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 ...
Any way we could make that happen?
New Mecca or Something...populate it with virgins?
Yeah, especially since Mars is closer than the asteroid belt. The asteroids are beyond mars, between mars and jupiter. This obsession obama has with landing on an asteroid indicates a mind formed by bad hollywood fiction.
An asteroid landing seems like an unnecessarily dangerous first step.
Or, a small nuclear isotope reactor could do it at a 1/4 of the weight and complexity.
Depending on the time of year, Mars is closer.
>>Too big of a step. We should look at a longer stay on the moon first. Kinda pick up where we left off.<<
Asimov and Heinlein BOTH suggested a “Luna City.” They prompted many a child to become rocket scientists, engineers and inventors of things from Velcro to MRIs to GPS.
We owe it to ourselves to establish a city on the Moon — there is so much we could learn and do there and, silly as it may seem to those who eschew SF, to complete the initial vision of the Masters who inspired so many.
This whole “go to a asteroid” and “maybe go to Mars” is a (yet another) sop by barry the zero’s handlers. He doesn’t care about space. The only space he understands is the one between his ears that gets filled by his handlers.
No, but it would be a start.
As they say about mountain climbing...."Getting up is optional, getting down is mandatory".
I think “landing on” is kind of a stupid way to go about it anyway.
A ‘fly by’ is much more feasible, useful, etc.
Reach out a sampling arm from a robot to get a sample off the surface - but don’t try to walk on it. It doesn’t have enough mass to keep you there.
I am thinking something along the lines of a Nebula Call Starship with gun rack and a whaling ship harpoon.
When Kennedy issued the chalenge to put a man on the moon “and return him safely to earth” it was because the USA had intel that Russia was close to sending a man to the moon- to die there.
They had many volunteers (space cowboys are like that) and not only was it horrifying to Kennedy’s morals but he knew if we issued that challenge Russia would NOT be able to keep up wih the safe return part of it.
That statement made sure we got there first.
We should explore the ruins Richard Hoagland (sp?) says on the side of the moon turned away from Earth. Or has he stopped saying they are there?
Doh! You’re right. For some reason I was thinking it was between Earth and Mars.
Wasted a completely good snarky comment.
Duh, Lori... and to think, she is in management.
Actually some of the asteroids out there would be almost easier to arrive at than going to the moon. Of course getting back might not be as easy.
Going to Mars would require a lot more than getting to an asteroid. Plus the expense of launching off of Mars for the return.
The point is there is NO POINT is sending a human to a big rock in space. You cannot land on it, or walk on it. Maybe you can haul it back and crash it into Mecca, I might support it then.
LOL the moon is littered with robot heads.
Exactly!
Mars is closer than the asteroid belt for one. We know more about Mars, its resources, its seasons, its orbit. A stepping stone to building a colony on Mars.
We know that lack of gravity has adverse effects on the human body.
Land astronauts on a asteroid sounds like another 0bama - Dr James Henson pie in the sky failure in the making without a long term plan.
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