[meteorite-list] Visit to a Small Planet

From: drtanuki <drtanuki_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 9 May 2008 09:26:09 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <46329.67738.qm_at_web53211.mail.re2.yahoo.com>

Dear Darren and List,
  Thank you Darren for the post.

  It seems to me that NASA should be more involved
with studying and actively chasing meteorites, samples
of different asteroids, here on Earth than worrying
about going after samples of ONE asteroid; much more
could be learned and at a much lower cost.
  NASA should set up a meteorite recovery team that
travels the globe to recover new meteorite falls and
discovery/detection systems that better detect their
entry and fall locations, as well their space
trajectories and origins.
  Orbits could be established and samples of a number
of far away asteroids could be better understood.
  Currently we rely upon private citizens (meteorite
hunters and astronomers) and a few scientists to do
this and their personal budgets are much more limited
and fall location information is often very
hit-and-miss.
  
  If NASA wants to go somewhere, head to Mars full
speed and don`t wait until 2030, 2050 or later.

  Best Regards, Dirk Ross...Tokyo

  

--- Darren Garrison <cynapse at charter.net> wrote:

>
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/may/07/starsgalaxiesandplanets.spaceexploration
>
> Closer encounter: Nasa plans landing on 40m-wide
> asteroid travelling at
> 28,000mph
>
> It was once considered the most dangerous object in
> the universe, heading for
> Earth with the explosive power of 84 Hiroshimas. Now
> an asteroid called
> 2000SG344, a lump of rock barely the size of a large
> yacht, is in the spotlight
> again, this time as a contender for the next giant
> leap for mankind.
>
> Nasa engineers have identified the 1.1m tonne
> asteroid, which in 2000 was given
> a significant chance of slamming into Earth, as a
> potential landing site for
> astronauts, ahead of the Bush administration's plans
> to venture deeper into the
> solar system with a crewed voyage to Mars.
>
> The mission - the first to what officials call a
> Near Earth Object (NEO) - is
> being floated within the US space agency as a
> crucial stepping stone to future
> space exploration.
>
> A report seen by the Guardian notes that by sending
> astronauts on a three-month
> journey to the hurtling asteroid, scientists believe
> they would learn more about
> the psychological effects of long-term missions and
> the risks of working in deep
> space, and it would allow astronauts to test kits to
> convert subsurface ice into
> drinking water, breathable oxygen and even hydrogen
> to top up rocket fuel. All
> of which would be invaluable before embarking on a
> two-year expedition to Mars.
>
> Under the Bush administration, Nasa has been charged
> with sending astronauts
> back to the moon, beginning in 2020 and culminating
> in a permanent lunar
> outpost, itself a jumping off point for more distant
> Mars missions. With the
> agency's ageing fleet of space shuttles due to be
> retired soon after 2010, the
> agency has begun work on a replacement called Orion
> and a series of Ares rockets
> that will blast them into orbit.
>
> In a study due to be published next month, engineers
> at Nasa's Johnson Space
> Centre in Houston and Ames Research Centre in
> California flesh out plans to use
> Orion for a three to six month round-trip to the
> asteroid, with astronauts
> spending a week or two on the rock's surface.
>
> As well as giving space officials a taste of more
> complex missions, samples
> taken from the rock could help scientists understand
> more about the birth of the
> solar system and how best to defend against
> asteroids that veer into Earth's
> path.
>
> "An asteroid will one day be on a collision course
> with Earth. Doesn't it make
> sense, after going to the moon, to start learning
> more about them? Our study
> shows it makes perfect sense to do this soon after
> going back to the moon," said
> Rob Landis, an engineer at Johnson Space Centre and
> co-author of the report,
> which is due to be published in the journal Acta
> Astronautica.
>
> More precise measurements of the orbit of 2000SG344
> have allayed fears that it
> could hit Earth sometime around the end of September
> 2030, but the asteroid is
> still expected to come close in astronomical terms.
>
> The report lays out plans for a crew of two to
> rendezvous with a speeding
> asteroid that is due to pass close by Earth. After a
> seven-week outward journey,
> the Orion capsule would swing around and close in on
> the rock.
>
> Because gravity is close to zero on asteroids, the
> capsule would need to attach
> itself, possibly by firing anchors into the surface.
> For the same reason,
> astronauts would not be able to walk around on the
> surface as they did on the
> moon. "On some of these asteroids, you could jump up
> and go into orbit, or maybe
> even leave for good," said Landis.
>
> A round trip to an asteroid could be done with less
> fuel than a moon mission,
> but is technically very challenging. The asteroid is
> only 40 metres across and
> spins as it hurtles through space at 28,000mph.
>
> Landis thinks that a trip to an asteroid could
> capture imaginations even more
> than a return to our nearest celestial neighbour.
> "When we head back to the
> moon, I think we'll see many of the same scenes we
> saw in the 60s and 70s Apollo
> programme. We've been to the moon, we got that
> T-shirt back in 1969. But
> whenever we've sent robotic probes to look at
> asteroids, we've always been
> surprised at what we've seen," he said.
>
> Because asteroids were forged in the earliest days
> of the solar system,
> analysing samples from them could shed light on the
> conditions that prevailed
> when the Earth was formed.
>
> "Near Earth objects are a potential collision hazard
> to Earth and it may one day
> be necessary to deflect an asteroid from a collision
> course with Earth," said
> Ian Crawford, a planetary scientist at Birkbeck
> College, London. "Having the
> capability in your back pocket to deflect an
> asteroid might be a good insurance
> policy for the future, and for that, you want to
> know what they are made of, how
> to rendezvous with them, and whether you risk
> getting hit by debris if you fire
> something at it."
> ______________________________________________
> http://www.meteoritecentral.com
> Meteorite-list mailing list
> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
>
http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
>
Received on Fri 09 May 2008 12:26:09 PM PDT