Good article, but I have serious reservations about using the first manned flight of a new spacecraft, on the first manned flight of a new rocket, on the first manned flight to leave LEO in 40 years (50 by the time of the actual flight) to also go and hope to do useful science at an object we've never put people on. We're talking all kinds of conflicting mission requirements. On a flight where the crew is going to have tons of engineering work to characterize the behaviour of the vehicle, how on earth are they also going to have the time to train and execute a brand new type of spacewalk under conditions very different from any space walk ever attempted. I know our astronauts are great professionals, but expecting them to do all the new spacecraft characterizations, along with being EVA experts, as well as being experts in asteroid science just seems like we're asking too much. EM-3 or 4 would be much more appropriate for this type of mission. I will be interested to see how this evolves over the many years between now and then.Matt
Ok, thanks. I have not had the chance to look at the presentation or recording of the presser yet. I'm sure things like this are under discussion.Matt
Welcome to the team, YG! A nice first article there.
Locating a NEO would be the least of my worries at this point. There's bound to be thousands of candidate asteroids one could target to bring to trans-lunar space for EM-2.
You want to venture out and play with some rocks?Ok, I've got two perfect candidates for you.PHOBOS & DEIMOSFor God's sake, can we just get on with it...Looking through the PDF, I see no reason at all why we need this side-show.We do not need this mission to develop or test SEP, or DSH, or CLLS, or DSC, or EVAS...And what in the name of all that is just do we care if we happen to spot old Saturn artifacts while looking for this magic rock? I mean, ok, cool, but really? Every $hour spent on this, is time and money diverted, currently of which we are in short supply of.