Hey, reaching great speeds and then slowing down is just as much a problem as actually getting off the craft.

I mean, you would choose an asteroid with a desirable trajectory.

Yes, the object could be boarded by multiple smaller spacecraft with specific payloads.

In terms of mining before you leave the sun, perhaps only a certain level of mining is essential, like for certain gasses. Even still maybe you send enough payloads that mining isn’t much of a necessity.

Now I kind of disagree with the premise that we don’t need it, it could become a ship of it’s own, though with even more added benefits like : protection from radiation and very small asteroids, they contain much of the materials needed for human survival and manufacturing, meaning you could potentially take less equipment with you on the initial departure and instead manufacture sensory devices later on.

Now I kind of disagree with the premise that we don’t need it, it could become a ship of it’s own, though with even more added benefits like : protection from radiation and very small asteroids, they contain much of the materials needed for human survival and manufacturing, meaning you could potentially take less equipment with you on the initial departure and instead manufacture sensory devices later on.

I believe there being no other benefits is untrue. Such a body carries water, metals etc. Regolith, couldn’t that be used as a soil like substrate for some kind of farming? Even if not, the terrain itself could still be used to provide the space for farming, processing of materials and manufacturing tasks. Maybe the initial craft never launches with a telescope but manufactures one on-board the asteroid. Perhaps a small scale human colony? Inside the asteroid, protected from at least some radiation?

True however living inside the asteroid provides a source of many (all) needed materials, protection from the elements of space etc... land for farming, industry.

Exactly we are on the path to being able to fully operate on such objects. I can’t see why landing an unmanned vehicle on an object (OSIRIS-style) like oumuamua and hitching a ride on this 87,000km/h travelling bus. Or at least why we aren’t trying to do that ASAP.

Like couldn’t you land so much sensory technology, even telescopes on such a thing?

True, I was kinda hoping my question encapsulated local travel too.

Don’t some pass through the solar system? And never return. Particularly at certain speeds?

Realistically as someone else said you could attach an autonomous craft to land on the asteroid. Though I imagine this usage could extend to humans too, given the difficulty of space travel either-way,