...The [Keck] study sought to find ways to retrieve an entire, small asteroid, within reach of NASA’s heritage technology. I participated in this study, along with Planetary Resources’ advisor, veteran astronaut and planetary scientist Dr. Tom Jones.It is very exciting that NASA is considering this bold step. ...A 7-meter (23 ft) asteroid ... could have as much as 100 tons of water and 200 tons of metals contained within it.Return of a near-Earth-asteroid of this size would require today’s largest launch vehicles .... Even so, capturing and transporting a small asteroid should be a fairly straightforward affair. Mission cost and complexity are likely on par with missions like the Curiosity Mars rover. The greater challenge of such an endeavor may be selecting an asteroid to retrieve....It’s important to mention that a 7-meter carbonaceous asteroid poses no risk to Earth. An asteroid like this would simply burn up in our atmosphere (part of the reason why there are relatively few C-type meteorite samples). As part of the mission, the asteroid would be placed in a stable Lunar orbit, a safe place for long-term access and management. An asteroid in the Earth-Moon system allows for frequent and lower-risk visits by crewed vehicles. With the help of government (or perhaps even commercial) astronauts, technologies to process and extract resources from asteroids could be quickly developed and iterated.Planetary Resources aims to prospect its own asteroid targets in parallel with NASA’s activity to locate and return an asteroid. Public/private partnerships with NASA would allow for industry to assist in this mission, by identifying, characterizing and helping to select final targets -- either through remote sensing, or precursor missions to candidate asteroids. There are certainly many opportunities for innovation to better enable this mission, and to make use of the great resource it will bring near Earth.What do you think? How can NASA’s new mission protect the planet, further our reach into space, and help open the Solar System for business?
Maybe PR and DSI can get Phase 1 study SAA contracts to do what they are already doing so that NASA can say look we are actually acomplishing something and we are doing it cost effective and on an advanced schedule timeline.PS: A program modeled affter COTS or CCP where the goal is the delivery of asteriods to cis-lunar accessable orbits. Preferable different types of asteriods so multiple delivery missions could exist.
Quote from: oldAtlas_Eguy on 04/08/2013 06:14 pmMaybe PR and DSI can get Phase 1 study SAA contracts to do what they are already doing so that NASA can say look we are actually acomplishing something and we are doing it cost effective and on an advanced schedule timeline.PS: A program modeled affter COTS or CCP where the goal is the delivery of asteriods to cis-lunar accessable orbits. Preferable different types of asteriods so multiple delivery missions could exist.I'm thinking maybe most if not all of NASA's programs should be modeled After those programs. That way it would prove NASA to be more cost efficient, make space more accessible to more people, and help further advance an industry.
Quote from: plank on 04/08/2013 07:55 pmQuote from: oldAtlas_Eguy on 04/08/2013 06:14 pmMaybe PR and DSI can get Phase 1 study SAA contracts to do what they are already doing so that NASA can say look we are actually acomplishing something and we are doing it cost effective and on an advanced schedule timeline.PS: A program modeled affter COTS or CCP where the goal is the delivery of asteriods to cis-lunar accessable orbits. Preferable different types of asteriods so multiple delivery missions could exist.I'm thinking maybe most if not all of NASA's programs should be modeled After those programs. That way it would prove NASA to be more cost efficient, make space more accessible to more people, and help further advance an industry. My thouaghts was of a program that delivered 5+ asteriods over a period of 10 years. After 2 years the asteriod mining rights (if the deliverer did not retain such rights under the delivery contract) would be sold to the highest bidder possibly for more than what NASA spent in getting the asteriod to cis-lunar space. There would be quite a few legal tangles in all of this.
snipThe idea does have the support of one company that unveiled plans last year to prospect and eventually mine asteroids. “It is very exciting that NASA is considering this bold step,” Planetary Resources stated in a blog post on its website over the weekend, adding that it would be happy to help. “Public/private partnerships with NASA would allow for industry to assist in this mission, by identifying, characterizing and helping to select final targets.” (One of the founders of Planetary Resources, Chris Lewicki, served on the KISS asteroid retrieval study.)
One of the concerns expressed by Bolden about the Asteriod program was the possibility of a policy change of direction after Obama's term. Even if a commercial asteriod retrival program was canceled if it was organized like COTS or CCP 3 years of $100M budgets and $50M/yr SAA contracts to 2 competing companies could advance their timelines quite a lot.
Quote from: oldAtlas_Eguy on 04/08/2013 09:32 pmOne of the concerns expressed by Bolden about the Asteriod program was the possibility of a policy change of direction after Obama's term. Even if a commercial asteriod retrival program was canceled if it was organized like COTS or CCP 3 years of $100M budgets and $50M/yr SAA contracts to 2 competing companies could advance their timelines quite a lot.Anything significant the Obama team announces now could be canceled by the next Prez. The 2017 robotic launch, though, is short enough time scale that it's possible that it'd get far enough along that it wouldn't be worth canceling. Of course, it's also a pretty ambitious timescale. They'd need to get started ASAP.
What happens to the retrieval space craft after it returns with the asteroid? Can is just be refueled and sent back out for another one?Would this be our first real reusable deep space hardware?
2) water (NASA already buys water from a private company on ISS produced sort of by ISRU using the Sabatier machine on-board)
