New asteroid initiative

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New asteroid initiative

Client National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA NASA
Course of the mission

New Asteroid Initiative (German: "Neue Asteroiden-Initiative") also Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) (German: "Asteroiden-Umleitungs-Mission") was a planned mission of NASA , with which a small asteroid was captured, or a piece of should be collected from the surface of a larger asteroid, brought near the earth and examined by astronauts. In fiscal 2014, NASA invested $ 105 million inplanning the mission. NASA announced the cancellation of the mission on June 13, 2017.

planning

The mission provided for using technologies that had already been developed or were available; this is how the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and the Space Launch System should be used. Project planning is also expected to include the development of improved asteroid discovery technologies .

On March 25, 2015, NASA finalized its plans for the mission, which is expected to be in the mid-2020s. The idea of ​​capturing a small asteroid is no longer primarily pursued. According to the latest publications, a boulder of similar size is to be collected from the surface of an asteroid. In 2014, almost five million US dollars were available for concept studies on various aspects of the mission. In March 2017, the US government recommended no funding for this mission in its draft budget for 2018. On June 13, 2017, NASA announced the suspension of mission planning due to a lack of congressional support.

Mission objectives

A small chunk with a diameter of a few meters is to be collected from an asteroid in a near-Earth orbit. This should be brought into a lunar orbit , where it should serve as a target for manned missions, for example to test the extraction of sample material. NASA originally planned to capture an asteroid several meters in diameter in one piece. The mission is also intended to be another milestone for a manned Mars mission in the 2030s and provide further information on near-Earth asteroids.

Course of the mission

The original plan was to identify a possible asteroid with earth telescopes - a celestial body about 8 meters in diameter and with a mass of around 500 tons would be conceivable, even if a suitable celestial body of this size has so far been difficult to find with today's technologies. According to the NASA experts, a space probe would launch to a suitable asteroid. The robotic probe used to transport the asteroid could be equipped with an ion drive in order to achieve the necessary thrust that is necessary for transport to an earth-moon orbit. As soon as the space probe has reached the asteroid, a tube-like structure should unfold. The probe should be maneuvered in such a way that the asteroid is fixed in the tube-like structure. NASA shows the possible course of the mission in a short video.

The space probe picking up the rock.

The plan, published in spring 2015, is to collect a larger rock from the surface of a near-Earth asteroid. The probe is then to manipulate the orbit of the collected object in order to maneuver it into an orbit around the moon. The greatest challenge, however, is the handling of such a massive object. In particular, the intrinsic rotation of the celestial body must be intercepted within the catch tube. Then it should be brought to a suitable orbit near the moon so that the asteroid is not torn apart under the effects of the earth's atmosphere and gravity. If the maneuver can be successfully completed, a rendezvous maneuver would be carried out with a manned spacecraft, provided that future budget cuts do not restrict further development of the carrier and spacecraft.

On March 25, 2015, NASA announced in a conference call that the mission would now focus on removing a small chunk from the surface of a larger asteroid, instead of the originally proposed concept of returning a small asteroid to a lunar orbit.

Selection of asteroids

Originally, NASA was intensively looking for a suitable small asteroid for the mission. For the capture variant, nine asteroids have been identified that should be both the correct size and the correct orbit. The target object, about eight to ten meters in diameter, should rotate a maximum of two times a minute to avoid damaging the robot probe. In February 2014, MD was observed for 20 hours by the Spitzer telescope in 2011 . It has a diameter of around six meters and a surprisingly low density, roughly equivalent to that of water; Experts speculate that this is more of a kind of loose pile of rubble .

In 2016, asteroid 2008 HU 4 will come so close to Earth that more detailed observations will be possible. The remaining known asteroids are no longer getting close enough to Earth before a final decision about the mission has to be made. Several potential candidates continue to be discovered each year as part of various programs, so the search continues.

For the plan to collect an object from the surface of a larger asteroid, (25143) Itokawa , (101955) Bennu and (341843) 2008 EV 5 (as of March 2015) are the most promising candidates for the mission.

Others

As part of the New Asteroid Initiative , the " Asteroid Grand Challenge " began in June 2013 . NASA invited other space organizations, scientific and private institutions and the interested public to submit suggestions on how potentially dangerous asteroids could be detected, classified and deflected . For the ideas competition, which ended at the end of July 2013, 400 company representatives, scientists and private individuals submitted proposals for the mission, which are to be discussed further at a workshop in September. Lori Garver , NASA's vice director, praised the overwhelming turnout , but also raised a fundamental problem and objection from Arizona State University planetary scientist Jim Bell that there were doubts about the planned project, both in the scientific community and the public Mission give .

See also

Web links

Commons : Asteroid Redirect Mission  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Stefan Deiters on astrononews.com (April 11, 2013): Planned capture mission for small asteroids , accessed on April 12, 2013.
  2. ^ Nasa.gov: NASA's Asteroid Initiative Benefits From Rich History , accessed April 12, 2013.
  3. ↑ a b NASA closing out Asteroid Redirect Mission. In: Spacenews.com. June 14, 2017, accessed July 10, 2017 .
  4. ↑ NASA Closes Out Its Asteroid Redirect Mission. In: Skyandtelescop.com. June 22, 2017, accessed July 10, 2017 .
  5. ↑ nasa.com (March 25, 2015): NASA Announces Next Steps on Journey to Mars: Progress on Asteroid Initiative , accessed on March 27, 2015.
  6. ↑ a b c d e Stefan Deiters: Asteroid capture mission becomes more concrete . astronews.com. June 20, 2014. Retrieved September 8, 2014.
  7. ↑ Trump budget blueprint focuses on deep space exploration, commercial partnerships. In: Spaceflightnow.com. March 16, 2017, accessed July 10, 2017 .
  8. ↑ a b c Seth Borenstein, huffingtonpost.com (April 5, 2013): NASA Asteroid Landing Mission To Take Place In 2021 After Accelerated Obama Plan, Says Bill Nelson ( April 10, 2013 memento on the Internet Archive ), accessed April 12 , 2013 . April 2013.
  9. ↑ Visualization of the planned mission process on nasa.gov , accessed on April 12, 2013.
  10. ↑ Martin Knipfer: Asteroid Retrieval - The decision has been made . raumfahrer.net. April 2, 2015. Retrieved April 18, 2015.
  11. ↑ Towing mission: Nasa wants to maneuver asteroid piece to the moon . Spiegel Online . March 26, 2015. Accessed March 26, 2015.
  12. ^ White House, NASA want help hunting asteroids washingtonpost.com; NASA Needs Your Help Finding Killer Asteroids nationalgeographic.com; NASA Announces Asteroid Grand Challenge nasa.gov, accessed June 21, 2013
  13. ↑ Christoph Seidler, spiegel.de online (August 2, 2013): Search for asteroids: Nasa wants to demote oldie telescope , accessed on August 3, 2013