Author Topic: Gerstenmaier expands on recently announced asteroid mission  (Read 167079 times)

Online Chris Bergin

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Offline JSC Phil

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Excellent first article. Very interesting read.

Offline yg1968

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Offline KEdward5

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Hugely interesting overview from Gerst. Great write up YG!

Offline yg1968

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Thanks KEdward5 and JSC Phil. I had help from Chris with the editing. So he also deserves credit.  It also helps that Gerst's presentation was very good!
« Last Edit: 04/25/2013 08:36 pm by yg1968 »

Offline Squid.erau

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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

Offline Paul Howard

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Great debut article. Makes the mission appear to be more interesting than first announced as it shows they have actually done some homework on it.

Offline yg1968

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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

That's a possibility. One thing that Gerst said was that they may find out when they study this some more that the timeline is too aggressive. If that's the case, Gerst said that maybe 2023 could be another option. 

Offline Orbiter

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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.
« Last Edit: 04/25/2013 08:56 pm by Orbiter »
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Offline Squid.erau

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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

Offline yg1968

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Re: Gerstenmaier expands on recently announced asteroid mission
« Reply #10 on: 04/25/2013 09:02 pm »
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

It was a public meeting but there was no recording. There will eventually be minutes of the meeting that will be posted on NASA's website. A lot of the stuff that is in the article comes from verbal comments that Gerst made during the presentation that are not on the slides.
« Last Edit: 04/25/2013 09:04 pm by yg1968 »

Offline BrightLight

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Re: Gerstenmaier expands on recently announced asteroid mission
« Reply #11 on: 04/25/2013 09:06 pm »
Wonderful article - well done YG!
I noticed that ISRU was not an option for the captured asteroid on slide/page 26 of Gerstenmaier's presentation.  It would seem to me that we can practice all kinds of processing - first on Earth, then on ISS and finally at the NEA.

Offline Space Pete

Welcome to the team, YG! A nice first article there. :)
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Offline yg1968

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Re: Gerstenmaier expands on recently announced asteroid mission
« Reply #13 on: 04/25/2013 09:22 pm »
Welcome to the team, YG! A nice first article there. :)

Thanks, Pete!

Offline LegendCJS

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Re: Gerstenmaier expands on recently announced asteroid mission
« Reply #14 on: 04/25/2013 09:24 pm »
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.

Its an unknown, and each candidate identified will only have a finite window of time during which it is a viable candidate.  I worry about schedule pressures coming out of this fact causing hasty work.  Comparing to the analog of robotic missions to Mars and the push to meet the rare every 2 year launch window often being blamed for the low success rate (or huge cost) of missions to Mars.
Remember: if we want this whole space thing to work out we have to optimize for cost!

Offline Rocket Science

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Re: Gerstenmaier expands on recently announced asteroid mission
« Reply #15 on: 04/25/2013 09:33 pm »
Excellent read yg! :)  Congratulations on your first of hopefully many more to come.  ;)
"The laws of physics are unforgiving"
~Rob: Physics instructor, Aviator

Offline rcoppola

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Re: Gerstenmaier expands on recently announced asteroid mission
« Reply #16 on: 04/25/2013 09:36 pm »
You want to venture out and play with some rocks?

Ok, I've got two perfect candidates for you.

PHOBOS & DEIMOS

For 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.
Sail the oceans of space and set foot upon new lands!
http://www.stormsurgemedia.com

Offline Khadgars

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Re: Gerstenmaier expands on recently announced asteroid mission
« Reply #17 on: 04/25/2013 09:55 pm »
You want to venture out and play with some rocks?

Ok, I've got two perfect candidates for you.

PHOBOS & DEIMOS

For 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.

Huh? I don't think I even understand your argument aside from it deviates from your master plan.

Great article btw, I think its a brilliant move to create an exciting mission while incorporating several aspects of NASA simultaneously.  Hopefully they can find a good candidate!
Evil triumphs when good men do nothing - Thomas Jefferson

Online Chris Bergin

This one is getting some serious twitter action! To list but a few - noting Phil Plait has 250,000 followers! :o

Phil Plait ‏@BadAstronomer
Fascinating tech details of the asteroid capture mission proposed for NASA. http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/04/gerstenmaier-expands-asteroid-mission/

Jonathan Amos ‏@BBCAmos
Read @NASASpaceflight for more detail on the recently announced "bag an asteroid" mission http://NASASpaceFlight.com 

Dr.Michael Reidinger ‏@scimichael
NASA/NAC: W.Gerstenmaier expands on recently announced EM~2 asteroid mission. |ref.  @B612Foundation

Zach Rosenberg ‏@ZachInFlight
RT @anthonyfitch: Gerstenmaier expands on recently announced asteroid mission http://bit.ly/15RpoN0  from @NASASpaceflight

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Offline Rocket Science

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Re: Gerstenmaier expands on recently announced asteroid mission
« Reply #19 on: 04/25/2013 10:20 pm »
I might be interested in a spent booster stage from forty plus years ago in the harshness of space from a material science point of view...  :)
"The laws of physics are unforgiving"
~Rob: Physics instructor, Aviator

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