Avi Loeb has gotten US Rep Luna to write NASA admin Duffy with a demand to repurpose Juno to rendezvous with 3I/Atlas. This is so far out of line I don't know where to start.
Replies
lol, wut?
aug 2, 2025, 4:34 am • 0 0 • view
Republicans don't understand science.
aug 3, 2025, 9:47 pm • 0 0 • view
The Epstein files are why?
aug 2, 2025, 9:12 pm • 4 0 • view
I love the fact that the last paragraph recommends NASA assess how much fuel is left in the Juno spacecraft. I mean thanks Einstein they probably know it in real time right. Wanted to look clever with fancy calculations and words, ignoring the facts (main engine busted) makes her look pretty stupid.
aug 3, 2025, 7:46 am • 1 0 • view
Don't get me wrong if Juno had been in good shape and they had fuel etc it would have been a good idea to look into it. Maybe Congress can write to the aliens asking them to come closer to Juno for a photo op lol.
aug 3, 2025, 7:49 am • 0 0 • view
My jaw dropped when I read that in his paper. Like, um yes - every project would know this instantly. I think he put that in there as some sort of fig leaf. He had to know the answer and that it showed that what he was going on about simply isn’t feasible.
aug 3, 2025, 11:06 pm • 0 0 • view
What delta-v would we need for Loeb so we never have to hear from him again?
aug 2, 2025, 4:37 am • 59 3 • view
YES 😆
aug 2, 2025, 3:46 am • 0 0 • view
Sigh 😑
aug 3, 2025, 4:03 am • 3 0 • view
aug 2, 2025, 1:14 pm • 10 0 • view
Plan B will be crashing it into a moon to say hi.
aug 3, 2025, 8:26 pm • 0 0 • view
Okay, hear me out. We still have a couple of leftover shuttles, right? So we fill it up with republican congresspeople, then we build a ginormous slingshot…
aug 2, 2025, 5:58 am • 36 1 • view
Would a ginormous trebuchet work?
aug 3, 2025, 3:20 am • 2 1 • view
If you stop after the republicans, you won't solve the problem.
aug 2, 2025, 9:00 am • 0 0 • view
Even if we did, can we really trust NASA to be straight with us? The only way we can trust it is for both of them to go themselves and report back.
aug 3, 2025, 3:12 am • 0 0 • view
You're right. NASA has been lying to us about flat earth this whole time. This mission must be independently verified!
aug 3, 2025, 11:04 pm • 0 0 • view
Very nice! My song is going viral! Based on “Mindfulness” in space exploration! open.spotify.com/track/3vvrKC...
aug 3, 2025, 11:22 pm • 0 0 • view
"rendezvous with" s/b "board"
aug 2, 2025, 9:40 pm • 0 0 • view
im going insane bcos i started to talk abt this a month ago ,, 2.75km/s is crazy tho 😭 it does NOT have that much fuel left !! youve gotta do lunar slingshots to Hope to have a chance ,,,
aug 2, 2025, 2:58 am • 15 1 • view
Looks like they're talking about a slingshot around Jupiter itself, if that's what an "Oberth maneuver" is Good times I'm sure
aug 2, 2025, 4:04 am • 1 0 • view
Not quite. You set up a plunging orbit and do a long burn at closest approach. The math/physics give you the biggest change in orbital energy. Slingshot requires no burn and is a three-body interaction.
aug 2, 2025, 4:10 am • 5 0 • view
Thanks. Sounds like that might have to be their fallback if indeed the main engine is out or fuel is low?
aug 2, 2025, 4:16 am • 1 0 • view
No, they need a working engine and Del V ~ 2.7 km/s to use the Oberth maneuver to leave Jupiter - it's not a fallback, but the heart of what they're proposing.
aug 2, 2025, 4:24 am • 3 0 • view
I meant if they can't do an Oberth
aug 2, 2025, 4:27 am • 1 0 • view
I think the best option is a small burn at Apojove to set up one or multiple flybys at Io/Europa/Ganymede that could then slingshot the spacecraft out to 3I/ATLAS! This could use as little as 200m/s of delta v, maybe even down to 100m/s if done properly, which is much more realistic and doable !
aug 2, 2025, 4:33 am • 2 0 • view
Chaotic orbits are your friend, but that takes patience and time you're not likely to have. And hygiene keeps you from trying close encounters with the icy moons with a dodgy propulsion system. Don't wanna smear Juno all over Europa.
