Modern day "Rendezvou with Rama" (RAR?)

[Crossroads Inc.]

Reading the "Life inside an O'Niel Cylinder" and seeing this lovely bit of eye candy:


Put me in mind of the Rama Cylinder and Clarks ""Rendezvou with Rama""
For those who want a quick synopses, you can read that HERE
For everyone else who has read the book, we know it takes place "in the future" in the year 2130 in a much different world that investigates the immense Rama Cylinder.

However, what if Rama dropped by during modern times?
The massive construct enters the solar system on its way toward the sun.
As it orbits around it, instead of being hurled out into space, as in the book, what if it enters into a large Orbit around Earth?

Who would possibly lay claim to it? Could Earth work out how to utilize it? Could you see it being used as habitation for people?
Idle curiosity.

[Temujin]

This is exactly an idea I was tossing around a few weeks ago, except I had the craft arrive in the mid 1970s.

Either way, I would expect it to take up Geosynchronous (or some other fairly stable) orbit; in which case we could reach it, but it would take some work to get a proper boarding mission together. Likely we would have probes and modified satellites investigate the fuck out of it first.

If we could board it, taking possession would depend on whether or not the control mechanisms could be co-opted so it doesn't decide to take off whenever it feels like it. Assuming that, I see it being used as a habitat (at least initially) primarily for people studying the artifact's technology.