2014 BA3 – Possible Asteroid Robotic Retrieval Mission Target?
2014 BA3 Goldstone Radar Observations Planning
“2014 BA3 was discovered by the Mt. Lemmon Survey (Arizona) on January 21, 2014. It has an absolute magnitude of 28.3 suggesting a diameter within a factor of two of only 7 meters, but nothing else is known about its physical properties. This object is one of the best candidates ever discovered for NASA’s new Asteroid Robotic Retrieval Mission, so we will try to detect echoes at Goldstone to improve the asteroid’s orbit and to characterize its physical properties. … 2014 BA3 will approach within 0.0151 AU on January 26. This object is at about 20th magnitude so it is a difficult target for observers using optical telescopes. ”
– Asteroid 2014 BA3, JPL Small Body Database Simulator
– NASA Asteroid Initiative
“@GrnBnkTelescope: Next obs: Urgent Proposal for Goldstone-Green Bank Radar Obs of Asteroid 2014 BA3 http://t.co/wXdh98Tby2“
— NRAO (@TheNRAO) January 27, 2014
Asteroid 2014 BA3 flyby in ~ 30 mins (Jan 26 at 02:13 UT). Dist: 5.88 LD. Size: 4-13 m. http://t.co/sxOGrrvQXk
— Minor Planet Center (@MinorPlanetCtr) January 26, 2014
I was hoping this one-and-done mission was laid to rest by Congress.
Let’s just focus on establishing a permanent lunar presence (preferably using commercial launch vehicles) and put aside this nonsense mission to nowhere. The last thing the human space program needs is an one-off mission.
—John
Depends upon the target of choice. If it is indeed a “one-off mission” then might I suggest 1991 VG, purely for it being a cosmic mystery.
Why not tow the asteroid to the ISS? To be realistic, if what we want is science, just send a vehicle to take samples and return them to earth in an entry vehicle like Hyabusa.
“Why not tow the asteroid to the ISS”
Perception is everything. Even though it would only be a 7 meter asteroid (mostly harmless), there would be a lot of people who see it as a threat to drag an asteroid into an orbit with the earth vice an orbit with the moon.
“To be realistic, if what we want is science, just send a vehicle to take samples and return them to earth in an entry vehicle like Hyabusa”
Collecting samples seems only to be a small part of the mission. Outside of the fact that this mission plans on using the SLS, I actually like it. I see two other good reasons for the mission. First, the asteroid would be parked in an easy to access orbit (in relation to its current orbit around the sun). So we don’t have to draw up a BEO mission (robotic or unmanned) if we want to study something about asteroids of this class. Secondly, it offers a test-bed for technology development, including but not limited to asteroid mining. I could easily see it being opened to the private market when NASA is done poking it. Just my two cents (more or less).
If the purpose of this asteroid mission is to help us get to Mars, then a permanently manned station on the Moon would make much greater sense. You could use this to work out how best to live in situ. It’s also conveniently close.
These ideas of going to an asteroid, to Mars, and back to the moon are not mutually exclusive. There is some value with ARRM in its own right, the entirety of which we are yet to be aware of.
I agree with your sentiment about the moon, but until property rights have been worked out within the international community, establishing a permanent base or mining operation there is going to be cause for concern. When these laws do get changed, and I believe they will, even then this will mostly be done by the private sector.
On a final note, all of the above missions will be near impossible for NASA to do if they let SLS, along with overly fat centers to suck up all the funds. I really wish the GAO had the teeth and will to stop this non-sense.
cause you wouldn’t need Orion/SLS for that and they need a mission to continue to still exist.
What would the delta V be for trying to bring it in to LEO?
Too much, that’s what. EM-L2 is chosen is because its both a stable orbit and requires under 1 km/sec delta-v from solar orbit for a some of these NEAs; some <0.5 km/sec. However, to lower the orbit from say, Earth-Moon L2 to LEO (or ISS) is about 4 km/sec delta-V. A 9 meter asteroid at 2 gm/cm^3 weighs about twice the launch pad fully loaded weight of a Saturn V, that is, the asteroid mass = 6 million kg. A Saturn V could only lift about 5% of its weight to LEO (10 km/sec delta-V). So it would take 20 Saturn Vs to launch a Saturn V’s amount of weight to LEO. Doing the math, one would need about 16 Saturn Vs to move a 9 meter asteroid from EML-2 to LEO.
What would be much easier is to bring back a small amount in a Genesis/Stardust/OSIRIS REx type return capsule. And there are other cool ideas that are cheaper. OSIRIS REx is only returning a few grams! I said grams, about a tablespoon and it is costing taxpayers $1 Billion when you include the cost of a ULA Atlas V ($188M).
