[meteorite-list] trips to the Moon (Moon bases and meteoriterecovery)

From: MexicoDoug <mexicodoug_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2011 02:37:00 -0400
Message-ID: <8CE043E0FA2593F-2638-29BEF_at_webmail-d128.sysops.aol.com>

"1999 RQ36 is a carbonaceous Potentially Hazardous Asteroid with a
diameter of
about 350 meters in diameter that has a 1 in 1,800 chance of earth
imapct in
2182. I find that mission much more tantalizing than exploring the
Lagrangian
points to do some street sweeping."

Oh, grief, another thing to defend, I better call a shrink. Good luck
with that pet project, I'd sign off on it if I could ... But, a
near-earth 171 years into the future 99.94% probability that the
statistics will fade away and be forgotten vs. collide with Earth is
something I'm willing to be complacent about if I were forced into the
position to choose one and only one program. But the Discovery program
thankfully isn't so restricting for those who understand how to build a
budget to explore the heretofore unexplored.

In reading your opinion, I really did get a good chuckle, though. That
activity of "street sweeping" you fondly refer to is the reason for the
existence of this list! What you basically have in each of them is a
gravitational well that meteoroids can fall into. This is pristine
meteoric material - and I don't mean Antarctic style, I mean reach out
and touch a meteoroid in the ideal case. Sure in some circles the Near
Earth Asteroid impact hazard is like having to dot your i's and cross
your t's, but if I were to go hunting meteoric material anywhere in
this Solar System you know my vote. Even if material can't stay there
for the long haul due to various perturbations we might dream up, that
really isn't so bad. Even a blink of an eye such as one million-years
accumulation of perfectly fresh material in quantities greater than we
find in the happiest hunting grounds on Earth would be interesting.

I should comment that I did not mean to infer specifically that the
points were overwhelmingly endowed with Lunar material. I think it
would be similar to the meteorite type distribution we find on Earth
for falls, just pristine and not a single meteorwrong to be found.

Designing the collection device is something I could really "dig" as I
bet could most hunters, tinkerers and geologists. I mean, you visit one
asteroid and you learn about one asteroid. You work this one out and
your quest is to get the Rosetta Stones to all of our meteorite classes
and likely some enrichment in local 'geoselenological' history. The
dirt behind the refrigerator! I'm proud to be a card-carrying street
sweeper! Motion to change the name from "street sweeping" to meteorite
collecting on steroids (not a-steroids).. Actually I'm not sure if
these objects are meteoroids or even should be called meteorites.
They've clearly fallen into a gravitational well and they do not have
independent orbits .... micro-satellites is a tacky-sounding term for
me. if for no other reason than to get the IAU all huffy about what we
can't call them, I say the mission is well worth it! ;-)

Kindest wishes
Doug



-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Kowalski <damoclid at yahoo.com>
To: MexicoDoug <mexicodoug at aim.com>;
meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Wed, Jun 29, 2011 12:02 am
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] trips to the Moon (Moon bases and
meteoriterecovery)


Sorry if I'm being obtuse.

My terse comment that there are no known earth trojans means simply
that. We
know of no Earth Trojans at L4 or L5.
I simply can't say if there is or isn't anything there.

Can't say that either is a good place to find lunar material simply
because we
haven't found a single Trojan. As for a mission to investigate the
regions? Not
really that interesting to me. Obviously I'm much more excited by the
OSIRIS-REx
sample return mission to 1999 RQ36 later this decade.???? (Plug for LPL
& UA)


1999 RQ36 is a carbonaceous Potentially Hazardous Asteroid with a
diameter of
about 350 meters in diameter that has a 1 in 1,800 chance of earth
imapct in
2182. I find that mission much more tantalizing than exploring the
Lagrangian
points to do some street sweeping.

?

--
Richard Kowalski
Full Moon Photography
IMCA #1081
----- Original Message -----
From: MexicoDoug <mexicodoug at aim.com>
To: damoclid at yahoo.com; meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Cc:
Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2011 8:34 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] trips to the Moon (Moon bases and
meteoriterecovery)
Hi Richard,
I think I missed more than that - so what did you mean in the original 
post?
That a mission there would be a good idea to make new discoveries? I 
still don't
get it, then, and am very interested in what you say.
Kindest wishes
Doug
-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Kowalski <damoclid at yahoo.com>
To: MexicoDoug <mexicodoug at aim.com>; 
meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Tue, Jun 28, 2011 10:59 pm
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] trips to the Moon (Moon bases and
meteoriterecovery)
Doug, I think you missed a key word in my post, "... known ...".
Cheers
?
--
Richard Kowalski
Full Moon Photography
IMCA #1081
----- Original Message -----
From: MexicoDoug <mexicodoug at aim.com>
To: damoclid at yahoo.com; meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Cc:
Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2011 4:30 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] trips to the Moon (Moon bases and
meteoriterecovery)
Richard K says:
"There are no known Earth Trojans."
Hi Richard,
Come on ol' friend, even 2500 years ago Anaxagoras deduced:
"Under the stars are the Sun and Moon, and also certain bodies which 
revolve
with them, but are invisible to us."
and we've observed enough meteorites to vindicate him!
The "invisible" he was talking about refers to them being too small to 
have
enough light to reflect to be seen. What is the median threshold 
resolution we
are talking about nowadays (in mass or diameter) at that distance?
Perhaps the points are not a pocket full of horses, but Chincoteague 
Ponies,
some used, would be a coupe. Regardless, towing an asteroid back to 
earth wasn't
what I had in mind at all. Look, we've even sent Stardust to play 
tennis with
comets, in hope of getting some micron sized particles, while ignoring 
the
voluminous information guaranteed to be on the shelves of these 
libration
libraries, not in mass, but in rubble and dust, a page at a time and
conveniently located.
Best wishes
Doug
-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Kowalski <damoclid at yahoo.com>
To: meteorite list <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Tue, Jun 28, 2011 5:59 pm
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] trips to the Moon (Moon bases and
meteoriterecovery)
?
________________________________
From: MexicoDoug <mexicodoug at aim.com>
To: etmeteorites at hotmail.com; Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2011 2:35 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] trips to the Moon (Moon bases and
meteoriterecovery)
You want to go the the nearer Lagrangian Points in plain space between 
the Earth
and Moon. That is where the most fascinating stuff is to be found, 
written in
unaltered stone the genesis of the Moon and plenty more debris to keep
scientists and collectors busy and overworked for the nex 10,000 years!
There are no known Earth Trojans.
--
Richard Kowalski
Full Moon Photography
IMCA #1081
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Received on Wed 29 Jun 2011 02:37:00 AM PDT