Sensible Erection | NASA Studies Manned Asteroid Mission

Thursday, 2 September 2010

quote [ NASA is appraising a human mission to a near-Earth asteroid--gauging the scientific merit of the endeavor while testing out spacecraft gear, as well as mastering techniques that could prove useful if a space rock ever took aim for our planet. ]

Some random thoughts w.r.t Stephen Hawking's comments in a Big Think interview and NASA's mission post-Constellation program in the extended.

Full disclosure: Link was copied from Slashdot.

I've been thinking about what Stephen Hawking said recently in an interview with Big Think (http://bigthink.com/ideas/21570): "It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster on planet Earth in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand, or million. The human race shouldn't have all its eggs in one basket, or on one planet. Let's hope we can avoid dropping the basket until we have spread the load."

For years now I've been thinking about the future of the human race and about just how fragile we are. Climate change, nuclear war, pollution, resource depletion, disease, volcanic activity, solar storms, and asteroids all present background threats to our existence; threats that could be assuaged by the creation self-sustaining off-world colonies.

Quite frankly, I was surprised that the news of a possible manned mission to a near-Earth asteroid didn't hit the pages of SE. Although I disagreed with the critics who claimed the cancellation of the Constellation program was "the end of manned spaceflight" I still remember feeling disappointed.

In retrospect I didn't even understand at the time that NEO-asteroids were even an option as a stepping stone for space based exploration. My gut reaction says: this plan sounds much more economical and, maybe, in the process we will develop the technology that will allow us to, one day, go to Mars.

... Or maybe I've been watching too many episodes of ST:TNG lately.
/Shaka, when the walls fell.

[sci&tech] [by BergZ@2:34amGMT] [+5 Interesting]

Comments

Krutz said @ 2:39am GMT on 2nd Sep [Score:5 Interesting]
Mary Ann Cramer: Is it worth it? Should we just pull back? Forget the whole thing as a bad idea, and take care of our own problems, at home.

Sinclair: No. We have to stay here. And there's a simple reason why. Ask ten different scientists about the environment, population control, genetics, and you'll get ten different answers, but there's one thing every scientist on the planet agrees on. Whether it happens in a hundred years or a thousand years or a million years, eventually our Sun will grow cold and go out. When that happens, it won't just take us. It'll take Marilyn Monroe, and Lao-Tzu, and Einstein, and Morobuto, and Buddy Holly, and Aristophanes…[and] all of this…all of this…was for nothing. Unless we go to the stars.

- Babylon 5, "Infection"

sacrelicious said @ 2:45am GMT on 2nd Sep
jesus christ, you can quote Babylon 5? I mean, seriously? what the shit?

Eon Bleu said @ 3:34am GMT on 2nd Sep [Score:1 Insightful]
Don't you mean:

housewares said @ 5:06am GMT on 2nd Sep
Yup, thas what he menat, urgghhhhh

HoZay said @ 2:51am GMT on 2nd Sep
I'd be a lot more enthused about space travel if I thought I would live long enough to go.

sacrelicious said @ 2:53am GMT on 2nd Sep [Score:1 Underrated]
I would be a lot more enthused about a cure for AIDS if I had AIDS.

ckfahrenheit said @ 3:10am GMT on 2nd Sep
need that hyperspace button

krimz said @ 11:00am GMT on 2nd Sep
hand me that hyperspace spammer.

-_- said @ 3:36am GMT on 2nd Sep
Eggs in one basket: check

Multiple threats to said basket: check

Spending more money on advertising and entertainment than on space exploration: priceless.
_________
Seriously, we're jacking off while the house burns down.
It's hard to care sometimes.
It's harder to not care most of the time.
Caught me during a "sometime".

rndmnmbr said @ 4:52am GMT on 2nd Sep
Rome had bread and circuses while the barbarians were eying them thoughtfully. Empires are all alike in one regard: they eventually fall.

structured_spirits said @ 4:16am GMT on 2nd Sep
If we were really serious about getting some advancement done as far as space colonization, we'd put everything we have into Artificial Intelligence development, when it's good enough, send that instead. Either that or seriously adapt our bodies for long term survival on other planets, hint: it would be a one way trip.

