[FPSPACE] Dual Orion capsules studied for manned asteroid missions

[David Portree]

Jens:

 

Leaving aside your proposed plot for a science fiction movie (which has no where near enough sex in it to sell, by the way) - the piloted L point mission concept gained prominence first during the Decadal Planning Team exercise begun in 1999. They were desperately straining to come up with reasons to launch humans beyond LEO, but without breaking the bank (that is, without a moon landing). With the HST servicing missions in mind, they came up with deployment and servicing of large L point telescopes as a possible justification. It's not an entirely silly notion, though after all the scaredy-cat hemming and hawing and "rescue" preparations for the last HST servicing mission, it's hard to see how an even riskier mission to service a telescope at an L point could be justified.


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: dstdba at post4.tele.dk
> To: fpspace at friends-partners.org
> Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 02:57:23 +0200
> Subject: Re: [FPSPACE] Dual Orion capsules studied for manned asteroid missions
> 
> 
> -----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
> 
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