NASA Considers Tugging An Asteroid Into Orbit Around The Moon

Goes to show how 'out there' those other private plans are. Perhaps as much as 10 years just to get a 25 foot object into moon orbit!

I wonder how much harder it would be to crash the asteroid on the moon in such a way that most of it can be recovered for study. The rocket could have enough fuel to lower the rock at least partway down, ensuring that it remains mostly intact on the ground. I think it would be a more cost effective way to study it.

It would be better to haul into Earth's orbit and place it in an orbit so we could drop it on anyone's head on a moment's notice. Would come in handy to keep terrorists in line. this wouldn't wouldn't violate existing nukes in space agreements but have the power of multiple nukes at our disposal.

So this is how man plans to end his own existence.

Instead of worrying about when the next asteroid will hit us, we'll just bring it to us!

No guess work there. I seriously hope this idea and the asteroid get shot down...

When NASA was done with the twin gravity satellites orbiting the moon, they dumped these washing machines onto the surface for further scientific knowledge.

After bring an asteroid and setting it into orbit around the moon and once gain all the knowledge can about it, will they too, dump it into the moon?

Is the moon the new dumping ground, under the guise of further moon science understanding?

What will they do with this asteroid, once they are done with it?

"the power of multiple nukes at our disposal"

Except a 7 meter rock would burn completely on reentry to the atmosphere. A meteoroid needs to be ~25 meters or greater for part of it to remain when it reaches the surface of Earth.

This would be a good way to test asteroid deflecting technologies.

However, some would argue that it would be better and cheaper for us to simply have a global prayer session when we discover that an asteroid is hurtling towards us at a specific time and on a specific date.

Normally, I might agree with this. There had to be some intelligence involved in our creation. We have yet to replicate any of nature's wonders satisfactorily.

But, at this point, I am not sure God would be listening since our supermarkets are filled with Genetically Modified Frankenfoods which many people feel are an abomination to creation.

Our supermarkets are also filled with tabloid smut and magazines offering sex tips to shoppers.

And then...mankind created GO-OGLE...a search engine for voyuers and gossips absolutely desperate to bear false witness against their neighbors.

We regularly create graven objects of things in the oceans and rivers and our leaders erect statues of themselves.

Homosexuality is rampant and school shooters are everywhere.

Sandy and Katrina did significant damage to two of our cities.

And so, since mankind is very possibly on a path to hell already, God could very well just turn his head to an asteroid heading in our direction and leave it up to us to deflect it.

That is quite a tall order to ask of us given the current state of our politics.

Because, as long as Obama is President and the Tea Party is in charge of Congress, nothing will get done about asteroids in THIS country for the next four years.

Sooo....

That leaves Russia, India and China to save mankind from our wrathful God. Who would have thought we would have to rely on our ENEMIES to survive...GASP! The HORROR.

It might just be better to let the asteroid hit us.

By golly Russia 'n China will have to pry the space technology out of our cold, dead hands if they want it!

@Kevin, I've seen some crazy posts in my day but you're so certifiably mad, I had to create a PopSci account and tell you.

@ Kevin Elzinga 1

It never fails that someone brings religion into a SCIENCE posts that has NOTHING to do with religion. Please stay out of Pop Sci unless you are going to further the thread.

Other than that this would be awesome science to discovery more on a easier platform

As Far out Man said, Far out, crash a small asteroid into the moon. It can be done if the decent is controlled with an impact speed of around 450 mile per hour relatively slow for a crash, then pick up the peices.

If we can deliver water to the surface of the moon economically from a passing comet then we can camp out anywhere on the Moon and we don't have to waste time or resources looking for water.

