SpaceX's Big Mars Rocket Could Help Chase Down Interstellar Asteroid

[Judi Lynn]

By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | November 28, 2017 01:49pm ET

There may be yet another future use for SpaceX's huge Mars-colonization rocket.

That rocket, called the BFR, could launch a probe toward 'Oumuamua, the interstellar asteroid that zoomed past Earth last month, a new study suggests.

The 1,300-foot-long (400 meters) 'Oumuamua is currently speeding away from us at about 58,160 mph (93,600 km/h, or 26 km/s). That's far faster than any spacecraft has ever traveled upon escaping Earth (though some have gone faster as they approached big bodies, such as the sun). But a mission employing the in-development BFR, with speed-boosting flybys of Jupiter and the sun, could theoretically chase 'Oumuamua down, the study said. ['Oumuamua: An Interstellar Visitor Explained in Photos]

This potential architecture is based on concepts drawn up by researchers at the Keck Institute for Space Studies (KISS) and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), both of which are in Pasadena, California, the study's authors noted.

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