According to Futurism, the interstellar object known as 3I/ATLAS made its closest approach to Earth on December 19, coming within 167 million miles. Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, who has previously speculated such objects could be alien tech, noted it did nothing unusual, simply cruising on by. In a follow-up idea, Loeb proposes we could use future objects like this as high-speed carriers for human messages or probes. By hitching a ride on 3I/ATLAS, which is moving at 37 miles per second, a payload could reach interstellar space around the year 10,000 CE, instead of the 30,000 CE timeline for Voyager 1. Loeb suggests methods like using a high-power laser to engrave a message or sending an interceptor mission to attach a physical object. The object is next expected to pass within 33.3 million miles of Jupiter on March 16, 2026.
Loeb’s Cosmic Hitchhiking Plan
So here’s the thing. Loeb is basically looking at these interstellar interlopers and seeing a free, pre-booked, high-velocity taxi service out of the solar system. The Voyager probes are incredible, but they’re slow. Painfully slow. They’ll take tens of thousands of years to truly leave the Sun’s gravitational neighborhood. An object like 3I/ATLAS, already screaming along at interstellar speeds, offers a shortcut. The engineering challenge of actually “hitching” a ride is, to put it mildly, monumental. You’d need to detect the object early, launch an intercept mission at insane speeds, and then somehow attach a payload without altering its trajectory or destroying your craft. But the core idea is fascinating: leverage natural astrophysics as a propulsion system.
More Than Just Alien Hunting
This represents a subtle but real pivot for Loeb. He’s spent years championing the controversial idea that the first interstellar object, ‘Oumuamua, might have been artificial. With 3I/ATLAS ignoring us, the alien spacecraft theory looks even shakier. So now, he’s flipping the script. Instead of looking for aliens coming to us, he’s proposing we use their potential highways—these natural objects—to go to them. It’s a clever rhetorical move. Even if you think his alien hypotheses are bonkers, the utility of catching a ride on a fast-moving rock is a legit, if wildly futuristic, astrodynamics concept. He’s even said he’d send his own remains on such a trip. Talk about commitment.
The Practical Nightmare (And Why It Matters)
Let’s be real. Executing this is a nightmare of precision and timing. These objects are discovered with relatively short lead times, traveling at blistering speeds on unpredictable paths. Designing a mission to rendezvous is a problem we can barely conceptualize with today’s tech. But that’s kind of the point. Proposals like this force us to think about interstellar travel in completely new ways. They push mission planners and engineers to consider technologies—like advanced propulsion or hyper-accurate targeting systems—that we wouldn’t otherwise. It stretches our imagination. And in a field that plans missions decades in advance, that kind of forward, even fanciful, thinking has value. It’s a conversation starter about humanity’s place in the galaxy, as Loeb argues in his Medium post.
A Waiting Game With a Deadline
Now we play the waiting game. 3I/ATLAS is on its way out, but it’ll give Jupiter a closer look in 2026. The next interstellar visitor could appear anytime. The real question Loeb is posing is: will we be ready? Do we have the political will and technological roadmap to even attempt an interception mission for the next one? Probably not in the next decade. But if we ever want to be more than a fleeting blip on our own pale blue dot, we need to start thinking in cosmic timescales and leveraging every cosmic opportunity we get. Even the crazy-sounding ones. As he lamented in his initial blog post, the object ignored us. Maybe next time, we shouldn’t ignore it.