Icy comet crashed on the moon would net aproximatly:

25 feet spherical diameter asteroid = 15,207 cubic feet, 113,750 gallons, $ 2,857 per gallon.
50 feet spherical diameter asteroid = 65,450 cubic feet, 489,566 gallons, $ 5,310 per gallon.
100 feet spherical diameter asteroid = 523,600 cubic feet, 3,916,528 gallons, $ 664 per gallon.
200 feet spherical diameter asteroid = 4,188,800 cubic feet, 31,332,224 gallons, $ 83 per gallon
400 feet spherical diameter asteroid = 64,000,000 cubic feet, 47,8720,000 gallons, $ 5.43 per gallon

Assuming a price of 2.6 billion dollars to crash each size comet piece. Now 400 feet diameter comet material of all ice would cost a lot more money but if the cost could be brought down to the same as a 25 feet asteroid then you can get water delivered on the moon for less than you pay for a bottle of water on earth. 1 16oz bottled water at $1.00 multiply that by 8 in a gallon then we pay 8 dollars per gallon.

Why did I do all this math, because I have too much time. This was an if / then statement and not to be confused with reality: If frogs had wings we all would be covered in warts...

Ron Bennett

Far Out Man: What advantage could there possibly be to lowering an asteroid to the moon to study? It would be WAY easier to simply study it from orbit. Think about the weight and energy involved.

Gizmowiz: Placing objects of enough size to do what you are saying would result in a huge international outcry as well as stress politics between nations. PS Any nation capable of achieving this feat already has multiple nukes at their disposal.

Vega_Obscura: Please either learn the math to check for yourself or do enough reading on this topic to form a valid opinion.

Robot: That question will probably come down to economics ;) Though the moon has been a dumping ground for asteroids for quite some time now lol.

Kevin Elzinga 1: I look forward to the day that our society outgrows superstitious backwards rationalization... aka: your outlook on things.

________________________________________________________

As for my opinion on the article itself: This is a very logical (almost obvious) idea given our current state of technology. Though in the time it takes to turn this into an established practice, our technology in robotics and automation may be able to provide a better solution.

DANGER WILL ROBINSON, DANGER, MATH ERROR, MATH ERROR 2,857 DOLLARS PER GALLON SHOULD BE 22,857 DOLLARS PER GALLON.

25 feet spherical diameter asteroid = 8,181 cubic feet, 61,195 gallons, $ 42,487 per gallon.

400 feet spherical diameter asteroid = 33, 510, 400 cubic feet, 250, 657,780 gallons, $ 10.37 per gallon

I relied on my I-phone calculator it let me down before now it is doing it again, thats my reason and I am stiking too it...

Fix the calculator too Apple......

Ron Bennett

DANGER WILL ROBINSON, DANGER, MATH ERROR, MATH ERROR 22,857 DOLLARS PER GALLON SHOULD BE 42,488 DOLLARS PER GALLON.

25 feet spherical diameter asteroid = 15,207 cubic feet, 113,750 gallons, $ 42,488 per gallon.

This time Will Robinson it was a human error...

Ron Bennett

That would be a stupid idea, it's one thing if an object the size of the moon gets hit by an astroid but something that size would send all kinds of shards towards the earth.

That's just crazy talk.

@Trahl and Machinaserenita:

Hmmm. Obviously you two are not versed in the language of sarcasm.

Once you have thoroughly studied sarcasm and you have watched more John Stewart and Stephen Colbert, then please return to comment.

Until then...

Please don't jump to such quick conclusions.

That is the problem with our society today. Many people fail to grasp subtlety and sarcasm.

@derlange
It seems to me that it might be easier (simpler and more cost effective) to fully analyze and exploit a crashed asteroid on the moon's surface, rather than in space. The first one might be analyzed by a rover but if it works, perhaps a base could be built close by. Then any number of asteroids could be crashed into the same spot for exploitation. Obviously some science might be lost and that would have to be weighed against any cost savings. Using an Earth fly-by on the return, it probably would be quite easy to drop the asteroids on target since the Moon is tidally locked. I'm just guessing of course. If it was such a good idea, the NASA folks would have it in their plans already.

@Derlange:

You clearly didn't read my entire comment. If you had you would have picked up on my sarcastic tone.

