Posted on 12/24/2012 10:33:11 AM PST by shove_it
That said, the capture and redirect idea could have value as part of an asteroid defense scheme. I just hope they get the math right this time and not, oh, say, reverse the sign and propel the damned thing into the Pacific.
What astronauts?
We don’t have a manned space program.
So are the Russians going to do this for us?
Don't know, but a 500 ton rock is not very big and why would a small asteroid be better than simply placing something in the planned orbit, assuming that it was even necessary.
That is what scientific work is today,plans to do cool stuff that though feasible would never get approved.NASA went from a beacon of hope to an agency that deals in “planning” instead of seeing anything through.
Time to put this agency out of its misery.
Posted previously in 2010:
Towards the end of my aerospace career I proposed two key technologies that would allow a Mars mission:
1. Suspended Animation by using a combination of drugs, e.g., anesthesia meds, and lowered body temp.
My scheme for lowering body temp is to surgically implant a heating coil in the blood supply to the hypothalamus. By heating the blood there, you convince the body that it is overheating.
We only need to lower the temp to the low 90s in order to have the astronaut sleep for 2-3 weeks at a time. For a crew of six, you keep 2 awake to run the ship while 4 sleep. Your logistics (oxygen, food, water, waste) are reduced by about 60%.
2. A chemical processor about the size of a desk that uses CO2 and water to synthesize sugar, alcohol, and then carbohyddrate to bake bread with some additives such as fiber. You can easily fulfill over 50% of calorie requirements with such a synthesizer.
Oh yeah, it would provide the grog ration daily.
I also proposed that we search for a small Apollo asteroid near the plane of the Earth-Mars orbit with aphelion near Mars and perihelion near Earth.
Over a period of time we could use a mass driver, a la Gerard O’Neill, and put the asteroid into a Mars/Earth cycling orbit.
I must give credit to Buzz Aldrin’s ground breaking work on cycling spaceships here.
My proposal was to establish a long term space station near the asteroid to house astronauts going to/from Mars.
We would have plenty of soil for agriculture and a fully self-sustaining environment as well as all the radiation shielding we could ever want.
In addition, the astronauts could do some original science on the nearby celestial body.
As the cycling station + asteroid approach Mars or Earth, the astronauts use an Apollo style capsule to reenter the atmosphere. The station continues it’s cyclic orbit with a new crew.
Without high speed transit, the show stoppers for a Mars mission are logistics (food, etc.) and the total radiation dose of a 3 year trip. Without shielding, the astronauts will not survive 3 years of radiation for long.
Once again, though I did a FR search, it failed to turn up your posting, dang it! One suggestion re your proposal, please correct your spelling of hippopotamus.
p.s.
Nice touch with the grog ration.
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