Senator: NASA to lasso asteroid, bring it closer

[sailingaway]

They say it will help them learn to nudge dangerous asteroids away if they lasso one now, bring it closer and let astronauts have a play date on its surface. Personally, I think they just want to play around on an asteroid. Having said that, the space program doesn't piss me off as much as most spending sinks just because I personally think it is cool. I do feel guilty about that, though...

http://news.yahoo.com/senator-nasa-lasso-asteroid-bring-closer-201523624.html

 

[Natural Citizen]

Beyond that these things are very rich in minerals. Diamonds and all kinds of neat things. Not to mention the physics lesson. I ws going to post this since it's been mentioned before about doing this but figgered nobody would give a hoot. I'm glad you posted it. It's good stuff.

 

[Icymudpuppy]

I do think it's cool. I also doubt that the only commercial space interests (sattelite communications) would bother with deep space exploration at all. I doubt that donations from sci-fi geeks will ever be sufficient to engage in deep space exploration. That said, I would donate. As a gradualist, I think one of the first things we should implement is a tax selection where you get to pick what programs you wish your taxes to support up to 100%. In my case, if I could choose, I would want for ALL my taxes Federal, state, and local thus... 50% road maintenance and construction, 10% defense (not offense), 10% Schools, 10% Emergency services (not including police) 10% Park and wildland conservation, and 10% Space program.

 

[sailingaway]

Yeah. Ron said the reason he chose the airforce as his branch of service when he was 'encouraged to volunteer as a doctor or be drafted as a private', was because he kinda wanted to be the first doctor in space...

he just doesn't think it was ok to use other people's money for it, except to the extent he could justify for defense.

 

[Carson]

Beyond that these things are very rich in minerals. Diamonds and all kinds of neat things. Not to mention the physics lesson.

I sort of figure on average the average thing you would find in space is the average thing you would find on the earth.

I've seen meteorites that burned green for, I'm thinking nickle, red for iron, and some that burned bright like limelight, so I'm thinking limestone. I've also seen pictures of comet grazing the sun in such a way as to indicate they are large clouds of water vapor just like you might get if a large meteorite splashed off an ocean. I'm figuring they have lobsters and all in them.

The one thing that makes it interesting from here is that the pieces are just that; pieces. The earth is large enough with its core that things may have a tendency to settle. At about fifty miles down things theoretically get hot enough to be fairly molten. The heavier elements like nickle, iron and gold could concentrate toward the core.

It might be worth it some day to go up and just walk around on some of the pieces. Even if we were often disappointed and had to go home lobster-less.

 

[CaseyJones]

you guys do realize there are now 3 companies planning deep space asteroid mining?

 

[Origanalist]

you guys do realize there are now 3 companies planning deep space asteroid mining?

Cool, no I didn't. http://www.businessinsider.com/deep-space-industry-asteroid-mining-plan-2013-2?op=1

 

[Warrior_of_Freedom]

I wonder how asteroid mining can be profitable at all, unless the entire asteroid is 10 trillion space bucks in diamonds

 

[MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2]

They say it will help them learn to nudge dangerous asteroids away if they lasso one now, bring it closer and let astronauts have a play date on its surface. Personally, I think they just want to play around on an asteroid. Having said that, the space program doesn't piss me off as much as most spending sinks just because I personally think it is cool. I do feel guilty about that, though...

http://news.yahoo.com/senator-nasa-lasso-asteroid-bring-closer-201523624.html

When they're the first to admit they're scared to try to move them away, I don't think they should learn by trying to move them closer. Just, duh.

 

[CaseyJones]

I wonder how asteroid mining can be profitable at all, unless the entire asteroid is 10 trillion space bucks in diamonds

in any one of a 1000 near earth asteroids iirc there are more precious metal (platinum gold silver etc) than has ever been mined on earth

 

[oyarde]

Lasso it, bring it close , I cannot see what could possibly go wrong with that .....

 

[Warrior_of_Freedom]

in any one of a 1000 near earth asteroids iirc there are more precious metal (platinum gold silver etc) than has ever been mined on earth

Who wants to start the Ron Paul Space Rangers?

 

[Natural Citizen]

Yeah. Ron said the reason he chose the airforce as his branch of service when he was 'encouraged to volunteer as a doctor or be drafted as a private', was because he kinda wanted to be the first doctor in space...

he just doesn't think it was ok to use other people's money for it, except to the extent he could justify for defense.

This is a good step in separating the private sector from NASA. NASA is beginning to take on more of an educational role whereas the private sector gets the grunt work done. It's a good compromise I think but just have to wake the public up to what is happening.

 

[Icymudpuppy]

in any one of a 1000 near earth asteroids iirc there are more precious metal (platinum gold silver etc) than has ever been mined on earth

Based on what, mass? Spectranalysis? Somehow, I doubt those figures.

 

[Natural Citizen]

It might be worth it some day to go up and just walk around on some of the pieces. Even if we were often disappointed and had to go home lobster-less.

There's no way that's going to happen. Just the ability to move it is a technological marvel. This kind of thing is being simulated in High School classrooms every day. And most parents don't even know. If you mention it to them they think you're nuts. A serious gap exists in generations right now. A big one. Which goes back to NASA taking on the education role through S.T.E.M. Some of our congressmen want to defund that because they just don't see or want to accept the line that divides the two through the correct lens.

Anyhoo. I'm getting off topic. We won't ever go away fruitless though.

 

[CaseyJones]

Based on what, mass? Spectranalysis? Somehow, I doubt those figures.

http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/sl9/back3.html
http://www.nss.org/settlement/asteroids/RoleOfNearEarthAsteroidsInLongTermPlatinumSupply.pdf
http://ssi.org/reading/papers/space-studies-institute-roadmap/

where do you think the precious metals in the top crust of the earth came from?
when the earth was still molten the ones then would have drifted towards the center
the stuff we have mined so far came from asteroids and comets
and most of that still burned away as it entered
plus though I cannot find it quickly there was a fly by with yes a spectrum analyzer a few years back of an asteroid that did confirm it

 

[brushfire]

I'd have no problem with NASA, if it were wholly funded by charity. I'd probably donate.

 

[Zippyjuan]

The one they are looking at is 25 feet across. Something that size won't contain a wealth of minerals or anything else of value.

While there are thousands of asteroids around 25-feet, finding the right one that comes by Earth at just the right time to be captured will not be easy, said Donald Yeomans, who heads NASA's Near Earth Object program that monitors close-by asteroids. He said once a suitable rock is found it would be captured with the space equivalent of "a baggie with a drawstring. You bag it. You attach the solar propulsion module to de-spin it and bring it back to where you want it."

Yeomans said a 25-foot asteroid is no threat to Earth because it would burn up should it inadvertently enter Earth's atmosphere. These types of asteroids are closer to Earth — not in the main asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars. They're less than 10 million miles away, Braun said.

"It's probably the right size asteroid to be practicing on," he said.

A 25-foot asteroid is smaller than the size rock that caused a giant fireball that streaked through the sky in Russia in February, said Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart, head of the B612 Foundation, a nonprofit concerned about dangerous space rocks.

 

[pacelli]

Isn't 100 million already in next years budget so they can find the right one?

These people are complete lunatics.

 

[Anti Federalist]

What could go wrong?