Landing on an asteroid

[Mission_CDR]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Asteroid_Mission

What do you think?

 

[Dogsbd]

Would 99942 Apophis even have enough gravity to keep someone from floating away with a bit too aggressive kick?

 

[Mission_CDR]

I do not think so, I am sceptical for 2 reasons.

1.) I found it on wikipedia

2.)The escape velocity is 0.52kM/hr (1.4444444 CM/S) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Constellation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Asteroid_Mission
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis

 

[Eagle]

Well, we definitely can land on an asteroid. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEAR_Shoemaker

It does have the advantage of a much safer landing and less lander hardware (compared to the moon).

But we have the problem of not being in Earth's Orbit. So dallying too long may result in a looooooooong trip home.

 

[Zatnikitelman]

Don't think we can pull it off with anything short of a high-thrust Ion engine or NERVA or LANTR or something that doesn't quite exist yet. Just too many variables in that.

 

[thomasantony]

I do not think so, I am sceptical for 2 reasons.

1.) I found it on wikipedia

2.)The escape velocity is 0.52kM/hr (1.4444444 CM/S) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Constellation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Asteroid_Mission
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/99942_Apophis

Well,
Seeing it on wikipedia is no reason for it to be wrong. In fact, this was reported in many news websites as well as space-related sites.

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/061227_asteroid_orion.html
http://www.space.com/news/061116_asteroid_nasa.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6452311.stm

Low gravity is no reason for not landing. They will just use tethers or develop some other safe way of "walking".

~
Thomas

 

[Eagle]

Don't think we can pull it off with anything short of a high-thrust Ion engine or NERVA or LANTR or something that doesn't quite exist yet. Just too many variables in that.

The total thrust and fuel requirements shouldn't be much worse than a moon mission, especially if you bring less hardware.

The LEM was two SSTOs(for the moon) who has an impulse of only 311 sec (2.2km/s for each stage). (meaning ISP isn't everything, just take an extra stage)

@ThomasAntony - There's no real need to walk on the surface. Just take a MMU pack and zip above the surface.

 

[Dogsbd]

There's no real need to walk on the surface. Just take a MMU pack and zip above the surface.

That's sort of my idea as well. There also may be no need for the "lander" to land either, it would just be along to provided some delta V and living space. The Orion / Altair stack could just station keep nearby. Or the entire stack could "land", the Altair legs touching down on the surface with the Orion still docked, it may be more like a docking with the asteroid than a landing.

 

[steph]

In Clarke's Space Odyssey 2061, there is a part where they land on the Halley-Bop comet. The spacecraft is really high-tech, using fusion power, but otherwise the story is quite down-to-earth. They used a network of cables stretched across the vicinity of the ship to move around while outside. Might work with Apophis too, provided it isn't too brittle. Pretty much what Thomasanthony said and quite similar to landing on Phobos in Wo2001.

 

[ijuin]

The ascent fuel tanks of the Altair should probably be replaced by additional food, oxygen, and other crew-support consumables to allow for the longer duration, while the Altair cabin itself can provide the extra cabin space that will be needed. Anyway, I think that a mission to an asteroid would be a good idea for the 2020s. Eros itself would be a good target since it is large enough that the "astronaut's own muscles propel him away" problem will be much reduced--its escape velocity is about eleven meters per second on average.

 

[YL3GDY]

There even no need to "keep station". Simple hardware for "hooking" can be used. It would be safer, it would be sufficiently light(because the weight of whole ship would be quite small; on the asteroid Orion would weight less than a tonn). But it can be a good test and training before more complex flights, e.g. to Moon or Mars. As I have read on russian Cosmonautics News site, the flight would last about 10 months, not so long, compared to ISS expeditions.