The Briefing Room
General Category => Science, Technology and Knowledge => Topic started by: mystery-ak on April 05, 2013, 09:10:43 pm
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http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_CAPTURING_ASTEROID?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-04-05-16-13-46 (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_CAPTURING_ASTEROID?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-04-05-16-13-46)
Apr 5, 5:02 PM EDT
Senator: NASA to lasso asteroid, bring it closer
By SETH BORENSTEIN
AP Science Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- NASA is planning for a robotic spaceship to lasso a small asteroid and park it near the moon for astronauts to explore, a top senator revealed Friday.
The robotic ship would capture the 500-ton 25-foot asteroid in 2019. Then using an Orion space capsule, now being developed, a crew of about four astronauts would nuzzle up next to the rock in 2021 for spacewalking exploration, according to a government document obtained by The Associated Press.
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said the plan would speed up by four years the existing mission to land astronauts on an asteroid by bringing the space rock closer to Earth.
Nelson, who is chairman of the Senate science and space subcommittee, said Friday that President Barack Obama is putting $100 million in planning money for the accelerated asteroid mission in the 2014 budget that comes out next week. The money would be used to find the right small asteroid.
"It really is a clever concept," Nelson said in a press conference in Orlando. "Go find your ideal candidate for an asteroid. Go get it robotically and bring it back."
While there are thousands of asteroids that size out there, finding the right one that comes by Earth at just the right time to be captured will not be easy, said Donald Yeomans, who heads NASA's Near Earth Object program that monitors close-by asteroids. He said once a suitable rock is found it would be captured with the space equivalent of "a baggie with a drawstring. You bag it. You attach the solar propulsion module to de-spin it and bring it back to where you want it."
Yeomans said a 25-foot asteroid is no threat to Earth because it would burn up should it inadvertently enter Earth's atmosphere. The mission as Nelson described is perfectly safe, he said.
Nelson said this would help NASA develop the capability to nudge away a dangerous asteroid if one headed to Earth in the future. It also would be training for a future mission to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s, he said.
The government document said the mission, with no price tag at the moment, would inspire because it "will send humans farther than they have ever been before."
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This story has got to be a joke or an attempt at satire.
If this is really true, the 100 mil is a cover for more $$$ to the ISLAMISTS (dedicated to the AP style book)
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"Senator: NASA to lasso asteroid, bring it closer…"
What could go wrong?
How close can they bring it? ;)
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E.L.E.
Deep Impact
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This sounds straight out of a SyFy Channel original movie.
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Who's gonna dig up our fossils? :pondering:
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Who's gonna dig up our fossils? :pondering:
The bugs......... they were the only thing to survive the last extinction on this planet.
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The bugs......... they were the only thing to survive the last extinction on this planet.
hmmm...I think the rodents might have made it.
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hmmm...I think the rodents might have made it.
If you watched the First Apocalypse program on H2 yesterday they said that one single rat can have 15,000 offspring/grandchildren, etc., in ONE YEAR......... think about that New Yorkers where rats abound..... and yes, they said that which was able to live underground and those which were the most prolific breeders mostly survived.. in contrast the largest mammals which have long gestation times - not so much. The other thing that was fascinating was the discussion about when the landbridge allowed mammals to migrate from one continent to the other they carried new pathogens with them which their new hosts had not been exposed to, causing the unexposed hosts to fall ill and many died as a result.. Reminded me of how the American Indians fell ill when the European settlers came to this continent.
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This sounds like an enormously stupid waste of money.
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This sounds like an enormously stupid waste of money.
Which is the only thing Obama is good st ...
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The bugs......... they were the only thing to survive the last extinction on this planet.
Well... and Cher.