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Boris_Badenov
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NASA May Use Ares/Orion To Visit NEOs <br /><br /><br /><br />Aviation Week & Space Technology, 09/25/2006, page 21 <br /><br /><br /><br />Edited by Frank Morring, Jr. <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Near-Earth objects (NEOs) are potential objectives for NASA's planned new generation of human space exploration vehicles, <br />along with the Moon and Mars. Jeff Hanley, manager of the Constellation Program overseeing development of the exploration <br />fleet, says a comet or asteroid in Earth's neighborhood could be a worthy objective for the Orion crew exploration vehicle <br />(CEV) and its Ares I launcher, even though the Ares/Orion stack is being developed for a lunar return. <br />"We're getting a study going on looking at using the Constellation architecture to send a CEV possibly to a near-Earth <br />object, rendezvous with one and stay in proximity and gather readings, possibly gather samples, investigate those bodies <br />and then return," Hanley says. "The performance requirements are very much within reach of this architecture we're building. <br />" He stresses that a NEO visit is only one potential application for the new human spacecraft that NASA has turned up as it <br />polls the scientific community, and not a "design reference mission" like lunar return. "We're saying 'look, we're building <br />these big rockets. What can we do with them?'" <br /><br />http://www.aviationweek.com/publication/awst/loggedin/AvnowStoryDisplay.do?fromChannel=awst&pubKey=awst&issueDate=2006-09-25§ion=In+Orbi t&headline=Space+industry+intelligence <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font color="#993300"><span class="body"><font size="2" color="#3366ff"><div align="center">. </div><div align="center">Never roll in the mud with a pig. You'll both get dirty & the pig likes it.</div></font></span></font> </div>