Astronauts in training for asteroid mission

[Hum]

A team of astronauts are being trained to land on an asteroid to explore its surface, search for minerals and even learn the skills they may need to destroy it should one pose a threat to the Earth.

Nasa, the US space agency, is planning to send humans far further than they have ever been before to by making contact with an asteroid up to three million miles away by the end of the next decade.

It would take astronauts far beyond the current limit of human endeavour ? the Moon, which is 239,000 miles from Earth.

Travelling at around 50,000 miles per hour around the Sun with almost non-existent gravity due to their small size, landing safely on these space rocks will present a significant challenge.

A team of astronauts, however, have already started preparing for just such a mission. Among them is Major Tim Peake, a former British Army helicopter test pilot who is now the first official British astronaut with the European Space Agency.

Next month they will begin a training programme that will teach them how to operate vehicles, conduct spacewalks and gather samples on the surface of an asteroid.

While the primary goal of a mission to an asteroid will be scientific to learn more about their hostile environments, the skills needed to work on their surface could also prove invaluable should scientists discover one on a collision course with Earth.

Nasa is currently monitoring more than 400 objects with potential to hit the Earth, although most are considered to be low risk.

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[Crisp]

Wouldn't it be less costly just to lauch a guided rocket at an asteroid to destory it?

As for mining, would rather land on Mars and go full recall!

[Hum]

^ Might be hard to destroy something asteroid size.

Would be better to 'guide' it into the Moon, and then mine it. :laugh:

[.Neo]

Wouldn't it be less costly just to lauch a guided rocket at an asteroid to destory it?

Detonating one or multiple nuclear warheads on the surface of an astroid probably won't do much since most energy can escape sidewards and there's no air to move.

[DocM]

FYI there is such a thing as a nuclear shaped charge that directs most of its energy in one direction.

The bigger issue here is how to get there, and the NASA Space Launch System $38B) and the Orion spacecraft (up to $14B) face a lot of budgetary hurdles before the first scheduled manned flight of the combined system in ~2021 (if they're lucky). Even then, there is no budget yet for other key parts of the mission; a habitat, the Space Exploration Vehicle (SEV - think the pod from 2001) etc.

[Dot Matrix]

Wouldn't it be less costly just to lauch a guided rocket at an asteroid to destory it?

As for mining, would rather land on Mars and go full recall!

No. Depending on the asteroid's composition, you might be able to shred a "dirt mound" into smaller pieces, but then you have a shotgun blast of assorted debris coming at you. And shooting a nuclear warhead at an iron asteroid is like shooting a 9mm at a iron ball, your blast wouldn't make a significant dent.

[zeta_immersion]

Hope they do half of that they say during my lifetime, with these ove zelous idiots - for money, probably nothing will get done

[RadishTM Veteran]

No doubt "Armageddon" gave them the idea :p

[Dane]

Wait, we cannot go back to the moon and we dont even have the shuttle anymore and they want to send people there? Odd.

[Arachno 1D]

WAIT!...........Did Howard fix the toilet problem yet?

[Hum]

Wait, we cannot go back to the moon and we dont even have the shuttle anymore and they want to send people there? Odd.

Don't let them fool ya -- plenty of people on the Moon. :shifty:

[Growled Member]

Don't let them fool ya -- plenty of people on the Moon. :shifty:

I hear ya. :D

[Dane]

Don't let them fool ya -- plenty of people on the Moon. :shifty:

Possibly.

[neoadorable]

here we go, you got Doc started on SLS and Orion again :laugh:

going to near Earth asteroids is cool, definitely worth it for resource gathering and surveying. BTW Mars is more of a destination for human settlement and industry, i think resource-wise it may not be that rich due to being largley dormant geologically? yeah Mars has a lot of iron and deuterium, but not much in the way of heavier elements or precious ores. Asteroids are where we'll get those in basically endless supply. i could be wrong tho, and definitely Mars is our mission number one, because if we can settle there, we'll have proven ourselves finally a spacefaring civilization.

[NoLiMiT06]

No doubt "Armageddon" gave them the idea :p

Not kidding, wonder if Michael Bay will film the trip :D

[Rigby]

There's no reason to send people to an asteroid to explore it when machines can do that much better and cheaper, and the idea of destroying one is ludicrous. This isn't silly a Hollywood movie.