Actually, asteroids decelerate all the way to zero every day when encountering the Earth, without any fuel at all. The trick is the liability insurance coverage
The Moon’s gravity can be used to reduce fuel cost to capture asteroids. Decelerating with aerobraking to place an asteroid into an initial orbit would be possible too. The only way you’d get international support for aerobraking a Chelyabinsk-sized asteroid into an Earth orbit is by making it a cooperative agreement probably leading to making the rock a shared resource too. Probably many small asteroids could not be aerobraked because the gravitational and aerodynamic pressures would cause breakup; not a good thing.
ARRM is a demonstration mission that is meant to draw objectives & support from 3 NASA divisions: Science (SMD), Human Exploration (HEOMD), and Technology Development (STMD). I would not call it a one-off mission, but rather as a pathfinder with a different way of doing things than NASA’s current silo approach. Follow-up missions can include many different options, including asteroid ISRU.
AARM is a justification to keep Orion/SLS in business and certain congress people happy anything beyond that has always been a matter of debate and questionable scientific merit.
By the time the AARM hardware was completed and ready to launch .. SLS will be a memory and it will launch on a Falcon Heavy.
The robotic AARM spacecraft that will re-direct the asteroid is planned to launch on an EELV, not SLS. Falcon Heavy could compete for that launch if certified for NASA flights in time.
Couldn’t such a mission be designed to jump start asteriod mining????
If it was done with SAA contracting with a fixed price and milestones I would at least want to look at it. But a NASA same ole’ same ole’ I would prefer a fuel depot.
It remains possible for NASA to function as a technology leader to mine asteroids. There is development along these lines inside NASA but with SLS and Orion consuming funds, there are insufficient funds to be in the lead. NASA must stop short of actually mining and producing. That will be up to private industry and likewise NASA needs to step aside now from building costly, poorly managed conventional rockets. Turn the funds for SLS and Orion to commercial rockets and NASA will have funds remaining to undertake discovery and survey of Near-Earth asteroids. Its unfortunate that it has taken two retired astronauts to put in proper light the need for an asteroid finder scope. Sentinel as Lu and Schweickart are pushing should have been NASA’s initiative. While the Asteroid Initiative is not a listed objective of the Decadal Survey, it is a good and needed program. It can be cross-agency in scope. It can be done economically with commercial launch vehicles and it can include the initiative of Lu and Schweickart. The Asteroid Initiative is not written in stone, no pun intended. Changes to the concept must include how we launch the needed hardware and humans. A ground program is needed but B612 is correct that only with Sentinel leading the way will we find the NEAs any time soon. NASA can do are a series of low cost, micro-satellite probes to survey many of these small bodies. Capturing and grabbing, putting in Earth orbit just one asteroid is too much a stunt. It is a stunt if you do not have this balanced with a broad survey above and beyond just finding all of them.
ARM could be a useful series of missions if proposed as NOT bein’ a one off. It would help drive development of electric propulsion, install a new cadre of flight controllers who have experience with other than LEO missions and help implement CIS-Lunar development activity. Also it will help drive down some of the costs via a “production line” for key aspects of flight hardware that would be needed for multiple missions vs. the one & done way we are stuck with. Also we need the WH & Congress to get on the same page with a set of mid and long term goals for manned spaceflight. The MOON should be; MUST BE part of the equation. To say it isn’t needed or of use is beyond HEAD IN THE SAND BULLFEATHERS! I would also like NASA to take a serious look at the possibility of using some of the ISS modules for a L2 outpost. Even if they only had say a 5 year shelf life left that would be huge in helping establish the initial capabilities at L2. Launch a series of Orions, Dragons, Dreamchasers to a parking orbit in high Earth orbit to be then equipped with Bigelow modules for trans L2/Moon/Earth flights. They would stay on orbit so long as deemed safely usable. If anything from ISS or L2 needed to be brought back to Earth for repair or to retrieve samples etc… the Dreamchaser could be used for that application. By doing these things we help initiate Astromining activity which will help drive other forms of commercial activity.
Yes. This has been the big drawback of mining the Moon or asteroids – the cost of reaching and particularly, returning the materials to Earth. But it is only a short term cost. Within 100 years, robotic mining of asteroids or the Moon will be self-sustaining. The cost of the operations will become independent of “Earth” economics. The robotics will process and create the materials and fuel for propulsion from raw resources without any “investment” from Earth. The materials will be delivered back to Earth, from the Earth’s perspective, at no cost. Its just the upfront investment and technology to be created that is the big hurdle. But once started, the resources are essentially limitless and will end most mining operations on Earth.