ComposerNate said @ 9:22am GMT on 2nd Sep

ComposerNate said @ 9:23am GMT on 2nd Sep

maryyugo said @ 4:20pm GMT on 2nd Sep
There's a possible application if an asteroid ever threatens to impact Earth. There's no app involving living on asteroids, small, low gravity, entirely barren rocks. And BTW, Mars isn't really much better. Let's limit population on Earth with reasonable birth control and gain a better understanding and ability to regulate how things work here before we try something as expensive and unlikely as "terraforming".

Krutz said @ 5:58pm GMT on 2nd Sep [Score:1 Insightful]
There are no current plans to live on asteroids. They want to deflect and/or mine them for resources, study them, etc.

As for your suggestions about Earth, given the monied and powerful interests involved, it's probably easier to figure out a way to live on Mars than it is to get first-world people to actually cut back on stuff that's poisoning the planet or filling it with people.

BlutStein1984 said @ 12:49am GMT on 3rd Sep
Yeah...living on an asteroid isn't much of a plan unless you pick Ceres or the other few sizable rocks out there. Other wise their main use is to study early conditions of our Solar system as it formed and to mine them for metals. Even smaller asteroids would be worth in the Trillion dollar range if they could be successfully mined.

Likely order of Human interaction with space rocks:

1.) Study them for clues about solar system formation
2.) Figure out how best to deflect them from Earth's Orbit.
3.) Mine the crap out of the local population. Bountiful resources and reduced risk of impact with Earth. Win win.

==========
If you want to limit Earth population, good luck. The best you can do is volunteer yourself not to breed since forcing others to do that won't work. So we have two options: 1.) Take away people's rights and force them to live as you see fit or 2.) Plan for the future and expand off this planet.

We simply can't keep all our eggs in this one basket forever. People are not going to stop breeding and the Earth can only support so many of us. You can limit people to one kid and switch everyone over to soy-lent green, but any ideas along those lines are merely stop gaps and will fail in time.

Keyser Söze said @ 1:25am GMT on 3rd Sep
To limit Earths population:

Modified/mutated Mumps

Primary changes:
1) Effects adults who have previously had standard mumps or been inoculated against standard mumps.
2) infected are contagious 7-12 days before symptoms develop (as opposed to 6 days).
3) 100% of all post-pubescent infected become infertile.

BlutStein1984 said @ 3:58am GMT on 3rd Sep
Or....you could just stop breeding and take a chapter from Al Gore and make a movie called "Inconvenient Birth". That way you can brainwash people into doing your bidding and bank at the box office.

Knowingly releasing a virus on humanity is way too evil to result in anything right.

insanemonkey said @ 10:06am GMT on 3rd Sep
Most of the valuable minerals on earth came from asteroids. There is a wealth of valuable materials floating round in space. We just need to figure out how to get to them. Unfortunately mining them and bringing the resulting products back to earth safely is very hard. However mining them in space and using the products for making/powering spacecraft would be good in many ways - using less of earth's minerals, saving the effort of pushing things into space (which is very costly. moving stuff about once you've got it up there isn't so hard). The trouble is that mining it and then refining it and doing all the other stuff you need to do to get pure materials from ores requires lots of machinery so it might end up being a catch 22. Either way no-one is going to live on asteroids - what would be the point? Living on mars however could be useful. Ever heard of the phrase "don't put all your eggs in one basket?"

krimz said @ 10:13am GMT on 3rd Sep
Ever heard of the phrase "don't put all your eggs in one basket?"

Every time someone creates a post about space exploration...

BlutStein1984 said @ 3:32pm GMT on 4th Sep
And you'll continue to hear it until the collective geek whining brings forth a spaceship and saves all of humanity. Oh it'll happen, just you wait and see.

taeyn said @ 4:25pm GMT on 2nd Sep
+1 Space.

lower east side said @ 1:35am GMT on 3rd Sep
Re: w.r.t.: I miss D.F.W.

ramwatcher said @ 6:18am GMT on 4th Sep
Nasa should stop studying and actually do something.