When people jump to conclusions as rapidly as you appear to, I really worry for the state of our society.

And this time I am being serious. No sarcasm.

It would appear that more people than I thought refuse to be thorough in their assessments of others. It is this failure on the part of our modern society to be thorough that sent Italian geologists to jail for six years because they failed to predict a devastating earthquake.

Had the Italian government bothered to investigate as thoroughly as scientists do, they would not have concluded that the scientists were trying to commit fraud when they failed to predict the earthquake.

The scientists simply didn't have all the data.

Just like you didn't have all the data when it came to passing judgement about me.

Here is a link to the Popular Science article about the Italian scientists who were sent to jail for manslaughter. Unless the news is pulling our leg, this should be a wake-up call to anyone in science.

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-10/italian-scientists-convicted-manslaughter-inexact-earthquake-predictions

NASA has several times slowed the descent of falling objects on the moon down to below 450 mph before they crashed, it can be done. You don't send it in at top speed. In order to orbit the moon it would have to be slowed down considerable anyway......

Ron Bennett

@Kevin Elzinga 1:

Dude! You do not have to worry about the state of society for people not getting your joke lol

We already have pieces of asteroids (meteorites) here on earth that we can study. So why spend another $2 billion of US taxpayer money to do the same thing?

We also need to forget about the notion of more manned space missions. The technology behind unmanned inter-planetary space vehicles is much more advanced than what manned inter-planetary space vehicles could ever achieve. There is an unmanned rover that has been exploring the surface of Mars for over 8 years. A manned mission to Mars would have cost 10X as much and would only have lasted 1/10th as long.

The next NASA mission should be an unmanned probe to Mars with a return flight.

@Kevin Elzinga1
"You clearly didn't read my entire comment. If you had you would have picked up on my sarcastic tone."

Actually, no. Nobody would've picked up on your sarcastic tone, because there was none, and there was nothing humerous or entertaining, nor anything of value to extract from being sarcastic.

If nobody is understanding your "subtlety" and "sarcasm", the problem is *YOU* being unfunny and unable to communicate properly.

So either you're an idiot, or you were being serious and you're just trying to backpedal from your insane rambling. Pick one.

@Kevin Elzinga 1

1. We don't know you.
2. Far crazier comments are posted daily on this site.
3. Tone does not carry through writing like you think it does.
4. You are no John Stuart.

If you don't want to be taken literally, use a /sarcasm tag.

If we started on this project today it would probably take 10 years to develop it to the point where a craft would be sent to the asteroid. It would take about 1 year to get there (just a guess) and another 10 to come back, so in about 21 years and 2.6 billion dollars later we might have a asteroid near the moon which might have water. Are you serious?

Yeah I forgot that part. Comparing himself to Colbert and John Stewart? Wow. What a tool.

@All my critics...

The entire point of my initial post was to say, "OK...for a moment, let's decide that we are going to pray to avert disaster."

Here are reasons God may choose to ignore our prayers (all according to Westboro Baptist Church):

Gays

Genetically Modified Frankenfoods

Tabloid smut and magazines offering sex tips to shoppers.

We regularly create graven objects of things in the oceans and rivers....

Etc.

SOOOOOOO.....(didn't you see this little hint in my original post?)

Sooooooo.

Soooooo.

Sooooooo.

Hint.

Hint.

I am being saracstic.

SOooooooo.

Hint.

Sarcasm here...

Sooooooooooooo

Since GOD might ignore us...

It is up to us to solve this.

When I wrote: "the HORROR of relying on our enemies to save humanity" that should have been a clue that I was being sarcastic. Capital letters typically indicate exxagerated sarcasm.

Haven't you also been paying attention to the news? As long as Obama is President, certain political factions in this country REFUSE for him to accomplish ANYTHING and have been quoted saying it.

These are typically also the people who say, "You can pry the gun out of cold, dead fingers."

