[FPSPACE] Dual Orion capsules studied for manned asteroid missions

[David Portree]

Just because an asteroid passes one million kilometers from Earth doesn't mean one could reach it as easily or as quickly as an L point. Furthermore, not all asteroids are worth reaching, and this mission would focus on which are accessible by straining the Orion system, not on the value of the targets; basically, it'd be a stunt. Finally, for the cost of this stunt mission, we could send robot explorers to a dozen more interesting asteroids.

 

You'll note that I'm not talking about the mission concept; this has more fundamental problems that kill it before we get that far. We could come up with a grand design for launching a manned spacecraft to Antarctica, but why would we want to, since there are more sensible ways to do the job?

 

David S. F. Portree

dsfportree at hotmail.com
dportree at usgs.gov
 
http://robotexplorers.blogspot.com/
http://beyondapollo.blogspot.com/
 
http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/About/People/DavidPortree/
 



 


From: ljk4 at msn.com
To: fpspace at friends-partners.org
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:00:51 -0400
Subject: [FPSPACE] Dual Orion capsules studied for manned asteroid missions




Dual Orion capsules studied for manned asteroid missions 
 
BY CRAIG COVAULT
 
SPACEFLIGHT NOW
 
Posted: August 17, 2009 

A manned asteroid mission using two Orion spacecraft, docked nose-to-nose to form a 50-ton deep space vehicle, is being studied by Lockheed Martin Space Systems as an alternative to resumption of U.S. lunar landing missions. 
 
The Orion asteroid mission concept is being unveiled just as the Presidential committee reviewing U.S. human space flight is citing asteroid missions after 2020 as a less costly alternative to NASA's proposed lunar landing infrastructure. 
Results of the review will be briefed to President Obama by Norman Augustine, committee chairman, by the end of August. 
 
Full article here:
 
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0908/17orion/
 
 

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