Orion Manned NEO mission imagined

[spacefire]

http://www.digitalspace.com/projects/neo-mission/index.html#images<br /><br /><br />interesting, I wonder if they are actually going to do that. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>http://asteroid-invasion.blogspot.com</p><p>http://www.solvengineer.com/asteroid-invasion.html </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[docm]

The B612 Foundation has posted NASA's internal NEO report and replies by the foundations Rusty Schweickart and Clark Chapman. Links to them and other documents here;<br /><br />http://www.b612foundation.org/press/press.html<br /><br /><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>B612 Foundation<br /><br />Officers:<br /><br /> * Dan Durda, President<br /> * Piet Hut, Secretary<br /> * Rick Lu, Treasurer<br /><br />Board of Directors:<br /><br /> * Russell (Rusty) Schweickart, Chairman<br /> * Dan Durda<br /> * Ed Lu<br /> * Piet Hut<br /> * Clark Chapman<br /> * Geoffrey Baehr <br /> /><br /><p><hr /></p></p></blockquote> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[MeteorWayne]

SDC has an article now: here <br /><br />NASA Insiders Propose Stepping Stone Path to Deep Space <br />By Leonard David<br />Special Correspondent, SPACE.com<br />posted: 30 July 2007<br />01:07 pm ET<br /> <br /><br />GOLDEN, Colo. – NASA's Constellation Program – including the deployment of the Orion crew vehicle replacing the space shuttle – will first be assigned to International Space Station flights, then propel humans and cargo to the Moon. Expeditionary missions to Mars and beyond will follow. <br /><br />But there's ongoing discussion of mounting a piloted mission to an asteroid – a voyage by astronauts to a near-Earth object, termed NEO for short. These proponents feel certain of the scientific payoff from reaching, first-hand, an asteroid – perhaps even becoming able to exploit these chunks of celestial flotsam to further humankind's plunge into the cosmos.<br /><br />Space technologists argue that a NEO trip could be a valuable shakeout of people, equipment, and procedures prior to hurling astronauts beyond the Moon to the distant dunes of Mars<br /><br />BTW, does everyone know why it is called the B612 Foundation?<br /><br />I do <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#000080"><em><font color="#000000">But the Krell forgot one thing John. Monsters. Monsters from the Id.</font></em> </font></p><p><font color="#000080">I really, really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function</font><font color="#000080"> </font></p> </div>

 

[Swampcat]

<font color="yellow">"BTW, does everyone know why it is called the B612 Foundation?"</font><br /><br />From the http://www.b612foundation.org/B612 Foundation website...<br /><br /><font color="orange">"B612 is the asteroid home of the Little Prince in Antoine de Saint-Exupery's child's story The Little Prince."</font><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="3" color="#ff9900"><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong><em>------------------------------------------------------------------- </em></strong></font></p><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong><em>"I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government."</em></strong></font></p><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong>Thomas Jefferson</strong></font></p></font> </div>

 

[holmec]

I'm so glad they are talking about it. I think we need this to happen. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#0000ff"><em>"SCE to AUX" - John Aaron, curiosity pays off</em></font></p> </div>

 

[comga]

Blaming Dan Durda for that odd naming concept would not be beyond belief <br /><br />Somehow, the visualizations already make this mission look dull. Three guys for 120 days in an Orion capsule with a 2 meter diameter by 3 meter long anteroom for one or two weeks at the NEO? Saluting an Earth flag instead of Stars and Stripes? A woefully exaggerated gravitational acceleration in the animations. A NEO way bigger than anything that will be within range. <br /><br />They have ignored the lessons of NEAR and Hyabusa. NEAR landed on its solar panel tips. Airbags are silly, and those harpoons assume that the surface has coherence, for which there is no evidence. Hyabusa did touch-and-go landings, and showed that the most exciting aspect, and a good reason for sending humans, is the complexity and unpredictability of the maneuver to match the rotation. It might even not be possible for some solid bodies with complex rotations, which would make for a wild ride "down". <br /><br />There is even the discussion at NASA that an unmanned mission would be needed before the manned mission. That would kill the mission right there, because it is unlikely that there are good targets with an appropriate synodic period that would be within reach. Some of the most accessible from an energy/velocity standpoint have synodic periods of about a century. A second flight could not occur in the lifetime of our grandchildren.