[meteorite-list] Reaching For The Asteroids

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:10:10 2004
Message-ID: <200304200430.VAA29996_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY PRESS NOTICE

Issued by:

Jacqueline Mitton
RAS Press Officer
Phone: +44 (0)1223-564914
E-mail: jmitton_at_dial.pipex.com

Peter Bond
RAS Press Officer (Space Science)
Phone: +44 (0)1483-268672
Fax: +44 (0)1483-274047
E-mail: PeterRBond_at_aol.com
Mobile phone: +44 (0)7711-213486

RAS Web site:
     http://www.ras.org.uk

UK/Ireland National Astronomy Meeting Web site:
     http://star.arm.ac.uk/nam2003/

NAM PRESS ROOM, Dublin, Ireland (8 -11 April only):
Tel.: +353 (1) 677-7608 and 7683 Fax: +353 (1) 677-7566

CONTACT:

On the afternoon of Thursday 10 April and on Friday
11 April Dr. Christou can be contacted via the NAM
press office (see above).

Normal contact details:

Dr. Apostolos Christou
Armagh Observatory
College Hill
Armagh
BT61 9DG
Northern Ireland
Tel: +44 (0)2837-522928
Fax: +44 (0)2837-527174
E-mail: aac_at_star.arm.ac.uk

Date: 1 April 2003

PN03-24

REACHING FOR THE ASTEROIDS

Humans hopping over the surface of asteroids. Extraction
of minerals from Earth-grazing chunks of rock. Sounds
like science fiction, but scientists are already looking
ahead and trying to identify the nearest objects whose
resources may be exploited by future entrepreneurs.

During the UK/Ireland Astronomy Meeting in Dublin,
Dr. Apostolos Christou (Armagh Observatory) will be
presenting new results concerning the most easily
reachable Near Earth asteroids (NEAs) so far discovered.

"Near Earth asteroids constitute the most accessible
source of pristine extraterrestrial material in the
solar system, apart from the Moon," he said.

"These bodies hold, in their chemical makeup,
fundamental information about the conditions under
which the planets formed and evolved. For a modest
cost, inexpensive missions can be mounted to
rendezvous with or return samples from a selection
of these objects.

"Human missions to NEAs are also seen as a logical
first step to the utilization and settlement of the
solar system," he added.

"Finally, the acquisition of data on the composition
and internal structure of NEAs is also a necessary
prequisite to developing an effective strategy to
protect the Earth from asteroid impacts."

Christou and his colleagues studied 27 candidate
asteroids that had previously been discovered through
recent observational surveys. They included boulder-
sized objects no more than 40 metres across
(1998 KY26), fragments of the large main-belt asteroid
Vesta (3361 Orpheus) and binary asteroids (1996 FG3).

They then assessed the asteroids in order to find out
which are the easiest to reach and the most accessible
to visiting spacecraft. Using a method similar to
that used in designing transfer paths to the planets,
they found that one object (1999 AO10) requires less
energy to achieve a rendezvous than placing an orbiter
around the Moon. A further four of the Earth-grazers
are easier to reach than Mars or Venus.

Based on these results, Christou concluded that
there are no insurmountable technical challenges to
launching small, inexpensive satellites to scrutinize
these objects. Such missions would typically require
1-2 years to reach their targets before spending
several months orbiting or on the surface of the
asteroid, studying composition, geology and internal
structure.

Eventually, these NEAs may prove to be valuable
targets for human expeditions. However, detailed
knowledge of their physical properties is currently
available for only a small fraction of the known
NEA population and only one quarter of the asteroid
sample studied by Christou's group.

"We need to know more about these small, elusive
objects, so ground-based observational studies of
NEA sizes, rotations and spectral types should be
a near-term priority," concluded Christou.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

The 2003 UK/Ireland National Astronomy Meeting is
hosted by the Astronomical Science Group of Ireland
(ASGI) with support from (inter alia) the Particle
Physics and Astronomy Research Council, the Royal
Astronomical Society (RAS), the Armagh Observatory,
the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Trinity
College Dublin, the Royal Irish Academy and the
British Council.

FURTHER INFORMATION AND IMAGES CAN BE FOUND ON THE WEB AT:

* Interplanetary Travel - Astrodynamics page (from
  Friday 4 April)
  http://star.arm.ac.uk/~aac/astrodyn.html
* Steve Ostro's asteroid radar site
  http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/
* Scott Hudson's asteroid shape modelling site (including
  a shape model for 1998 KY26)
  http://www.eecs.wsu.edu/~hudson/Research/Asteroids/index.htm
Received on Sun 20 Apr 2003 12:30:14 AM PDT