Asteroid Ida
Plan for Human Mission to Asteroid Gains Speed
Space News
Call it Operation: Plymouth Rock. A plan to send a crew of astronauts to an asteroid is gaining momentum, both within NASA and industry circles.
Not only would the deep space sojourn shake out hardware, it would also build confidence in long-duration stints at the moon and Mars. At the same time, the trek would sharpen skills to deal with a future space rock found on a collision course with Earth.
In Lockheed Martin briefing charts, the mission has been dubbed “Plymouth Rock – An Early Human Asteroid Mission Using Orion.” Lockheed is the builder of NASA’s Orion spacecraft, the capsule-based replacement for the space shuttle.
Study teams are now readying high-level briefings for NASA leaders – perhaps as early as this week – on a pilgrimage to an asteroid, along with appraisals of anchoring large, astronaut-enabled telescopes far from Earth, a human precursor mission to the vicinity of Mars, as well as an initiative to power-beam energy from space to Earth.
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Sounds like another reason for NASA to pursue the Flexible Path option outlined by the Augustine Commission. The NSS Phoenix blog just posted the last in a series on the Commission’s Final Report: The Augustine Commission For Dummies, featuring graphics from Philip Metschan at directlauncher.com. Option 5D was the best in our opinion, but not part of the report.