I was poking fun at the obstructionist-style politics that has taken root in this country.

Obstructionism could very well bring about the end of humanity.

The asteroid threat is real.

And we have to convince the obstructionists that prayer might not work...using the only language that THEY appear to understand ...which is fire and brimstone.

Obstructionists typcially favor only ONE book in the Bible and that is Leviticus.

So you have to speak to them in Leviticus language.

Is there nothing to do or find in the cosmos, that NASA has to resort to being a parking attendant for an asteroid?

Really, considering the cost of this project, there must be better science to discover!

One more "@All My Critics"

If you had thought about my initial post a bit, you might actually have heard THIS screaming behind the calm, outer shell of my writing:

"DO Y'ALL WANT TO ROLL THE DICE AND BET THAT GOD IS IN A GOOD MOOD??!"

Ok...then it is up to us to solve this.

If there is even a 10% chance that God will choose to ignore our prayers, isn't 10 percent too much of a gamble?

We ARE talking about the entire planet here.

Lets spend money to go to Europa!

"...It is believed that Europa has an outer layer of water around 100 km (62 mi) thick; some as frozen-ice upper crust, some as liquid ocean underneath the ice. Recent magnetic field data from the Galileo orbiter showed that Europa has an induced magnetic field through interaction with Jupiter's, which suggests the presence of a subsurface conductive layer. The layer is likely a salty liquid water ocean. The crust is estimated to have undergone a shift of 80°[vague], nearly flipping over (see true polar wander), which would be unlikely if the ice were solidly attached to the mantle.[25] Europa probably contains a metallic iron core..." ~ wikipedia

With water on or frozen with Europa, comes a good chance of finding cosmic life!

@Kevin Elzinga 1

hilarious

/sarcasm

@ those thinking putting the asteroid on the lunar surface; Impractical. The moon has plenty of water. It doesn't need more from asteroids to be useful on the surface. If you had said metals, that would make some sense, but even then, it still makes better sense to send down ore than to use energy to create a massif of rock that hides the metal ores on the surface. And much of an asteroid's tailings could yield building materials for use in space. To get something down onto the moon, it costs energy. More when you need to launch it back to space? Nah. Also, if we are talking serious asteroid mining as multitrillion dollar corporations, then we are talking adding real mass to our moon, instead of taking what we need out of the asteroid and shoving the remainder at the sun each summer, no matter how big an asteroid is. Simple rules work best, and the only way to do this without eventually screwing Earth is to get rid of waste materials at each pass. Orbit is best.

One thing is certain. NASA is going to have to lead the way in one very critical area. We'll need some serious navigation computing power that not only plots courses and allows for emergency maneuvering of the asteroid out of it's current locale, but that also quantifies the gravitational consequences of any object we want to move. Things could go very bad for Earth otherwise.

A recipe for disaster, better have them nukes prepared.

NASA? Oh you mean those space cadets? giggle giggle...

@kevin and every other ignorant fool

You seem to of missed the point is that this is a SCIENCE website not a hey lets be sarcastic and right pointless crap and comments. I GOT the joke and not only was it pointless and pathetic attempt at humor but its not welcome. I come to the site to talk about the articles not have idiots post crap about nothing cluttering up and diverting the actual topic. No one cares about your stupid trolling so please stop take it some where else. Stop being an idiot

@Machinaserenita:

I am going to make a guess here.

You are probably still in graduate school and have not yet been fully initiated into just how cruel the politics around scientists has become.

What I originally wrote was not just for humor sake. It was also a SERIOUS warning to anyone in the field of science to watch their backs.

This sort of hostility towards science DOES exist. And when you actually feel it PERSONALLY for the first time, whether someone is trying to call you a Nazi for believing in evolution or a scam artist for claiming that we have been to the moon, you will find my humorous dismissals of their SERIOUS attitudes a little more comforting.

These accusations are serious...and the people making them are playing for keeps and they are looking to recruit more people in their war against scientists.

