave Eagle https://www.star-gazing.co.uk/WebPage/2014-un271-20210625/#comment-4736 Wed, 07 Jul 2021 08:25:14 +0000 https://www.star-gazing.co.uk/WebPage/?p=6041#comment-4736 In reply to Pavan Biliyar.

It’s matching the path and the speed of the comet that is the problem.
It took 10 years for Rosetta (and Philae) to catch up and match Comet 67P.
So to build a new probe and test it, then launch it, the comet will be long gone.

]]> By: Pavan Biliyar https://www.star-gazing.co.uk/WebPage/2014-un271-20210625/#comment-4734 Tue, 06 Jul 2021 21:26:16 +0000 https://www.star-gazing.co.uk/WebPage/?p=6041#comment-4734 I found this article when I searched if anyone was thinking about launching a probe to comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein. I’m a bit confused about the launch window candidacy, is there a backlog from existing rockets that a purpose-built probe cannot reach the comet in time?

I say have it run off an RTG, have it land and stay there. It’ll have two missions: composition analysis and maybe deep space telescope. How quickly can it be put together and how much could it cost?

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