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SLS and Orion

NASA Asteroid Mission: Rearranging The Solar System: Step 1

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
March 29, 2013
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NASA Asteroid Capture Mission: First Real Step in Utilizing Extraterrestrial Resources
“NASA is about to get a chance to try something totally new: instead of just visting or landing on things in space, it is going to go grab something huge and bring it back to Earth. Details will be formally announced on 10 April 2013 when the new budget is rolled out. The fact that we are now capable of going out and grabbing an asteroid and moving it to a place that we have chosen signals the first major step in the utilization of extraterrestrial resources by human civilization. We are embarking on the rearrangement of our solar system to better suit human needs. That’s a paradigm shift folks.”

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

5 responses to “NASA Asteroid Mission: Rearranging The Solar System: Step 1”

  1. dannsci says:
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    OBSERVE-TOUCH-EARLY-OFTEN

  2. Steve Whitfield says:
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    I find this very encouraging.  It could be argued that, to date, every major NASA mission that involved HSF, in whole or in part, was done for the same single primary reason — to prove that we could.

    Finally we have a proposed mission that is about using (as opposed to abusing or amusing) the resources of our solar system for the benefit of people.  It is only a first step, to be sure, but it is a very necessary and important first step.  And against the background of the last 40 years of HSF it is quite extensive and complex as a first step.  I salute NASA for this one.

    It would appear likely that many people have been sitting on this for quite a while, with no cryptic hints or encouraging “slips.”  That must have been a real challenge, especially considering how often NASA has come under attack for having no plan, no Vision. etc.

    It also validates what some of us have been saying for so long — HSF vs. robotic?  Forget it; we need them both, they complement one another. 

    With what we can learn designing for and executing this program we have a “mission” with something in it for almost every interested party.  The ISRU people should be just as encouraged as the astrophysicists.  This should take “living and working in space” to a whole new level.

    Note to Congress:  Once this program has been properly funded — Do Not Touch ! It’s HOT !

  3. Rune says:
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    This would be a rare sighting of good sense in HSF mission selection. I’m all for it!

  4. Steve Pemberton says:
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    SLS/Orion destination of the week aside, this relatively tiny line item in the budget could be one of those moments which will be looked back on as an important first step in a new era of space exploration. It could eventually lead to a large and varied collection of asteroids at L2, each available for extensive and ongoing study by both manned and robotic spacecraft.

    Looking ahead maybe twenty years, I can envision multiple space tugs bringing in asteroids on a regular basis to L2. After a space tug delivers an asteroid to L2, an array of waiting scientific probes which are parked at L2 would be ready to move in for analysis.  Having a suite of probes available at L2 would allow scientists to pick and choose which instruments that they want to use to study a particular asteroid.  Probably initially they would start with photographic and sensor probes, followed up by robotic probes for geochemical analysis. The 1.5 light-second proximity of L2 would make for very efficient robotic missions.  All of this initial study would provide the data needed to plan sample return missions, and in some cases human exploration.

    Eventually as our L2 asteroid collection begins to grow we would increasing find that our space tugs are bringing in “repeats”, i.e. asteroids which turn out to be nearly identical in composition to a previously collected asteroid.  By this time we will have built up quite a lot of experience and technical refinement in the remote analysis of asteroids, and so we could use that experience to equip the space tugs with the equipment needed to do geochemical etc. analysis in situ.  If an asteroid is deemed interesting enough it would be brought back to L2 for sample return and/or human missions.  If however the asteroid turns out to be a “dud”, the space tug would move on to the next target.

    Looking even farther out we could eventually see this same method being used to study comets and Kuiper belt objects.

  5. Ralphy999 says:
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    This article just came out in the Chron.com
    http://blog.chron.com/txpot

    Apparently, this is going to be the real deal. They are pushing the project up to 2021 from 2025. I don’t see how but that’s what congress wants and the president is going to go along with it and propose a budget for it on April 10, 2013. Geez, our very own asteroid to play with. I just hope they don’t over shoot the lunar orbit and send the darn thing into the earth! That’s gotta hurt.