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Exploration

A Human NEO Visit?

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
June 1, 2006

Adventures in Near-Earth Object Exploration, Science (subscription)

“If we are seeking a new vision for human exploration in space, it should be emphasized that astronauts could visit a small NEO without developing a lot of new space hardware. Veteran astronaut Jones and his colleagues (13) have put forward a mission concept where a modified Soyuz crew vehicle, refueled and docked to the International Space Station (ISS), takes astronauts on a several-month “vacation” to rendezvous with an Earth-approaching asteroid, returning to the ISS for stories of adventure to be told around the galley. Perhaps asteroids are the logical, achievable first focus for human rocketry beyond the Moon; if so, then missions such as Hayabusa are paving the way.”

13. T. D. Jones et al., in The Future of Solar System Exploration, 20032013, M. V. Sykes, Ed. (ASP Conference Series, vol. 272) (Astronomical Society of the Pacific, San Francisco, 2002), pp. 141154.

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.