[meteorite-list] Fwd: Re: Visit to a Small Planet

From: drtanuki <drtanuki_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 9 May 2008 09:51:25 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <497037.5378.qm_at_web53204.mail.re2.yahoo.com>

Sorry my message did not post.

--- drtanuki <drtanuki at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Date: Fri, 9 May 2008 09:26:09 -0700 (PDT)
> From: drtanuki <drtanuki at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Visit to a Small
> Planet
> To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
>
> Dear Darren and List,
> Thank you Darren for the post.
>
> It seems to me that NASA should be more involved
> with studying and actively chasing meteorites,
> samples
> of different asteroids, here on Earth than worrying
> about going after samples of ONE asteroid; much more
> could be learned and at a much lower cost.
> NASA should set up a meteorite recovery team that
> travels the globe to recover new meteorite falls and
> discovery/detection systems that better detect their
> entry and fall locations, as well their space
> trajectories and origins.
> Orbits could be established and samples of a
> number
> of far away asteroids could be better understood.
> Currently we rely upon private citizens (meteorite
> hunters and astronomers) and a few scientists to do
> this and their personal budgets are much more
> limited
> and fall location information is often very
> hit-and-miss.
>
> If NASA wants to go somewhere, head to Mars full
> speed and don`t wait until 2030, 2050 or later.
>
> Best Regards, Dirk Ross...Tokyo
>
>
>
> --- Darren Garrison <cynapse at charter.net> wrote:
>
> >
>
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/07/starsgalaxiesandplanets.spaceexploration
> >
> > Closer encounter: Nasa plans landing on 40m-wide
> > asteroid travelling at
> > 28,000mph
> >
> > It was once considered the most dangerous object
> in
> > the universe, heading for
> > Earth with the explosive power of 84 Hiroshimas.
> Now
> > an asteroid called
> > 2000SG344, a lump of rock barely the size of a
> large
> > yacht, is in the spotlight
> > again, this time as a contender for the next giant
> > leap for mankind.
> >
> > Nasa engineers have identified the 1.1m tonne
> > asteroid, which in 2000 was given
> > a significant chance of slamming into Earth, as a
> > potential landing site for
> > astronauts, ahead of the Bush administration's
> plans
> > to venture deeper into the
> > solar system with a crewed voyage to Mars.
> >
> > The mission - the first to what officials call a
> > Near Earth Object (NEO) - is
> > being floated within the US space agency as a
> > crucial stepping stone to future
> > space exploration.
> >
> > A report seen by the Guardian notes that by
> sending
> > astronauts on a three-month
> > journey to the hurtling asteroid, scientists
> believe
> > they would learn more about
> > the psychological effects of long-term missions
> and
> > the risks of working in deep
> > space, and it would allow astronauts to test kits
> to
> > convert subsurface ice into
> > drinking water, breathable oxygen and even
> hydrogen
> > to top up rocket fuel. All
> > of which would be invaluable before embarking on a
> > two-year expedition to Mars.
> >
> > Under the Bush administration, Nasa has been
> charged
> > with sending astronauts
> > back to the moon, beginning in 2020 and
> culminating
> > in a permanent lunar
> > outpost, itself a jumping off point for more
> distant
> > Mars missions. With the
> > agency's ageing fleet of space shuttles due to be
> > retired soon after 2010, the
> > agency has begun work on a replacement called
> Orion
> > and a series of Ares rockets
> > that will blast them into orbit.
> >
> > In a study due to be published next month,
> engineers
> > at Nasa's Johnson Space
> > Centre in Houston and Ames Research Centre in
> > California flesh out plans to use
> > Orion for a three to six month round-trip to the
> > asteroid, with astronauts
> > spending a week or two on the rock's surface.
> >
> > As well as giving space officials a taste of more
> > complex missions, samples
> > taken from the rock could help scientists
> understand
> > more about the birth of the
> > solar system and how best to defend against
> > asteroids that veer into Earth's
> > path.
> >
> > "An asteroid will one day be on a collision course
> > with Earth. Doesn't it make
> > sense, after going to the moon, to start learning
> > more about them? Our study
> > shows it makes perfect sense to do this soon after
> > going back to the moon," said
> > Rob Landis, an engineer at Johnson Space Centre
> and
> > co-author of the report,
> > which is due to be published in the journal Acta
> > Astronautica.
> >
> > More precise measurements of the orbit of
> 2000SG344
> > have allayed fears that it
> > could hit Earth sometime around the end of
> September
> > 2030, but the asteroid is
> > still expected to come close in astronomical
> terms.
> >
> > The report lays out plans for a crew of two to
> > rendezvous with a speeding
> > asteroid that is due to pass close by Earth. After
> a
> > seven-week outward journey,
> > the Orion capsule would swing around and close in
> on
> > the rock.
> >
> > Because gravity is close to zero on asteroids, the
> > capsule would need to attach
> > itself, possibly by firing anchors into the
> surface.
> > For the same reason,
> > astronauts would not be able to walk around on the
> > surface as they did on the
> > moon. "On some of these asteroids, you could jump
> up
> > and go into orbit, or maybe
> > even leave for good," said Landis.
> >
> > A round trip to an asteroid could be done with
> less
> > fuel than a moon mission,
> > but is technically very challenging. The asteroid
> is
> > only 40 metres across and
> > spins as it hurtles through space at 28,000mph.
> >
> > Landis thinks that a trip to an asteroid could
> > capture imaginations even more
> > than a return to our nearest celestial neighbour.
> > "When we head back to the
> > moon, I think we'll see many of the same scenes we
> > saw in the 60s and 70s Apollo
> > programme. We've been to the moon, we got that
> > T-shirt back in 1969. But
> > whenever we've sent robotic probes to look at
> > asteroids, we've always been
> > surprised at what we've seen," he said.
> >
> > Because asteroids were forged in the earliest days
> > of the solar system,
> > analysing samples from them could shed light on
> the
> > conditions that prevailed
> > when the Earth was formed.
> >
> > "Near Earth objects are a potential collision
> hazard
> > to Earth and it may one day
> > be necessary to deflect an asteroid from a
> collision
> > course with Earth," said
> > Ian Crawford, a planetary scientist at Birkbeck
> > College, London. "Having the
> > capability in your back pocket to deflect an
> > asteroid might be a good insurance
> > policy for the future, and for that, you want to
> > know what they are made of, how
> > to rendezvous with them, and whether you risk
> > getting hit by debris if you fire
> > something at it."
> > ______________________________________________
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> >
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> >
>
>
Received on Fri 09 May 2008 12:51:25 PM PDT