[FPSPACE] NASA Considers Manned Asteroid Mission

[Charles, John B. (JSC-SA2)]

Even if the lunar and NEO vehicle configurations are largely identical,
insertion of a NEO mission into the flow of missions leading to a lunar
landing will necessarily delay the lunar landing by at least one
mission.  The fact that NEO mission would last months, vs. less than 2
weeks for the early lunar sortie mission, indicates that vehicle
modifications will be required both in the Orion vehicle and in the
modified Altair lander that would function as the habitat for the NEO
mission.  Such modifications will cause delays in the lunar program
because such vehicle modifications must be developed and implemented by
the same engineers andd technicians who would otherwise be doing the
same for the lunar versions of those vehicles.  And, delays are usually
more long-lasting than initially assumed.
John Charles
Houston, Texas


________________________________

	From: Robert Law [mailto:robert_law at yahoo.com] 
	Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 3:08 PM
	To: fpspace at friends-partners.org; Charles, John B. (JSC-SA2)
	Subject: Re: [FPSPACE] NASA Considers Manned Asteroid Mission
	
	

Don't understand how this would delay a return to the moon ?, as the
dates I have seen for several types of NEO missions using Orion are in
the in the 2020s to 2030s there are early opportunity's in 2012 etc but
Orion wont be ready it makes sense to do the moon landings first , to
get experience and reliability before going on long flights to NEO's

 

Robert
--- On Wed, 5/7/08, Charles, John B. (JSC-SA2) <john.b.charles at nasa.gov>
wrote:


	From: Charles, John B. (JSC-SA2) <john.b.charles at nasa.gov>
	Subject: Re: [FPSPACE] NASA Considers Manned Asteroid Mission
	To: fpspace at friends-partners.org
	Date: Wednesday, May 7, 2008, 8:00 PM
	
	
	Articles like this one by O'Neill give me concern because the
term
	"planning" implies a serious possibility of implementing the
mission.
	In fact, this is a study of one of several possible future
	options--which would probably delay humans' return to the
Moon--and (as
	far as I know) nothing more.  In fairness, the quoted text says
	"planning" only  once, and the more accurate "consider" 
	twice.
	
	Likewise, I wish writers would use the conditional tense
(..."astronauts
	would travel...") instead of the future tense("...astronauts
will
	travel...") in describing such highly-conditional cases. 
	
	John Charles
	Houston, Texas
	
	>-----Original Message-----
	>From: fpspace-bounces at friends-partners.org 
	>[mailto:fpspace-bounces at friends-partners.org] On Behalf Of
LARRY KLAES
	>Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 1:39 PM
	>To: fpspace at friends-partners.org
	>Subject: [FPSPACE] NASA Considers Manned Asteroid Mission
	>
	>NASA Considers Manned Asteroid Mission
	>Written by Ian O'Neill
	>...
	>Actually, NASA is planning a mission to an NEO, but not 
	>because it's aimed at us.
	>An asteroid named 2000SG344 (which threatened the Earth in the 
	>year 2000) is being considered as the destination for the 
	>first manned asteroid mission. 
	>...
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