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NASA IS CONSIDERING a proposal to ‘catch’ an asteroid and drag it into orbit around the moon, as a potential site for a more permanent development within easy reach of the lunar surface.
NewScientist reports that the Keck Institute for Space Studies at Caltech has tabled an ambitious proposal to build an unmanned robotic spacecraft that would aim to capture a small asteroid.
The craft would then drag the asteroid toward the moon and set it in motion so that it would be in orbit around our own natural satellite.
Researchers from the Institute told NewScientist that NASA was actively considering the project.
It is estimated that the mission would cost about $2.6 billion – only slightly more than the $2.5 billion that NASA spent on the Curiosity rover currently deployed to Mars.
The novel idea – which could permanently change our view of the moon from Earth, depending on the site of the asteroid being dragged into its orbit – could fit in with other priorities previously expressed by NASA.
Though it has no immediate plans for a manned mission to the moon, the agency has discussed the possibility of having its Orion spacecraft – being proposed as a possible successor to the space shuttle – do a tour that would take it around the moon.
The Obama administration has meanwhile put forward plans to send a manned mission to a nearby passing asteroid – though this could prove unattractive because it would put astronauts in a scenario where no possible rescue missions could be undertaken.
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2.6 billion for a space hotel?!
Lets do it.
It’d be something to look up to and say to our kids “we did that, what are you going to do”.
Look down to earth you mean? And say ‘hey kids, earth used to be my home, but we can’t live there anymore because of the radio activity’ (I’m talkin about Derek mooney on the radio)
Would this not have some affect on the gravity of the moon (dependent on size course) and therefore earth tides ??
Seriously doubt that because they propose using only a small asteroid (though it would have some effect, however minute) but I wounder what effect the Earth would have on the orbit of the asteroid around the moon.
James there’s a similar system already employed between the Sun, the Moon and the Earth.
We only see one side of the moon because it’s tidally locked with the Earth i.e. the pull of the Earth on the moon slowed the rotation of the moon until it locked it’s rotation with the period of the Moons orbit of the Earth. In theory, the Moon wants to slow the rotation of the earth to the period of the Moon’s orbit, but the Earth will be long gobbled up by the sun before that can happen.
The Sun, though a much more massive object, has less effect on the Moon than the Earth due to the distances. As such, the Moon will have a much greater affect on the Asteroid than the Earth can, as it will be much closer to the Moon.
I’d be much more interested to see what happens if they feck it up and we get to see an asteroid collide with the moon.
I get what you’re saying Ronan but I would have thought that while the Sun is about 400 times further away than the moon and its mass bigger than the Earth’s by about 333 times compared to the Earth/Moon of about 81 times, meaning that it would be a lot harder to keep something in orbit around it because of two comparable masses in close proximity to each other. I don’t think the moon has any natural satellites, I was looking for a bit of info on it but cant find anything except for yahoo answers.
Gravity is inversely proportional to the square of the distances involved. Thus, if the asteroid were 100 times closer to the Moon than the Earth, then the Moon’s gravity would have 10,000 times more impact on it.
F= G m1m2/r^2
Seeing as it would be only a fraction the size of the ISS, which doesn’t noticeably affect the gravity of the earth or moon, I doubt it would have much effect.
Or collide with the earth..
Great. Then they send Seanie Quinn off to live on it.
They’ll stay messin around with stuff till they break something, can’t they leave the ol moon alone an let it work away!
I believe the object they are planning on using is only around 7 metres across. So I don’t think it’ll pull the moon out of orbit and hurtling into Kanturk. Although if it does it’ll probably just get swallowed up by the super potholes.
Playing games with nature … tut tut.
I think that horse has bolted Patrick. :)
Don’t worry Patrick. As well as capturing and moving the asteroid, they’re going to send a crew of Earth’s finest roughneck miners to plant a nuke in the asteroid, just in case like.
