Asteroid Ida
‘Plymouth Rock’ Deep Space Asteroid Mission Idea Gains Ground
Space.com
This week, Josh Hopkins of Lockheed’s Human Spaceflight Advanced Programs will detail an early human mission to near-Earth asteroids using Orion spacecraft, at Space 2010, a conference being held by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Hopkins told SPACE.com that a study team has been steadily chipping away on the mission idea since 2007, seeing their plan as a way to explore the asteroids as stepping stones to Mars.
The proposed asteroid mission concept, called Plymouth Rock, combines two Orion spacecraft with modifications to provide the necessary propulsion, living space and life-support capability for two astronauts.
The dual-Orion configuration can probably support deep-space mission durations of five to six months, Hopkins said.
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Off to Asteroids
Aviation Week
Lockheed Martin says its Plymouth Rock mission proposal would reach a near-Earth asteroid with astronauts using two Orion capsules and a dual-launch strategy as early as 2016—nearly a decade ahead of the asteroid goal Obama outlined in April.
Six-month missions, as soon as 2016 or 2019, with two astronauts would reach out to a class of recently discovered asteroids, most no more than 30-240 ft. in diameter, in nearby orbits that pose difficulties similar to a lunar landing.
Samples gathered by astronauts at these rocky bodies left in the formation of the planets would reveal more about the Solar System’s evolution, offer insight into the composition of objects posing a potential collision threat to Earth and prepare explorers for a Mars mission.
“We concluded it was not as difficult as we expected,†says Josh Hopkins, principal investigator at Lockheed Martin for advanced human exploration missions, of a three-year company study on expanding Orion’s lunar mission role. “The design requirements for a lunar mission are close enough to an asteroid mission that we were able to extend the design.â€
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