Halley's Comet is like the "sightseeing bus" in the solar system, and its trajectory is very regular and predictable. This makes people wonder, when Halley's Comet returns again, can human beings install the detector on Halley's Comet and then explore the deep space of the universe like a sightseeing bus?
Can humans install detectors on Halley's comet? As early as 1986, humans successively launched Vega-1, Vega -2, Giotto and other detectors to observe Halley's comet. In 2004, humans even launched Rosetta, a probe aimed at landing on the comet.
The landing target of Rosetta is a comet named Churyumov-Gerasimenko. After a long flight, "Rosetta" met "Churyumov-Grahimenko" on August 6, 20 14, and in the same year, it was 1655.
It can be seen that human beings had the ability to land on comets as early as 2004, and the time of Halley's Comet's return was 206 1 year, so we can believe that when Halley's Comet returned again, the related technologies of human beings have developed very maturely, and they are fully capable of installing detectors on Halley's Comet. However, whether it can be done is one thing, and whether it is worth doing is another matter.
Installing a detector on Halley's comet is not as valuable as we thought. In our daily life, when we need to take the sightseeing bus, sightseeing bus always stops to wait for us, but Halley's Comet will not stop to wait for the human detector.
Some people may say that since the trajectory of Halley's comet is predictable, we just need to let the detector wait in the "only way" of Halley's comet in advance and hang it directly on it when Halley's comet arrives. Isn't that okay? The answer is no.
According to the observation data of 1986, the speed of Halley's comet reaching perigee is about 33 km/s, and the perihelion is about 55 km/s. If we let the detector "wait in place", it is equivalent to letting the detector collide with Halley's comet at such a high speed. In fact, when the detector comes into contact with Halley's comet, even if the speed difference between them is only 1%, the detector will still be there.
Therefore, it can be said that the first condition for human beings to install detectors on Halley's comet is to make the detectors and Halley's comet very close in speed and orbit, and it is best to make their relative speed zero and their orbits completely coincide.
To achieve this goal, it can be roughly divided into three steps: 1, launch the detector; 2. The detector goes to the predetermined intersection with Halley's comet, and in the process, its orbit and speed are accurately adjusted, so that the detector can keep synchronous operation with Halley's comet when it reaches the predetermined intersection; 3. After reaching the predetermined intersection, the detector landed on Halley's Comet to complete the subsequent fixing work.
It should be noted that the above step 3 is completely unnecessary, because the resistance in space can be completely ignored. If the speed and orbit of the detector are the same as that of Halley's comet, then even if the detector is not installed on Halley's comet, it will run along the same orbit as Halley's comet.
In other words, as long as human beings are willing, they can launch an "artificial comet" with the same speed and orbit as Halley's comet at any time. Wherever Halley's comet can go, this "artificial comet" can go, and it is not necessary to wait until Halley's comet returns again in 20061year. Then why don't humans launch such "artificial comets"? The reason is that it is of little value.
The apohelion and perihelion of Halley's comet are 35. 1AU and 0.586AU respectively (note: "AU" is astronomical unit), and it can reach the orbit of Pluto as far as possible (note: the perihelion of Pluto is about 30AU).
The orbital period of Halley's comet is 76-79 years. Even if the one-way trip is halved, it will take more than 30 years from the near point to the far point, which is too long. Relatively speaking, it takes much shorter time for humans to launch detectors directly to the periphery of the solar system. For example, the "New Horizon" probe launched by human beings in 2006 only took about 9.5 years to reach Pluto.
Moreover, the density of celestial bodies in the solar system is much sparse than expected, and Halley's comet is likely to not approach a celestial body with detection value after completing a revolution. In other words, even if humans launch an "artificial comet" with the same orbit as Halley's comet, there is a high probability that there will be no valuable gains.
This means that if humans install detectors on Halley's comet, it will probably only help humans better understand Halley's comet itself. In the past days, human beings have had a comprehensive understanding of Halley's comet through various observation means (including the arrival observation mentioned above), so it is of little value to launch a detector to Halley's comet alone.
To sum up, when Halley's Comet returns again in 20061year, humans have the ability to install detectors on Halley's Comet, but it is of little value, so humans probably won't do so at that time.