aug 2, 2025, 4:43 am • 4 0 • view
I’m sure theres a trajectory using just Io or Io and Ganymede that’ll work. I’m just not sure how to calculate it! I can do the first Io encounter but after that I’ve just not got the programs
aug 2, 2025, 5:31 am • 1 0 • view
Yup. You want visits from black monoliths? Because that’s how you get visits from black monoliths.
aug 2, 2025, 6:40 am • 4 0 • view
The main engine is also busted.
aug 2, 2025, 2:59 am • 12 0 • view
I couldn’t find anything conclusively saying that so i was choosing to be optimistic 😅 emailed the juno team about the possibility of a flyby a few weeks ago and they said they were looking into it thought which was cool
aug 2, 2025, 3:01 am • 1 0 • view
Here's NASA in 2017 deciding not to fire Juno's main engine again, canceling the orbit-lowering burn that would've taken her from a 53-day orbit to a 14-day orbit. "2 helium check valves that are part of the plumbing…did not operate as expected when the propulsion system was pressurized…"
aug 2, 2025, 5:32 am • 19 0 • view
Is there an RCS system that could work as a slower thrust provider?
aug 2, 2025, 5:33 am • 1 0 • view
The 12 thrusters burn hydrazine as monopropellant, so I'd expect they have —a lower specific impulse than the main engine —about 30 times lower thrust, so longer burn time to attain a given delta-V —and even less propellant now available than the (non-reliable) bipropellant main engine has
aug 2, 2025, 5:57 am • 5 0 • view
Thrust isn't measured in kilometers per second, to begin with.
aug 2, 2025, 3:51 am • 45 1 • view
Haha, no it isn't..
aug 2, 2025, 3:52 am • 16 0 • view
It is, when you're in space and you're only interested in the change in velocity.
aug 4, 2025, 5:21 am • 1 0 • view
If you can do it in Kerbal, you can do it in real world
aug 2, 2025, 6:43 am • 12 1 • view
The Kerbals provide better funding for their space program.
aug 2, 2025, 11:35 pm • 12 1 • view
For what possible reason? It's a rock. I can tell you that without getting out of my desk chair
aug 3, 2025, 10:22 am • 2 0 • view
Avi Loeb…
aug 2, 2025, 12:57 pm • 6 1 • view
If that delta v of 2.6 km/s is correct, I think we can already demonstratively say it’s not possible. The delta-v for the space craft to do JOI after separation from the launch vehicle was only a little over 2 km/s from what I can find online.
aug 15, 2025, 12:23 am • 2 0 • view
Juno was unable to go into the planned, shorter-period orbit because of an engine problem.
aug 15, 2025, 12:29 am • 3 0 • view
Yeah, there is so much nonsense here.
aug 15, 2025, 12:57 am • 1 0 • view
It seems beyond unlikely that they would carry enough fuel that they would use less than 50% of it on the way there. Even Avi Loeb must know that, right?
aug 15, 2025, 12:23 am • 1 0 • view
With a little work you quickly find that J has <1/3 fuel needed & the engine’s busted anyway. L cited convos with the J PI in his paper, so he surely knew this. Don’t know why he posted on arXiv. You don’t push an idea that you know is wrong. Maybe, though you just want to be seen as clever.
aug 15, 2025, 1:35 am • 5 0 • view
Why is that person writing those words?
aug 2, 2025, 12:36 pm • 0 0 • view
The pair of them are a perfect measure of batshit crazy.
aug 2, 2025, 5:10 pm • 1 0 • view
swear to dog, I just can't even
aug 3, 2025, 11:31 pm • 1 0 • view
😳
aug 3, 2025, 10:00 pm • 0 0 • view
I used to think that @harvard.edu name meant something. Now it is just another Trump University.
aug 2, 2025, 5:16 am • 11 1 • view
Harvard equals the worst humans
aug 2, 2025, 9:12 pm • 1 0 • view
Loeb is a loony
aug 2, 2025, 3:43 am • 8 0 • view
aug 2, 2025, 11:25 pm • 1 0 • view
It's not a demand. It's a request to study the feasibility.
aug 4, 2025, 5:19 am • 0 0 • view
It's infeasible - there's nothing to study. The Juno engine is non-functional, and there's at most 1/3 of the fuel needed in any case.
aug 4, 2025, 5:26 am • 4 0 • view
What you said, that this was a demand, remains false.
aug 4, 2025, 7:21 pm • 0 0 • view
A US rep urgently advocatuing action to the admin amounts to the same thing.
aug 4, 2025, 7:27 pm • 1 0 • view