Should this not raise some kind of international discussion between all stakeholders on earth? If just to ensure it’s not just the US that runs off and drags things into the orbit of the earth willy nilly? Surely adding to the number of satellites orbiting earth, no matter how small the objects may be, is a core structural change which affects humans as a whole? What provisions are in place for space exploration to prevent a potential major greed-fuelled disaster?
Stakeholders are the ones with the budget. Not interested in popular opinion of do gooders.
On that note why would one or all countries consider they have a claim anything in space ?
What happens if a more advance life form comes looking for their rock back..
Wow seriously???!!!! Wot the bloody hell is wrong with these daft eejits??!! Wot about all the peeps in america who are needin health care, housing for the poor n disabled n all the other needs their govt is cutting money from??? 2.6 billion yank dollars wasted on cac capaill!!!!! And wot if it breaks orbit n hits us??? Wow I knew most peeps in govt (including our own) were eejits now I know its true!!!! And thats only one project, they paid a 60,000$ grant several years ago to find out y frogs croak!!!!!!!!! Omg help us the lemmings are in charge! Politicians are like lemmings common sense wise, lol run for the cliffs lil lemmings jump high n far lol.
It’s thought that Helium-3, extremely rare on earth, will be a very important component in fueling clean nuclear fusion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium-3#Fusion_reactions
Helium-3 is thought to be sitting in the lunar soil, deposited by solar winds.
Ultimately, we may want robots mining this. We will probably need some sort of orbiting platform around the moon (possibly with a space elevator to lift the soil up and put it on a ship). We are then likely to transport between a lunar platform and an earth platform as rockets over and back between the respective surfaces are less economical and practical. We may then use a space elevator to bring the soil to earth for processing as fuel.
The moon may play a major part in our future energy dependence. While this don’t come cheap, it’s actually (incredibly) forward thinking.
It’s bad enough that we’re borrowing from tomorrow to feed today’s consumptions, without also cutting the funding and science that may lay the platform for sustainability for our great grand kids.
As for the frog croaking, at the rate we are destroying species, we’ll be lucky if we don’t see dangerous destruction of eco-systems in our life times. Genetic engineering, driven by an understanding of genetics and behaviours, may provide lifelines in counteracting the mistakes of the past.
So, in short, to hell with your first world problems. Without scientific advancement, we’re all gonna be 3rd world in a hundred years.
Maybe NASA could add an extra few bob on top of the mission to buy Michael here a dictionary or even an ‘Ann & Barry’ book by the looks of it!
Was that meant as a text to a thirteen year old?
Lemmings don’t follow each other over cliffs
That’s a Disney invention.
Never happened
Hear hear, Ronan
Needs more exclamation marks.
Did I not read elsewhere on the journal that NAMA have that much sitting in the bank. That would be a better way to spend our money than on bond holder paybacksl
Our money? NASA is a US organisation, NAMA is an Irish organisation. Different countries, different taxpayers.
We could always have Nama space agency, they could do it and leave it empty.
There it is folks.
That bond holder comment you were all waiting for.
Three word response and you still couldn’t get it right.
Forget hotel,space prison would be better
never gona happen.
“its just its easier & faster to use txt abrev”?
It’s guff like this that’ll have “communicating” via grunting and fart sounds before much longer.
They can’t leave anything alone
the lunar orbit holds a great influence over earths gravity , plant growth reproductive and life cycles , oceans and tides, and even the earths spin, nature has finely tuned itself over time and any interference could have reprocussions perhaps cause earthquakes affect bird migrations etc, a while ago nasa they were crashing things into the lunar south pole, now with the proposed extraction from the asteroid belt for addition to orbit the moon we may see climate change polar shifts etc
what is nasa’s fixation with interfering with the lunar orbit and why not object to this foolishness do ordinary people not have voice or opinion or are we all just accepting our fate is in the hands of irresponsable and powerfull people?
NASA or NAMA?
“I know what’ll be good!”
have your say