Editing Openai/691a2d9f-c044-8012-bccf-942bfce6334d (section)

=== Assistant: 17-11-25 02:41 ===
17-11-25 02:41
GPT-5.1

I couldn’t find any documented comet whose orbit simultaneously and reliably links Earth and Proxima Centauri / Alpha Centauri A system in a way that meets your “oasis-station” criteria. In other words: no known comet is pre-set to travel from Earth’s neighbourhood to Alpha Centauri (or a similar target) with our current orbital data.

===== - Comet orbits are typically highly eccentric, bound to the Sun or hyperbolic (escaping) — mostly Solar System-centric. Wikipedia<ref>{{cite web|title=Wikipedia|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-17}}</ref> =====
* Even long-period comets have orbits of tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years within the Solar System, not full stellar transfers. For example: C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake) has an outbound period ~70,000 years. Wikipedia<ref>{{cite web|title=Wikipedia|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Hyakutake|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-17}}</ref>
* An orbit that reaches another star system would likely be hyperbolic, unbound, or extremely perturbed; we have very weak data for those.
* Interstellar transfer has enormous delta-v, changes in direction, and is far beyond the typical natural comet trajectory.

===== Your idea remains valid as a design goal or speculative scenario: =====
* You might pick a comet and adjust its trajectory via huge interventions (propulsion nudges) so it becomes a “carrier” between Earth and some outer destination or perhaps further.
* But as of now, there’s no natural comet that we can simply adopt and say “this goes to Alpha/Proxima and we’ll use it as a depot”.

===== - Some comets are new or nearly interstellar, e.g. C/2024 L5 (ATLAS), which has a hyperbolic outbound trajectory and may leave the Solar System. Wikipedia<ref>{{cite web|title=Wikipedia|url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C/2024_L5_%28ATLAS%29|publisher=en.wikipedia.org|access-date=2025-11-17}}</ref> =====
* Long-period comets whose aphelion extends to many thousands of AU (~Oort Cloud distances) exist, e.g. C/2014 UN271 with an aphelion ~40,000 AU. arXiv<ref>{{cite web|title=arXiv|url=https://arxiv.org/abs/2109.09852|publisher=arxiv.org|access-date=2025-11-17}}</ref> But neither is currently suitable as a “station” between Earth and another star.

===== - No, there are no known comets today whose orbits naturally meet the criteria of “Earth ↔ Alpha Centauri system” depot carriers. =====
* Your concept remains speculative and would require orbit modification, trajectory engineering, or the discovery of a suitable comet with favourable conditions.
* It’s still absolutely valid as a long-term idea: we’d select or redirect comets rather than rely on one already perfect.

If you like, I can scan current comet catalogues for comets with:
* aphelion distances far beyond the Solar System (tens of thousands of AU)
* perihelion distances near Earth’s orbit And we can see if any of these might theoretically become candidates for your depot network (even if they don’t yet link to Alpha Centauri). Would that be useful?