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
- doveover 11 yearsThat was cool
- kiskadeeover 11 yearsI love it mrs.turner.And after reading it i want wor in space when i grow up.
- caribouover 11 yearsIt would be realy fun floating in space about to grab a asteroid and taking it back to earth.
immortalreaderover 11 yearsthis is great for my report in reading class
aagrover 11 yearsthe video is awesome three things i learned is that the people that went up there was the NASA state of the art orion crew. i also learned that they used solar power and gravitational pulls from the moon to get to the asteroid, pretty smart if you ask me. last thing is they had like 4 astronauts for the job. 2 things that interested me is the video, duh. also the sun moon combo that they used to get up to the asteroid. my question is when will NASA do this thing cooooool- immortalreaderover 11 yearssame here
depaover 11 yearsI learned that they wanted to capture a astroid. I learned that they were planing on landing in the ocean. I learned that they wanted to chip peaces of and send them to nasa. and what interested me was that they wanted to land in the ocean. what interested me was that they wanted to captur an astroid. How are they aboul to swim in the hevy agipment?
evchover 11 yearsthree things i learned are that nasa plans on using more splash landings insted of runway landings like the discovery and the other space shuttle. another thing i learned is that nasa might be doing another launch into deep space. The last thing I learned is space craft might be able to retrace thier steps. Two things i thoght were intresting are spacecraft might be able to retrace thier steps and nasa might do another deep space launch. one question i have is when is this suposed to happen?- aagrover 11 yearsi agree
- immortalreaderover 11 yearsI agree
caguover 11 yearsyour the smartest- caguover 11 yearscool
Mrs. Turnerover 11 yearsThis is a great article. I want you to write a post about what you think about it. Would like to be an astronaut and go on this mission?- tiger2022over 11 yearsi would wont to go a mission like this and i think it is a great article
- Nameover 11 yearsthat is very cool
- edmodo-hctwej4qkzover 11 yearsawesome cool wow cool
