For other space news go to: http://www.spacetoday.net
For a list of Private Space Companies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_private_spaceflight_companies
I wouldn’t want to be on a human mission where the planners are on speed.
2020?
2025?
Maybe the Indians or the Chinese will do it.
The good ole US of A is going to be flat broke. We’ll be lucky if we can afford a manned mission to starbucks.
Probably a good idea for a lot of reasons.
We’re losing the Shuttle and putting our Lunar projects “on hold, just for a little while, honest”.
Someone will get there, I’m sure. Someone will also get the technology to deflect asteroids and smaller rocks, too. For keeping us all safe, you understand, they’d never push a rock AT Earth for geopolitical gain.
Ever!
I guess this will be Hillary’s next mission.
Why would such a mission need to be manned? From LM’s viewpoint I’d guess it means more money.
Asteroids might end up being a very profitable business for a private company. One asteroid in particular, in a near Earth orbit, about 70 times further from Earth than the Moon, is called 433 Eros. It is about 34km x 11 km x 11km, yet is believed to have more rare metals than the entire crust of the Earth.
On Earth, for example, platinum group metals are so rare that mined ores contain about 2 parts per million of platinum. Were a probe to land on 433 Eros, mine it somewhat, and concentrate its platinum, other platinum group metals, gold, and other valuable elements to just a five percent of the mass of the ore, it could be worth several million dollars.
If it had a nuclear furnace on board, so could melt the rock and produce just a big ball of mixed metal, it could even use the spinning momentum of the asteroid to hurl the ball in the general direction of Earth, for space recovery.
Not only would the deep space sojourn shake out hardware, it would also build confidence in long-duration stints at the moon and Mars. At the same time, the trek would sharpen skills to deal with a future space rock found on a collision course with Earth.Thanks again, KevinDavis.
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Don’t like this because it is replacement for lunar return and Mars landings.
We kick around an asteroid or bounce around Phobos while China mines lunar helium 3?
No thanks. But under Obama this is as good as it may get.