31/ATLAS INTERCEPTOR: HOW STARSHIP BOOSTERS COULD REACH THE EDGES OF OUR SYSTEM

The concept sounds reckless at first glance: send a spacecraft plunging toward the Sun, skim the corona at blistering speed, then ignite solid rocket boosters at the moment of closest approach to slingshot outward in pursuit of an interstellar object already racing away from our solar system.

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Yet behind that audacious profile lies serious orbital mechanics — and a growing interest in whether humanity could still catch 3I/ATLAS, the third confirmed interstellar visitor ever detected.

A RARE COSMIC TARGET

3I/ATLAS joins a very short list of known objects that originated beyond our solar system. The first, 1I/'Oumuamua, stunned astronomers in 2017 with its unusual shape and acceleration. The second, 2I/Borisov, discovered in 2019, behaved more like a conventional comet but confirmed that interstellar wanderers pass through our system more often than previously assumed.

Now 3I/ATLAS — detected by the ATLAS sky survey — is already outbound, moving on a hyperbolic trajectory that guarantees it will never return. Like its predecessors, it is traveling at extraordinary speed relative to the Sun. That velocity makes any intercept mission technically daunting.

By the time a spacecraft could launch under conventional mission timelines, the object would be far beyond the orbit of Jupiter, heading toward the outer reaches of the solar system and beyond.

Still, some mission designers believe there may be a narrow window — if propulsion and trajectory design push beyond traditional limits.

THE SOLAR DIVE STRATEGY

The boldest concept centers on a maneuver known as a solar Oberth burn.

In orbital mechanics, a rocket burn executed at the point of highest velocity in a gravitational field produces the greatest change in energy. For a spacecraft orbiting the Sun, that point would be at perihelion — its closest approach.

The idea is to send a probe inward first, falling toward the Sun to build up enormous speed. At that closest approach, when the spacecraft is moving fastest, it would ignite high-thrust boosters. The result could be a dramatic increase in outbound velocity, potentially enough to match or exceed the escape speed needed to chase 3I/ATLAS.