In doing so, NASA is actually undermining the ARM asteroid capture operation: it will drive a rock from an asteroid rather than a whole asteroid into orbit around the moon. NASA emphasizes: no object over a kilometer in size threatens the Earth in the next hundred years
NASA revealed yesterday more details in its program to intercept an asteroid (ARM) which will meet in the mid-2020s with an asteroid, capture it and bring it into orbit around the moon. NASA also announced that the number of near-Earth asteroids known to science has increased by 65% since the launch of the Asteroid Initiative.
It was a coincidental timing, but in recent days attention has been drawn toA near-Earth asteroid measuring 500-1,000 meters that passed this morning at a safe distance from Earth of 4.5 million kilometers, and was the one that spread rumors about the end of the world (Indeed, if such an object hit the Earth it would be the end of the world, but it wasn't even close).
Operation ARM will involve a robotic spacecraft that will capture a rock from the surface of a near-Earth asteroid and transfer it to a stable orbit around the Moon where it will be studied by astronauts.
"The asteroid interception mission will serve as a means of testing technologies that will then be used for manned flights into deep space, and eventually to Mars," said Robert Lightfoot, one of NASA's deputy administrators. "The possibility of bringing rock from an asteroid will have a direct impact on planning for future manned missions to deep space and the beginning of a new era of spaceflight."
This is basically a downgrade of the original proposal - to capture an entire small asteroid and bring it into orbit around the moon. It is easier to land on a large asteroid that has some gravity than to meet with a small asteroid, but of course, even then it is not a simple operation.
The agency plans to announce the specific asteroid that will be chosen for the mission no earlier than 2019. A year later, it will introduce the robotic spacecraft that will carry out the mission. For an asteroid to be a valid candidate for the mission, scientists will first have to determine its characteristics in addition to size: among other things, rotation, shape and exact orbit. NASA has identified three valid candidates for the mission so far: Itoqua, Beno and 2008 EV5. The agency expects to identify one or two additional candidates each year until the mission.
After rendezvous with the target asteroid, the unmanned spacecraft will deploy robotic arms to capture rock from its surface. It will then begin a multi-year journey to redirect the rock into lunar orbit.
Throughout its mission, ARM will test a number of capabilities required for future manned missions, including advanced Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP), an important capability that converts sunlight into electrical energy using solar collectors and then uses the resulting fuel to launch charged atoms to propel the You got sick. This propulsion method can be very effective for transporting massive loads. Although this method is slow compared to chemically powered engines, a SEP-powered spacecraft will require much less fuel at launch and thus reduce costs.
An advanced SEP powered spacecraft will be able to pre-deliver cargo or vehicles for future manned missions in deep space, or wait for crews on Mars, or for spacecraft that will serve as space stations that will orbit the moon, and that will be a waypoint on the way to Mars.
The spacecraft will test new orbital and navigation techniques in deep space, the ability to work with the moon's gravity to place the asteroid in a stable orbit around the moon known as a distant retrograde orbit. It will also be an excellent rendezvous point for astronauts who will meet there with a large long-duration spacecraft that will take them to Mars.
Before the asteroid fragment is sent into orbit around the moon, NASA will use the opportunity to test techniques for protecting the Earth from an asteroid that could endanger it in the future. The experiment and the knowledge that will be gathered during the operation of the spacecraft will allow NASA to develop options to divert an asteroid from a collision course with the Earth, if and when this is required.
In 2005, using the Deep Impact spacecraft, NASA tested technology to change the trajectory of a near-Earth object through a direct impact. ARM's robotic spacecraft will test another method of gravity-assisted towing. Every body with mass, even the smallest one, exerts and experiences a gravitational force. And in space, the attraction between even medium bodies can affect their motion. This means that by getting close to the asteroid, an ARM-type spacecraft could slowly nudge the asteroid into the desired orbit, even without touching it. The efficiency of the maneuver will increase if part of the mass of the asteroid is transferred to the spacecraft by capturing a large rock.
It will take ARM six years to move the rock into lunar orbit. In the middle of the twenties, the Orion spacecraft will be launched with astronauts on it and they will fly to the necessary orbit and study the asteroid.
This manned mission will serve as another test of many capabilities required to advance manned space flights to Mars, including new sensing technologies and a docking system that will connect Orion to the robotic spacecraft carrying the rock from the asteroid. Astronauts will perform a spacewalk outside Orion to study and collect samples of the asteroid's rock and in the process test new spacesuits designed for deep space missions.
NASA says that collecting these samples will help astronauts and mission managers determine the best way to ensure the safe return of samples from future missions to Mars. The agency also expects that the samples will provide valuable data for scientific research since the asteroids are remnants of the formation of the solar system, but also of general value to commercial entities that will be interested in mining resources from asteroids in the future.
In 2012, Congress approved $20.4 million as a budget for an expanded version of the Near-Earth Object Observations program - this compared to $4 million per year that NASA has received for the program since 1990. The program was expanded again in 2014 and its budget was $40.5 million, and now NASA is asking Congress to increase it in 2016 for 50 million dollars.
"Asteroids are a hot topic," said Jim Green, NASA's deputy administrator for planetary sciences. "Not only because they could pose a threat to Earth, but also for their scientific value and mission use as NASA's planned springboard to Mars."
NASA has identified more than 12,000 near-Earth objects so far, including 96 percent of asteroids larger than a kilometer. None of the objects detected by NASA are expected to hit the Earth in the next hundred years. However, it is difficult to detect smaller asteroids that pass near the Earth and some of which could endanger the Earth. In the three years of the project, the number of objects of this type identified increased from 893 to 1,472.
In addition to NASA's ongoing work in locating and cataloging asteroids, NASA is holding prize-bearing competitions, the Asteroid Grand Challenge, and will distribute an algorithm-based application developed by NASA that will increase the ability of amateur astronomers to discover new asteroids.
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Pretty