Journey to Sedna, one of the most distant and mysterious objects in the solar system. With an orbit stretching from 76 to 937 AU over 11,400 years, Sedna barely remains bound to the Sun. Catch it near perihelion (current opportunity!) before it retreats to the edge of the solar system for millennia.
In October 2017, humanity discovered our first interstellar object: 'Oumuamua. With only weeks to respond and a hyperbolic trajectory exceeding 26 km/s, this represents the ultimate fast-response challenge. Achieving intercept requires technology and velocities beyond current capabilities - but what an achievement it would be!
Design a mission to reach Alpha Centauri in 500 years - an engineering thought experiment that demonstrates why interstellar travel is so challenging. Combine maximum gravity assists, solar Oberth burns, nuclear propulsion, and solar sails to achieve 0.01c (3,000 km/s). This 'impossible' mission showcases the vast gulf between interplanetary and interstellar scales.