Tag Archives: asteroids

Responding to Potential Asteroid Redirect Mission Targets

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NASA is developing an Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) — a first-ever mission to identify, capture and redirect an asteroid to a safe orbit of Earth’s moon for future exploration by astronauts in the 2020s.

ARM will use capabilities in development, including the new Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, and high-power Solar Electric Propulsion. All are critical components of deep-space exploration and essential to meet NASA’s goal of sending humans to Mars in the 2030s. The mission represents an unprecedented technological feat, raising the bar for human exploration and discovery, while helping protect our home planet and bringing us closer to a human mission to one of these intriguing objects.

via Responding to Potential Asteroid Redirect Mission Targets | NASA.

Here is an article from 12/24/2012 about this.

“Synthetic Tracking” Set to Revolutionise Near-Earth Asteroid Discovery

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By contrast, they say that with a 5 metres telescope, synthetic tracking should spot about 80 of these objects each night. That’s “almost 1000 times higher than the discovery rate of these small objects over the last 5 years,” they say.

via “Synthetic Tracking” Set to Revolutionise Near-Earth Asteroid Discovery  — The Physics arXiv Blog — Medium.

But there are other uses for this data. NASA is hoping to send a crewed mission to a near Earth asteroid in the not-too-distant future and has started a program called the Asteroid Grand Challenge to identify potential targets.

Paper on this subject here.

NASA plans to `lasso’ asteroid and turn it into space station

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The craft would then turn on its thrusters, using an estimated 300kg of propellant, to stop the asteroid in its tracks and tow it into a gravitationally neutral spot.

From here space explorers would have a stationary base from which to launch trips deeper into space.

via NASA plans to `lasso’ asteroid and turn it into space station – The Times of India.

George Bailey lassos the moon.

Chinese space probe flies by asteroid Toutatis

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The flyby was the first time an unmanned spacecraft launched from Earth has taken such a close viewing of the asteroid, named after a Celtic god.

It also made China the fourth country after the United States, the European Union and Japan to be able to examine an asteroid by spacecraft.

Chang’e-2 came as close as 3.2 km from Toutatis and took pictures of the asteroid at a relative velocity of 10.73 km per second, the SASTIND said in a statement.

via Chinese space probe flies by asteroid Toutatis — Shanghai Daily | 上海日报 — English Window to China New.

Asteroid takeout—a one-billionaire mission to bring a 500-ton asteroid to Earth by 2025

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Visiting (and eventually mining) asteroids is viewed by space development advocates as an imperative stepping stone to making our way out into the solar system. One group of President Obama’s advisors, the Augustine Commission, counseled that a manned asteroid mission might bring the highest payoff per dollar spent in terms of science and essential skills for space exploration. A study was also commissioned to check the feasibility of bringing a small asteroid—on the order of 10,000kg—back to the International Space Station. It reported no showstoppers.

via Asteroid takeout—a one-billionaire mission to bring a 500-ton asteroid to Earth by 2025.

Electric Rockets Are Set to Transform Space Flight

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Charged Up: Electric Rockets Are Set to Transform Space Flight | Txchnologist.

NASA’s Dawn space probe, which is now exploring the asteroid Vesta, was among the first interplanetary craft to employ solar electric propulsion (SEP) for primary propulsion. But Dawn’s three electric engines are rated at only 2.3 kW each (3 horsepower), about the power of a small lawnmower engine, which means which means they had to produce their low thrust for years to build up the high velocity needed to travel to the distant asteroid in a reasonable time.

This tech is so cool.