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Not sure about a buffer object, but a tether on a reel might work. You harpoon the object, then let it pull the probe, giving lots of slack according to the engineering tolerances of the harpoon in the object (don't want it to come loose), the tether (don't want it to snap), the reel (don't want it to spin apart or get stuck or any one of a number of things), and the probe (don't want it damaged under extreme acceleration). With enough tether and a low-enough-friction reel with magnetic bearings (think of the ungodly RPMs), you can accelerate the probe at almost any speed you'd like, within reason, although it would be best to accelerate as quickly as possible without risking. And remember that you only need to get the whole harpoon/tether/reel (HTR, or HiTchhikeR; you saw it here first) mechanism in range of the object as it passes by, so it can be bulkier than you would put on a probe moving under its own power. Or you could start off as usual, maybe with a gravity assist, which would allow for a less sophisticated HTR. Then if you want to be clever, you can turn all those RPMs into stored energy. But that might not be worth the trouble. |
A harpoon impacting an object going 26km/s would experience something like 12,000gs even if you gave it a 1km-long buffer.
So your harpoon would have to be rocket-assisted. The problem now is how long does your need to be? The tensile strength to carry the weight of the tether itself may make this impossible.