Video Of The Week - How To Lasso An Asteroid
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The scientists at US Space Agency NASA are planning a radical new mission, one that entails capturing an asteroid and then sending over a manned spaceship so the astronauts can obtain some samples and bring them back to earth.
The purpose of this expedition is to gain a better understanding of asteroids, meteors and other space rocks. Called an 'asteroid redirect mission', it will be undertaken aboard NASA's state of the art Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, the same spacecraft that is expected to take astronauts to the moon and Mars. In order to demonstrate that the task is not as impossible as it sounds earlier this week, the space agency released a fascinating video to demonstrate how they were planning to accomplish it.
An unmanned solar-powered spacecraft will first pluck an asteroid from its orbit and relocate it to one close to that of the moon's so that astronauts can get to it. Once the rock is in place, a team of 2-4 astronauts will hop aboard the Orion and with the help of solar power and the gravitational pull from the moon, make their way to the asteroid. Once there, they will dock and conduct space walks to photograph the rock extensively and collect samples to bring back to earth. The Orion will then retrace its path back and if all goes according to plan, land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, within ten days.
Whether NASA will ever get to embark on this mission will depend on if the agency can get approval for the expected cost of between $1- $2.6 billion USD from the US Congress and after that of course, if they can actually get everything to work the way it's being envisioned. But, it is sure fun to think about isn't it?
Resources: Dailymail.co.uk,nytimes.com
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150 Comments
- gavinabout 11 yearsCool
thunderbutabout 11 yearsi may not be an owl, but i am an owl lover. i am very wise so i will say that there needs to be a video or else i am going to scream. i would also like to say that it is a crazy idea. i will enjoyed to know if the us government says yes.
mcarrilloabout 11 yearsCool
swimmergirlabout 11 yearsCool- Ethanabout 11 yearsWise owl you talk to much really 1.5 billion dollars
- Kathabout 11 yearsIt as cool
- Wise Owlabout 11 yearsIn this article I learned that the main idea was that NASA is planning a radical or extreme mission to capture and study asteroids that are floating around in space. To make this happen NASA needs a lot money from the US government. I am thinking that the US Congress will not give NASA the 1.5 billion dollars to do this because I have heard that we as a country don't have enough money to spend on space exploration.
reswabout 11 yearsi learned that the iroin will fall in the pacific ocean i also learned is that they used gravitational pull from the sun and moons gravity another thing i learned is that they collected rock samples to bring back to earth i liked that they brang back samples i also like the video one question i have is will they do it again
trmeabout 11 yearsFirst thing i'm going to say is that the video was awesome 3 things i learned is that the people who made the video to show the people what to do was pretty smart another thing i learned is that they used gavitational pull from the sun and moon's gravity and another thing i learned is that they had 4 astronauts do it 2 things that intrest me are is the video[duh!] also the sun and moon combo 1 questionis that when is NASA going to do it [peace]- cjsabout 11 yearscool