“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
HOUSTON (AP) — With the space shuttle now history, NASA’s next
great mission is so audacious, the agency’s best minds are
wrestling with how to pull it off: Send astronauts to an asteroid
in less than 15 years.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
The challenges are innumerable. Some old-timers are grousing about
it, saying going back to the moon makes more sense. But many NASA
brains are thrilled to have such an improbable
assignment.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
And NASA leaders say civilization may depend on it.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
An asteroid is a giant space rock that orbits the sun, like Earth.
And someday one might threaten the planet.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
But sending people to one won’t be easy. You can’t land on an
asteroid because you’d bounce off – it has virtually no gravity.
Reaching it might require a NASA spacecraft to harpoon it. Heck,
astronauts couldn’t even walk on it because they’d float
away.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
NASA is thinking about jetpacks, tethers, bungees, nets and
spiderwebs to allow explorers to float just above the surface of it
while attached to a smaller mini-spaceship.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
Such a ship – something like a “Star Trek” shuttlecraft melded with
a deep sea explorer with pincer-like arms- is needed just to get
within working distance of the rock. That craft would have to be
big enough for astronauts to live in for a week or two. They’d
still need a larger habitat for the long term.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
It would take half a year to reach an asteroid, based on current
possible targets. The deep space propulsion system to fly such a
distance isn’t perfected yet. Football-field-sized solar panels
would help, meaning the entire mothership complex would be fairly
large. It would have to protect the space travelers from killer
solar and cosmic ray bursts. And, they would need a crew capsule,
maybe two, for traveling between the asteroid complex and
Earth.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
And all those parts – mini-spaceship, habitat/living area, crew
capsule, solar arrays and propulsion system – would have to be
linked together in the middle of space, assembled in a way like the
International Space Station but on a smaller scale.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
Beyond all those obstacles, NASA doesn’t even know which asteroid
would be the best place to visit.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
All this has to be ready to launch by 2025 by presidential
order.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
“This is the big step,” said Kent Joosten, chief architect of the
human exploration team at Johnson Space Center. “This is out into
the universe, away from Earth’s gravity completely… This is
really where you are doing the `Star Trek’ kind of
thing.”
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
It has the dreamers of NASA both excited and anxious.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
“This is a risky mission. It’s a challenging mission,” said NASA
chief technology officer Bobby Braun. “It’s the kind of mission
that engineers will eat up.”
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
This is a matter of sending “humans farther than ever before,” said
NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver. It is all a stepping stone
to the dream of flying astronauts to Mars in the mid
2030s.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
“I think it is THE mission NASA should embrace,” said University of
Tennessee aerospace professor John Muratore. “To be successful at
this mission, you’ve got to embrace all of the technologies that
you need for Mars.”
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
Critics, including former Apollo astronauts and flight directors,
have blasted President Barack Obama for canceling George W. Bush’s
plan to return astronauts to the moon. They dismiss talk of
asteroid visits.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
But that’s because NASA has not done a good job of outlining the
fascinating details and explaining why it is important, said
astronomer and former astronaut John Grunsfeld.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
“NASA doesn’t have a story right now,” said Grunsfeld, deputy
director at the Space Telescope Science Institute. “Exploration is
nothing if not the articulation of a great story.”
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
The story begins with why NASA would want to go to an asteroid. The
agency has sent small spacecraft off to study asteroids over the
years and even landed on one in 2001. Just last week, a space probe
began orbiting a huge asteroid called Vesta, which lies beyond
Mars.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
Scientifically, an asteroid is a remnant from the birth of the
solar system, offering clues about how our planetary system began.
