[FPSPACE] Dual Orion capsules studied for manned asteroid missions

[Jens Kieffer-Olsen]

-----Original Message-----
From: David Portree [mailto:dsfportree at hotmail.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 3:31 PM

> 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.
 
 Yes indeed, a mission without a concrete purpose is a stunt!

 Travelling to the Sun-Earth L2 point 1.5 million km away will not
 be justified until a permanent base is planned. The only resource
 there is sunlight. Hell, to paraphrase Robert Zubrin, it's a case
 of 'living off the void'.

 It would make more sense to first practice one's station-keeping
 skills at the Earth-Moon L2 point just 440,000 km away from home.
 In fact, EML2 was recently proposed a potential staging node
 for 'Back-to-the-Moon' missions.

 As for asteroids I could envisage a bold mission in 2029 to try
 to capture Apophis! That year it's passing Earth closer than the
 orbits of geostationary satellites, so if it were nudged slightly
 beforehand, the slingshot effect of the pass could be tailored
 to bring Apophis into Earth orbit as a captured moon on a future
 encounter.

 Having not run this through a computer program, it's quite possible
 that we would have to nudge the orbit of Apophis on several passes
 in order to effectuate a capture, but the point remains that the
 first nudge is asking to be carried out before 2029.

 Allow me to suggest that NASA right away spend a fair sum of
 taxpayers' dollars on a feasibility study! And maybe some
 environmental group could be persuaded to launch a 'No Asteroid
 in my Backyard' campaign to attract publicity to the scheme!

 If Apophis could become the anchor point for the world's first
 space elevator, it's time to act NOW! 

--
Jens Kieffer-Olsen
Slagelse, Denmark