There are many millions of asteroids in our solar system.
We've looked at them, flown by them, orbited them, and even taken samples from them.
It's time to step up our game and STEAL ONE.
Howdy space cowboys, Trace here for DNews, and NASA reckons it's about time ta git Earthers
an asteroid of our very own… for study, of course.
Yeehaw!!
Asteroids are massive hulks of rock and metals floating around the solar system.
They're leftovers from the formation of planets and moons, with the major concentration appearing
in the aptly-named Main Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter.
The Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune also contains millions of objects, but it's so far away
that it's not important for a retrieval mission.
But look, if we want an asteroid for our very own, how does one go about it?
First, you have to pick one to go get.
Unlike how it looks in Estar Guars, asteroids are not actually close together in the asteroid
belt.
We can't just fly over and survey the area -- they're 1-3 million kilometers apart on
average!
NASA hasn't picked yet but hinted a good candidate might be 2008 EV5.
This asteroid mostly orbits between Earth and Venus, so it's not too far to go, two
recent papers in Icarus studied its composition and shape with various telescopes, and as
a type-C asteroid, we know it's carbonaceous, rocky, and metallic!
NASA's plan is still under development, but the mission, called ARM -- Asteroid Redirect
Mission is pretty simple.
A robot would fly up to 2008 EV5 and land on the asteroid, analyze the surface, and
(in the greatest space-heist in NASA history) will grab a "multi-ton" boulder (like the
crappy crane-game at an arcade) and skeddle!
Once back in orbit around EV5 with boulder on lock, the ARM robot will test a gravity
tractor theory.
Basically, because gravity exists everywhere, the mass of the robot plus boulder would attract
2008 EV5 and slowly bend its orbit -- keep that in mind, we'll come back to it.
After a few tests, the robot will high-tail it back to drop off the boulder in the moon's
orbit for study.
Once it's there, we can use the new SLS and Orion spacecraft to practice landing on it,
taking off, and eventually could send people to spacewalk on it!
All in preparation and practice for future Mars missions.
Sidebar: ARM will also use a new solar electric propulsion system too.
(It uses solar panels to gather energy, then shoots ions out a nozzle slowly accelerating.
Really slowly.)
Grabbing an asteroid might just seem like bragging rights, but there's more than just
learning how to do it.
The Apollo, Shuttle and International Space Station missions are all "Earth Reliant."
Meaning, they need Earth to resupply, and can only last a few days to a few months on
their own.
If we could head to Mars from an asteroid and not Earth's surface, it would save incredible
amounts of fuel, and allow for longer missions into deep space!
Plus, a human-explored asteroid could tell us a LOT about the formation of the solar
system, what kind of minerals existed at the time, and could provide a source of commercial
mining that avoids the destruction of our own planet's resources.
And on a darker note, testing the gravity tractor to tug it off course is reallllllly
important,because one is coming.
Not right now, but it's a statistical inevitability -- it's happened many times in the past and
will in the future.
An asteroid will eventually aim for Earth.
So, to get ready for an asteroid impact eventuality, we'll need to understand the threat, but also
be prepped for a response.
Blowing it up ain't really a good idea (sorry Bruce), but tugging it out of an intersecting
orbit?
Maybe...
? Not as sexy, but better.
Funnily enough, NASA and FEMA are already practicing in the case of an asteroid impact.
The two agencies recently held their third emergency planning session for possible asteroid
impact.
They want to suss out how government agencies could handle this kind of natural disaster,
because unlike say, a hurricane, earthquake or epidemic that strikes without warning -- asteroids
are a slow burn; we can know months before it hits!
And once impact reaches 100-percent certainty... aside from societal breakdown, what would
we do?
Such an interesting thought-experiment.
Guys, if you love space and you probably do cause you're watching this, check out Seeker
VR.
We sent a weather balloon to the edge of Earth, it's in VR, it's super cool.
And if you're wondering why we don't just use tractor beams to move asteroids around,
well, it's because we've only invented a couple.
Let us know down in the comments if you have any ideas of what you would do if you found
out an asteroid was coming and you only had 6 months and make sure you subscribe for more
DNews.