And his space rock.
Posted on 07/25/2011 4:26:50 PM PDT by Do Not Make Fun Of His Ears
With the space shuttle now history, Nasa's next great mission is so audacious, the agency's best minds are wrestling with how to pull it off.
They have presidential orders to to send astronauts to an asteroid in less than 15 years.
The challenges are innumerable, but many Nasa brains are thrilled to have such an improbable assignment - and believe civilisation may even depend on it.
An asteroid is a giant space rock that orbits the sun, like Earth. And someday one might threaten the planet.
But sending people to one won't be easy. You can't land on an asteroid because you'd bounce off - it has virtually no gravity. Astronauts couldn't even walk on it because they'd float away.
Reaching it might require a Nasa spacecraft to harpoon it.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Isn't NASA now to be used for "Muslim Outreach"? I wasn't aware there were Muslims living on asteroids.
I guess someone in the Obama group liked the earth-saving asteroid movie “Armageddon.” I can’t think of any other reason for this.
Put Obama on an asteroid within 15 days.
Me either, I thought they were mostly found around hemmoroids.
Too big of a step. We should look at a longer stay on the moon first. Kinda pick up where we left off.
On the other hand, the time required in space to visit an asteroid might actually spur some innovation in shielding technology.
harpoon ——> tractor beam.
When Kennedy issued the challenge of the moon, he made sure to specify sending a man to the moon "and return him safely to Earth".
Don't see any such language here.
such as Vega or Eros?
We’re hitching rides on Russian rockets.... are going to pay the Russkies to take us there?
Proof that obama has rocks in his head. I personnaly think that putting astronauts in a capsule the size of Orion for a long duration trip would be a mental suicide mission.
And his space rock.
Heading for a landing on Niburu?
bump
If you’re going out to the asteroid belt, might as well go all the way to Mars. Make it a two-fer. Drop the Muzzie astronauts on the asteroid and tell them we’ll pick them up on the way back.
Why is an asteroid better than Mars? Wouldn’t Mars be easier?
This is madness. There is nothing an astronaut can do to an asteroid that a robot cannot do better.
The mass of the largest asteroid is about 1/300 the mass of the Moon. I'm too lazy to calculate the escape velocity from Vesta, but my guess is that an uncovered sneeze could send and astronaut hurtling off into random areas of the solar system.
ML/NJ
This is madness. There is nothing an astronaut can do to an asteroid that a robot cannot do better.
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