[meteorite-list] Notes on the history of the "Asteroid Underground"

From: E.P. Grondine <epgrondine_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2010 08:15:31 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <577983.20846.qm_at_web36908.mail.mud.yahoo.com>

Hi all -

Some of you may be interested in this.

good hunting, all,
E.P. Grondine
Man and Impact in the Americas

HISTORY OF THE ASTEROID UNDERGROUND:
MANNED MISSION TO ASTEROID
NEAR and Hayabusa showed asteroid rendezvous possible
some of them move "slow" relative to the Earth
Bob Farquhar, mission designer for NEAR Shoemaker
1999 - the late Steve Ostro identified 1999 KY26 Mars-Earth cycling asteroid,
proposed its use for manned Mars flight
(E.P. Grondine, http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/ccc/ce090699.html)
Wesley Huntress - L2 and DPT(?) also favored by Ed Weiler
impactor detection telescopes could be set up there instead on of the Moon
2001 Asteroid Underground set up by Astronaut Ed Lu, Piet Hut
(Michael Klesius,
http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exploration/Million_Mile_Mission.html)
DECEMBER, 2005 George Brown Jr. amendment passed by Congress
2006 - By the summer of 2006, Ed Lu, Tom Jones, and Dave Korsmeyer, an engineer at NASA?s Ames Research Center who specializes in celestial mechanics, were conferring regularly with more than a dozen colleagues around the country, asking about the capabilities of Constellation and writing papers.
Monthly meetings begin in August, 2006
Target identified: 1999 AO10, is the size of a football field. It could be reached in 2025.
(Michael Klesius,
http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exploration/Million_Mile_Mission.html)
2006 - Ed Lu and Chris McKay - with Constellation launchers
several centers, response to George Brown Jr amendment of December, 2005
(Leonard David, http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/061227_asteroid_orion.html
2007 - Rob Landis, JSC, also mentions 1999 KY26
Rusty Schweikart, David Morrison aware
(Dawn Stover, http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-space/article/2007-10/nasas-new-target
2008 - Astronaut Tom Jones becomes involved, endorsed by lead Mars enthusiast Bob Zubrin
(Michael Klesius,
http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exploration/Million_Mile_Mission.html)
February, 2008 - Planetary Society hosts conference
(Michael Klesius,
http://www.airspacemag.com/space-exploration/Million_Mile_Mission.html)
2008 - Boeing, Chicago office or via Lori Garver to Obama(?)
2009 - 2 Orion variant manned asteroid mission from Lockheed Martin (Augustine)
Orion supports telescopes at L2
(Criag Covault, http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0908/17orion/)

April, 2010 Obama sets manned landing on asteroid by 2025 as NASA's next goal

BUT why the new Heavy Jupiter 242 with LOX/kerosene boosters?

Chances of passage good:
Schwassmann Wachmann 3's next pass on other side of solar system late in 2011.

SW3 IMPACT THREAT -
Debris stream some 6 million kilometers long,
WILL PASS THROUGH INNER SOAR SYSTEM EVERY 5.43 TO 5.46 YEARS FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES
Jupiter's gravity will change orbit.
SW3 passes through plane of our solar system (from ascending node to descending node) right at Earth's orbit. Gravity forces appear to cause fragmentation.

CLOSE INTERSECTS 2022 AND 2049 - EFFECTS UNKNOWN NOW.

58 FRAGMENTS NOW - Dr. William T. Reach of NASA's Spitzer Science Center
64 PIECES - Andre Claydon director of observation at the Springbrook Observatory
Some fragments now lost to observation - need for better NEO telescopes.

Curious - China announces March 3, 2010, after Obama and Hu meet:
LONG MARCH 8 - 3 LONG MARCH 5's strapped together and
LONG MARCH 9 - 5 LONG MARCH 5's strapped together
for development after 2015

Speculation abounds that they are being prepared to deal with fragments of
Comet Schwassmann Wachmann 3 in 2022 or asteroid Apophis in 2036.
Obama set manned landing on asteroid for 2025 as NASA's next goal in space,
which makes dealing with SW3 comet fragments in 2022 feasible.

?would demonstrate once and for all that we?re smarter than the dinosaurs
and could therefore avoid what they didn?t?,
White House science adviser John Holdren said [New Scientist].




      
Received on Fri 23 Apr 2010 11:15:31 AM PDT