Monday, February 04, 2008
Sometimes I surrender... and something encouraging happens
And then slashdot - in the space of two weeks - runs 4 * separate * articles on asteroids, and in particular, notes that a group of scientists are actively attempting to reprioritize America's space program away from the moon and Mars and towards the NEOs!?... 
- "This is the kind of debate that will go on--beyond whether a lunar base really makes sense. But manned asteroid missions first--ahead of a lunar base--are drawing strong attention," he says. Hubbard and Friedman are co-hosting the event, along with former astronaut Kathy Thornton, associate dean of the University of Virginia's Science, Technology and Society Dept. Thornton flew on four space shuttle missions, including the initial critical repair of the Hubble Space Telescope in 1993.
The alternative vision would also include far greater private-sector incentives for participation at all levels, an area public surveys cite as very important. Missions to asteroids and Lagrangian points, for example, are likely to carry along Bigelow-type commercial inflatable modules. A recent informal space program survey by The New York Times found substantial public frustration about NASA's doing what entrepreneurs could do better.
Under the alternative concepts, astronauts using an upgraded CEV would initially be sent on long-duration missions, not to the Moon, but to land on asteroids where they would sample terrain perhaps more ancient than the Moon's.
I have spent the last couple weeks in Adelaide, South Australia - and later in Melbourne, working A/V for linux.conf.au. Next up - perhaps a visit to Darwin - which seems apropos for Asteroid Appreciation Day.
Labels: asteroids
¶ 1:11 AM