Logistically, NASA wants to go to Mars, but that is distant and
more difficult. So the argument is that going to an asteroid is a
better testing ground than returning to the moon.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
The reason NASA Administrator Charles Bolden and others give is
that this mission could save civilization. Every 100 million years
or so an asteroid 6 miles wide – the type that killed off the
dinosaurs- smacks Earth, said NASA Near Earth Object program
manager Donald Yeomans.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
If NASA can get astronauts to an asteroid, they can figure out a
way of changing a potential killer’s orbit. They’ll experiment with
the safe one they land on, Braun said.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
One joke going around is that dinosaurs couldn’t stop catastrophe
because they didn’t have a space program.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
“One of the statements going to an asteroid will make is that
humans are smarter than dinosaurs,” Grunsfeld said.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
If you are going to reroute a killer asteroid, first you have to
know one is coming and where it is now. And that’s also a problem
for NASA’s mission. Astronomers figure there are about 50,000
asteroids and comets larger than 300 feet in diameter and they only
know where fewer than 1 percent of them are, Yeomans said. NASA is
focusing on rocks that size or larger that would come relatively
close to Earth in the 2025 time frame.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
At the moment, there are only a handful of asteroid options and
they all have names like 1999AO10 or 2009OS5. NASA deputy
exploration chief Laurie Leshin figures NASA will have to come up
with, not just more targets, but better names.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
Getting to one will be even tougher.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
Huge powerful rockets are needed to launch spacecraft and parts out
of Earth orbit. NASA promises to announce its design idea for these
rockets by the end of the summer and Congress has ordered that they
be built by 2016. It will take two or three or maybe even more
launches of these unnamed rockets to get all the needed parts into
space.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
The crew capsule is the farthest along because NASA is using the
Orion crew ship it was already designing for the now dead moon
mission and repurposing it for deep space. NASA has already spent
$5 billion on Orion.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
Once in space, the ship needs a propulsion system to get it to the
asteroid. One way is to use traditional chemical propulsion, but
that would require carrying lots of hard-to-store fuel and creation
of a new storage system, Joosten said.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
Another way is to use ion propulsion, which is efficient and
requires less fuel, but it is enormously slow to rev up and gain
speed. It would also require an electrical ignition source, thus
the giant solar power wings.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
If NASA goes to ion propulsion, the best bet would be to start the
bulk of the ship on a trip to and around the moon without
astronauts. That would take a while, but if no one is on it, it
doesn’t matter, Joosten said. Then when that ship is far from
Earth, astronauts aboard Orion would dock and join the rest of the
trip. By this time, the ship would have picked up sufficient speed
and keep on accelerating.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
Orion isn’t big enough for four astronauts to live on for a year.
They would need a larger space habitat, a place where they can
exercise to keep from losing bone strength in zero gravity. They
would need a place to store food, sleep and most importantly a
storm shelter to protect them from potentially deadly and
radiation-loaded solar flares.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
Much of the habitat could be inflatable, launched in a lightweight
form, and inflated in space. On Friday, NASA announced a
competition among four universities to design potential exploration
habitats.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
Meanwhile NASA is pursuing its concept for a mini-spaceship
exploration vehicle, about the size of a minivan. And it’s planning
an underwater lab for training, an effort to mimic an asteroid
mission’s challenges, Joosten said.
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
Leshin notes 2025 is not that many years away: “There’s a lot of
things we need to invent and build between now and
then.”
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
—
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
Online
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
NASA animation of a possible asteroid mission: “text-decoration: none; color: #000066;” href=
“http://1.usa.gov/pMFyay” target=
“-blank”>http://1.usa.gov/pMFyay
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
NASA’s exploration office: “text-decoration: none; color: #000066;” href=
“http://1.usa.gov/nV6ZPn” target=
“-blank”>http://1.usa.gov/nV6ZPn
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;”>
NASA’s Dawn mission to the asteroid Vesta:“text-decoration: none; color: #000066;” href=
“http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/” target=
“-blank”>http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/
“font-family: Verdana, Times, serif; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; line-height: 13px; color: #000000; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal verdana, helvetica, arial;”>
“text-decoration: none; color: #000066;” rel=”item-license” name=
“0d7f1306-f48d-4a44-ba94-2136aad319da” href=
“http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_ASTEROID_MISSION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-07-23-22-49-14#0d7f1306-f48d-4a44-ba94-2136aad319da”> © 2011 The
Associated Press may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed. “http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/privacy”>Privacy
Policy
