President Obama’s goal of sending astronauts to a near-Earth asteroid by 2025 can’t be done with foreseeable civil-space spending, the thinking goes. But by moving an asteroid to cislunar space — a high lunar orbit or the second Earth-Moon Lagrangian Point (EML2), above the Moon’s far side — it is conceivable that technically the deadline could be met.
QuotePresident Obama’s goal of sending astronauts to a near-Earth asteroid by 2025 can’t be done with foreseeable civil-space spending, the thinking goes. But by moving an asteroid to cislunar space — a high lunar orbit or the second Earth-Moon Lagrangian Point (EML2), above the Moon’s far side — it is conceivable that technically the deadline could be met.Not sure if that's AvWeek's commentary / assumption, but that's completely missing the point.The whole point of the flexible path is to make stepping stones (steadily increasing distance and duration) on the way to a Mars mission.Unless they have plans to drag Mars closer so it's easier to visit, this plan doesn't advance that goal at all!cheers, Martin
Sounds like an ASR mission to me - pick up a small rock and return it to EML-2. It's also sort of work-generation for the EML-2 gateway station concept other than acting as a rendezvous point for other missions. Move a sample to EML-2 so the crew at the station can space-walk over to take samples and then carry back to a lab without having to travel several months and billions of miles through deep space.How real is this proposal? Is it just a small study by a small group or is this something that NASA really wants to do?
QuotePresident Obama’s goal of sending astronauts to a near-Earth asteroid by 2025 can’t be done with foreseeable civil-space spending, the thinking goes. But by moving an asteroid to cislunar space — a high lunar orbit or the second Earth-Moon Lagrangian Point (EML2), above the Moon’s far side — it is conceivable that technically the deadline could be met....Unless they have plans to drag Mars closer so it's easier to visit, this plan doesn't advance that goal at all!
Unless, they put a sufficiently massive one in an Aldrin cycler. That would LITERALLY become a stepping stone.
Paul Spudis's take:http://www.spudislunarresources.com/blog/lets-haul-asteroids/I agree with him. It's a waste of money at this point.
The AP:"The government document describing the mission said it would inspire because it "will send humans farther than they have ever been before.""So this would be a replacement for EM-2.
QuotePresident Obama’s goal of sending astronauts to a near-Earth asteroid by 2025 can’t be done with foreseeable civil-space spending, the thinking goes. But by moving an asteroid to cislunar space — a high lunar orbit or the second Earth-Moon Lagrangian Point (EML2), above the Moon’s far side — it is conceivable that technically the deadline could be met.
This can't be replacement for EM-2 because that would be an EIGHT YEAR WAIT!!
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said the plan would speed up by four years the existing mission to land astronauts on an asteroid by bringing the space rock closer to Earth.Nelson, who is chairman of the Senate science and space subcommittee, said Friday that President Barack Obama is putting $100 million in planning money for the accelerated asteroid mission in the 2014 budget that comes out next week. The money would be used to find the right small asteroid.