Could we land a satellite on a comet??

Question

Could we view the universe faster if we landed a satellite on a comet? I was thinking about space and I think comets travel at speeds faster than our human made voyagers and if we could land on one we could view the further reaches of space faster

Answer 1

Currently, we don't have the technology to land a probe on a comet. It's not that we can't reach a comet, it is that the probe would be destroyed pretty quickly by the debris coming off the comet and possibly by the cold. I know they sent an impact probe to bring back parts of a comet, but that was for a short period of time. Eventually, we probably will land a probe on a comet, but I don't think the viewing of space would be too good on there (debris again). Maybe an asteroid would be better for your idea.

Answer 2

as yet ,no, but -

The primary objective of the Stardust mission is to capture both cometary samples and interstellar dust. Main challenges to accomplishing this successfully involve slowing down the particles from their high velocity with minimal heating or other effects that would cause their physical alteration. When the Stardust Spacecraft encounters the Comet Wild 2, the impact velocity of the particles will be up to 6 times the speed of a rifle bullet.

Although the captured particles will each be smaller than a grain of sand, high-speed capture could alter their shape and chemical composition - or even vaporize them entirely

Answer 3

Technically it's already been done, Deep Impact. See link. Just have to work on that landing.

As to the rest of your question, it makes sence...

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/deepimpact/i...

Answer 4

NASA probe Deep Impact hard-landed on a comet in July 2005.

Two problems with your idea:

1. Comets don't really go much faster than our deep space craft. Voyager 1 is going about 38,000 mph right now.

2. Comets don't travel far out into the Universe. As far as we know, all the ones we've ever seen orbit the sun. They may go many thousands of times farther away than the orbit of the Earth, but that's still nowhere near the distance of even the nearest star to our sun.  

Answer 5

u don't land satellites on anything they are to go and orbit things.

Answer 6

Hav you read the recent popular-science magazine?, NASA is considering a manned mission to Comet,may be a slower one i dont know details.I dont even know comets can travel very fast.But think about this, about ur question....



If a comet is moving faster than human ever could how is it possible to land on it? even so how safe will it be?

Answer 7

To land on a fast moving body, we'd either have to catch it with a probe, or let it smash into our probe.

If we are able to catch a fast moving body, then we could already accelerate a probe to that velocity anyway.

By letting a fast moving body smash into a probe, the probe would be utterly destroyed since the change in velocity would be so great, and over such a short time, that it would be like a bug hitting a car windshield. Splat, no more bug.

Answer 8

You;ve already heard about Stardust and Deep Impact.

There is also the Rosetta mission

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Rosetta/inde...

which is to land on a comet, is on its way.

But the aim is to analyze the comet - not take a piggy back ride.

The problem with your plan is that we can't control where the comet goes. And if you are thinking about getting out into space to get closer to other stars and thus get a better picture - this won't work.

Comets are solar system objects. Even getting to the edge of the solar system doesn;t get us significantly closer to what's outside the solar system!

Answer 9

Here's my post on Elliptical Transfer Orbits.

http://jenab6.livejournal.com/12053.html

Catching a comet will probably require the hyperbolic transfer orbit though, so I guess it's about time I wrote my post explaining how to do it.