Cigar-shaped interstellar 'comet / UFO' Oumuamua is being investigated for signs of ET technology / NASA MAJOR announcement TODAY @ 1PM

If anyone wants to have fun simulating an intercept of the object, here's a scenario file I created for Orbiter Spaceflight Simulator, using the default Delta Glider spacecraft as a stand-in for Oumuamua, placing it on Oumuamua's trajectory through the solar system. The simulation starts on January 1st, 2000, but you can propagate forward to the date of your choice in Orbiter's scenario editor, and spawn a ship on earth with which to try to intercept it.
[link to orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk]
Just save it as a .scn file in the scenario directory:

BEGIN_DESC

END_DESC

BEGIN_ENVIRONMENT
System Sol
Date MJD 51544.5000000000
END_ENVIRONMENT

BEGIN_FOCUS
Ship GL-01
END_FOCUS

BEGIN_CAMERA
TARGET GL-01
MODE Cockpit
FOV 50.00
END_CAMERA

BEGIN_HUD
TYPE Surface
END_HUD

BEGIN_MFD Left
TYPE Orbit
PROJ Ship
FRAME Ecliptic
REF Earth
END_MFD

BEGIN_MFD Right
TYPE Surface
SPDMODE 1
END_MFD

BEGIN_PANEL
END_PANEL

BEGIN_SHIPS
GL-01:DeltaGlider
STATUS Orbiting Sun
RPOS 2065928170411.40 12934667920252.10 -8189560682147.30
RVEL -3771.150 -22332.173 14064.550
AROT -52.67 -56.91 90.32
AFCMODE 7
PRPLEVEL 0:0.553000 1:0.900000
NAVFREQ 0 0 0 0
XPDR 0
AAP 0:0 0:0 0:0
END
END_SHIPS

Last Edited by Astromut on 12/13/2017 12:23 PM

Sweet, love Orbiter thnx

It crossed my mind this would be a great way to start disclosure.

:-)

Baffling.

Hubble's already taken pictures of it, though it won't be able to resolve the small object's shape directly as far away as it is. Some of the images were just taken yesterday, and I'm downloading them now to process them.
[link to archive.stsci.edu (secure)]

So, what do you think it is Astro?

One thing is for sure. Whatever it was it was not just a rock in space.

I'm hoping for aliens but not holding my breath. Then again I'm hearing discussions on the possibility of sending a high velocity impactor to smack it in a few decades and find out what it's made of. That might not be such a wise idea if it did turn out to be a dormant alien spacecraft LOL.

And NASA press release Thursday 12/14/17 regarding latest Kepler findings; it's all coming together.......


[link to www.nasa.gov (secure)]

The experts most likely already know if it's a rock or a craft, so this "investigation" seems played (IMO). Why they are doing it is the question. But if it is legit, then one thing is for certain. They will NEVER release the news of an alien craft to the masses. They will put out a statement saying something to the effect that, "After careful study, we have concluded that the object is indeed just a space rock." And that will be that.

It's very interesting for sure!

DRUDGE REPORT-
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UPDATE: Strange tumbling motion of 'comet' suggests alien probe with BROKEN engines...

[link to twitter.com (secure)]

Bump

A few objections that i have.

Why did they give it an unpronounceable Hawaiian name??

They still can't tell if it's composed of rock or metal? That's extremely disappointing.

They're only going to check for radio signals? Radio?
Isn't that extremely primitive?

One astrophysicist has said that the tumbling motion could be the result of the propulsion system failing, but this means nothing, since it would be tumbling exactly the same way as a piece of rock with no propulsion system ever.


Yeah, so i can't get excited.

Why are they only listening to it?

They should be broadcasting Pi to it on all wave lengths, especially that frequency they use for Hydrogen, 1420mhz?.

If the thing turns round and starts heading back and turns out to be a von Neumann machine or something, forget I suggested that.

It's pretty clearly dead, and the best scenario is that it's a mindless, uncontrolled craft.
Even that is extremely unlikely.

So Dr. Astro IF this is an alien ship or whatever, what's the process after that?

I think they found it with the Maui telescope.

Rendezvous with Rama. No but seriously, whether it's aliens (unlikely) or a natural interstellar object it's worthy of close study with a probe. I think we should fund the construction of such a probe with current tech and stick it on the largest rocket we can get for a flyby mission to study it. SLS maybe, but that's pretty risky since it hasn't flown yet. By the time a probe would be ready to launch we should have a better idea if Falcon Heavy would be reliable enough to do it, or failing that, a Delta IV heavy.

Oumuamua means....

"a messenger from afar arriving first"

[link to www.space.com (secure)]

I mean like after the astronomers observing right now found out that it's an alien ship/relic/artifact, what's the procedure for such an announcement?

They are preparing us for the Fallen Angels. They will call them aliens.

We can't check it with a probe since it's moving too fast and our defunded space program sucks.

It's gone.

Interesting name they gave it, mmmm....

Not so fast. We actually could intercept it, if effort was dedicated to do so.
[link to arxiv.org (secure)]
Obviously, the sooner the launch, the less velocity is needed to catch up to it in a reasonable timeframe. The above study assumes it would take about 8 years to mount such a mission, which is pretty reasonable. But if you had a shotgun approach, maybe repurposing some probe that was already partially completed (I'm thinking solar probe plus, if you're going to do a solar "fryby" maneuver) and sticking it on a rocket available in the next one to two years, you could get away with a lot less delta-V needed.

Last Edited by Astromut on 12/13/2017 01:40 PM

I was reading all these stories about planets that they may be Earth-alike, have possibility for life, whatever, all of them about something millions light years away. I doubted that they have any clue what they are talking about, just making up fairy tales to keep funding going.

This case, true or not true, anyway proves that they are making up stories, either they lie about discovered planets or they lie about this object. It is impossible to see a planet millions light years away and determine its probability for life and on the other side have object fly by few millions kilometers and have no clue what is made of.

It is, however, extraordinary, I cannot even came up on any theory that would sound reasonable to me.

Last Edited by Arco on 12/13/2017 02:01 PM