One Harvard professor recently stirred the astronomical society with his book Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth. He mentions that the 2017 ‘Oumuamua‘ has something to do with aliens. He also mentions that it is very important for scientists to to be open-minded and that’s what Avi Loeb is doing. While other scientists are chasing black holes and string theory, Avi Loeb keeps an open mind that we are not alone in this universe. SpaceX can play a vital role in this in the near future.
On October 19, 2017 a strange looking object was captured by the Pan-STARRS telescope at Haleakalā Observatory, Hawaii. The cigar shaped rock was first named 1I/2017 U1 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Later it was named as Oumuamua meaning “a messenger from afar arriving first” in Hawaiian.
Avi Loeb, the author of the book Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth put forward the theory that Oumuamua could be a satellite sent by aliens. But he is being contradicted by other scientists who say that Oumuamua is only a comet. Despite all the differences, they all agree that Oumuamua is from another solar system and this is the first time, a visitor from another solar system visited ours.
As you can see in the picture above, Oumuamua came from above. It came near to the Sun and then changed its trajectory and moved away. This behaviour is common with comets. But a comet leaves a tail when it comes closer to the Sun. This is not the same for Oumuamua, the scientists did not see a comet tail.
Whatever the reason, be it an alien technology or just a rock from another solar system, we should be ready for another such visitor. We should have rockets ready to chase them. We should follow them and get as much data as possible.
What happens when an asteroid as big as New York City approaches Earth? Do you think, we have rockets at standby for such situations? Obviously we do, but no one will tell you where. The Governments are not so stupid not to think about it. Similarly we need rockets at standby to chase visitors as Oumuamua. The problem is, the science society doesn’t agree to this. They don’t want to spend billion of dollars on a rocket for chasing an extraterrestrial element that might not show up in the next 100 years.
This is where SpaceX can jump in. They can keep a rocket at standby and whenever any such incident happens, the interested agencies can contact them and submit their RFP for chasing the new object. Now things will get interesting when other agencies might approach with a higher price to SpaceX and this is where SpaceX can make its money. It’s an investment for the future.