Saturday, April 13, 2013

Nasa wants to tow asteroid to the moon, says senator

Comment:

Looks like a plan to do something that will matter.  The idea is to use what's on the asteroid to enable a permanent human presence in space.

Note that an asteroid of this size weighs about 500 tons.  If it is a carbonaceous asteroid, it may contain upwards of 30% water.  That's potentially 150 tons of water, which is nothing to sneeze at.  It needs to be mined, of course.  That, along with everything else that is usable.

It should not be a one-off mission.  If such were part of a larger plan to utilize asteroidal materials to colonize space, then this should be considered a step in the right direction.

More money could be freed up by canceling the SLS rocket, and contracting SpaceX to do the launch services.

link to article follows directly:

Nasa wants to tow asteroid to the moon, says senator

Nasa wants to grab a small asteroid and tow it into orbit around the moon, as part of a long-range plan towards establishing permanent manned outposts in space, according to a US senator.

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