By shooting down THEIR ridicule with their own arguments, you, at the very least, stand to gain some allies amongst the public who, otherwise, would not care what your fate is.

There are people out there who believe anything to do with NASA is a fraud.

How are you going to cope with it when someone attacks YOU personally for being a fraud?

You can either ignore it and hope that it will go away, something that the Italian scientists are probably wishing they HADN'T done...or you can fight back and defend yourself.

These sort of people that I am mocking DO want you, and pretty much every other scientist, in prison for blasphemy and fraud.

Ignore me if you wish, but I suggest you reread the article about what happened to the scientists in Italy.

And when that truly settles in...

You may need all the laughs you can get just to stay sane.

OK...@ my critics again...

Что писаю сюда? меня понимаешь? Да? Нет?

More than half of the United States population can't pass the Science portion of the GRE.

That means most scientists may as well be speaking a foreign language when they try to defend themselves in the public eye against angry "common folk" who really CAN make you look like a fraud in a court of law.

This relatively widespread unfamiliarity with science lingo makes you more vulnerable to accusations of fraud than you may think...

People like Bernie Madoff haven't helped in this regard.

If Bernie Madoff scammed a bunch of people....

thENNN....

Convince Joe Q. Public that YOU, a scientist anxious to send spaceships to retrieve asteroids, aren't a fraud as well.

After a generation of Facebook, Napster and Twitter, the average U.S. student is becoming more fluent in text speech than in science terminology.

And the angry "common" men in this country are using this widespread unfamiliarity with science to their advantage.

If the Westboro Church folks are right, and God truly is mad, then He very well might be taking the Batman approach to our fate:

And God said...(nudging an asteroid in our direction)

"I'm not going to kill you... (Genesis 9:9-17)
...But I don't have to SAVE you."

THUS...HENCEFORTH AND....IN CONCLUSION...

It is up to US to save ourselves.

IF we confine ourselves soley to the Westboro frame of reference when arguing this topic.

I hope you understand...what I write here is an argument in FAVOR of NASA...assuming that God really IS mad at us.

Good
It can be a source for water too

But what if it crashes into earth and humans becomes extinct like the dinosaurs.
Or better it can be used to punish enemy countries by crashing these onto them, radiation free H-bombs.

@Alex

I fear you are correct. Sadly, there are people who would want to use our ability to tote asteroids around as a weapon.

The only potential problem would be targeting...but I am guessing there are people working on that as we speak.

Got to love DARPA.

Any organization that proposes that we develop tradeble terrorism futures to predict terrorist events in the Middle East CLEARLY thinks differently than other scientific organizations.

Such a program would virtually guarantee more terrorism in the Middle East.

And then it is up to more reputable scientists to clear their names when Joe Q. Public gets mad at science in general because of the actions of a few unethical scientists.

@Rib 2

Your ideas are noble. I hope we eventually will use the power to move asteroids around for good.

It would be nice to colonize other planets and moons in the solar system.

There are a ton of complexities involved though.

Before this article and the thread drop off the board here, I'd like to say that regardless of going after an asteroid, we should have the moon up and running. We need to get rid of some lunar mass because we are slowly losing our moon and because corporations and nations want to start mining.

We can't bring asteroids of real size or number without increasing lunar mass, meaning tidal waves and hurricanes and stuff here on Earth. Answer is obviously getting rid of some rational amount of lunar mass.

Exacerbating the fact that our moon doesn't want to be a moon; it wants to be a space station, our planet is losing hydrogen and helium and other lighter than air gases at an increased rate due to overall rise in atmospheric heat. So our planet is losing mass while the moon is not.

This is like suicide.

Vega_Obscura01/02/13 at 2:28 pm

"So this is how man plans to end his own existence.

Instead of worrying about when the next asteroid will hit us, we'll just bring it to us!"

Yep! Like nothing could go wrong there, alright!
BTW, I can't help but wonder how that would affect the tides.