I was thinking park it on Earth. Have something ready to launch that consists of a very spicy nuclear upper stage to yeet a small probe at very high speed.
The whole upper stages assembly and probe could be sitting there ready to be sent up on a Falcon Heavy or Starship class booster. Might even use an expendable launch to send the upper stage into the highest energy trajectory possible.
I wonder how small you could make the probe vs how big the booster and upper stages assembly could be and how fast such a thing could be yeet. I’m thinking even a glorified cubesat size thing paired with a whole lot of rocket.
It wouldn’t slow down. It would be a flyby. But it would get us high resolution images and scans and spectroscopic readings, and if one of these visitors was artificial that would become quite obvious with a good picture.
The whole upper stages assembly and probe could be sitting there ready to be sent up on a Falcon Heavy or Starship class booster. Might even use an expendable launch to send the upper stage into the highest energy trajectory possible.
I wonder how small you could make the probe vs how big the booster and upper stages assembly could be and how fast such a thing could be yeet. I’m thinking even a glorified cubesat size thing paired with a whole lot of rocket.
It wouldn’t slow down. It would be a flyby. But it would get us high resolution images and scans and spectroscopic readings, and if one of these visitors was artificial that would become quite obvious with a good picture.