Keith’s note: the following was issued by Terik Daily, chair of the SBAG (Small Bodies Assessment Group): “Dear Colleagues, The draft findings from this month’s 34th Meeting of the Small Bodies Assessment Group are now available for community comment: Community feedback on the draft findings will be taken until Sunday, February 8. After that date, the findings will be finalized. Please send feedback on the draft findings to the SBAG Chair at terik.daly -at – jhuapl.edu.” (Full document below.)

Keith’s note: NASA quietly admitted today at the Small Bodies Assessment Group (SBAG) Meeting that one of the formally baseline, prime science requirements of the Asteroid Retrieval Mission (ARM) is to retrive a boulder from the surface of an asteroid and bring it back to lunar orbit where a human crew will do science with it. Despite the mission’s name no “asteroid” will actually be “retrieved”. As such NASA really […]

Small Bodies Assessment Group FIndings “While the SBAG committee finds that there is great scientific value in sample return missions from asteroids such as OSIRIS-Rex, ARRM has been defined as not being a science mission, nor is it a cost effective way to address science goals achievable through sample return. Candidate ARRM targets are limited and not well identified or characterized. Robotic sample return missions can return higher science value […]