Questions tagged [asteroid-redirect-mission]

Questions about a now cancelled mission to retrieve a small asteroid and bring it back to a stable lunar orbit for future study.

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How many images of Didymos could be transmitted by Dart between the first full size image and the impact?

Dart is approaching Didymos B aka Dimorphus with a speed of 6.6 km/s. How many images could be taken and transmitted between Didymos B just filling the entire image and the last image just before ...
Uwe's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
182 views

Will DART fire its ion engine to accelerate prior to impact?

I'm an avid KSP player. Like some of them, I've been playing the DART simulation on the game. I've typically achieved impact velocities of 5-7 km/s, the higher end being achieved by propulsive ...
WarpPrime's user avatar
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2 votes
2 answers
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Could a laser array and miniature light sails be used to deflect asteroids that are on a collision path with Earth?

Several projects related to interstellar travel have been proposed, like interstellar travel with miniature light sail starships , or the Breakthrough Starshot project Question. Could a laser array ...
Cristian Dumitrescu's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
111 views

Why is the Deep Space Network now testing an asteroid redirection mission that hasn't launched yet?

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test is a planned demonstration of the ability of a spacecraft to impact into and redirect the path of an asteroid. The test is part of plans to develop a system to ...
DrSheldon's user avatar
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9 votes
1 answer
250 views

Why are DART's solar panels aligned like this?

I've never noticed this before, but the two solar arrays of NASA and APL's DART spacecraft are at different "levels". In this image, the solar panel on the left extends out from the "...
dez's user avatar
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3 votes
3 answers
317 views

Asteroid orbiting between Earth and Mars as ferry?

What if we moved a large asteroid to a highly elliptical orbit between Earth and Mars and then occupied it like we occupy the ISS? It'd be a slow trip to Mars, but if we're in no rush, we'd get free ...
user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
78 views

Could Breakthrough Starshot be used to deflect asteroids and comets?

Would Breakthrough Starshot be able to deflect an asteroid or comet? I have seen thoughts about using the lasers that would launch Breakthrough Starshot to deflect asteroids or comets: https://www....
Jonathan's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
162 views

Could a Gravity Tractor be used for mining asteroids?

Recently, I came across the concept of the Gravity Tractor for the first time. And I was intrigued. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_tractor A Gravity Tractor, as I understand it, is a concept ...
Doug's user avatar
  • 21
2 votes
1 answer
192 views

Are there any specific plans for how to deal with near-Earth comets? If not, should there be?

You hear a lot about how NASA, ESA and other space agencies are taking action to catalogue asteroids that might one day collide with us, but also figure out how to avert such a catastrophe if one day ...
Happy Koala's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

Could the Orion project pusher plate model be used for asteroid deflection?

Could the Orion project pusher plate model be used for asteroid deflection? Basically, the plates (or hemispherical shells) would be deployed in the vicinity  of the asteroid , and the following ...
Cristian Dumitrescu's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
95 views

Using DART to measure G

NASA plans to launch a mission called DART to kinetically impact an asteroid, primarily for the defense of Earth. One thing that I've been thinking about is the same mission could be used potentially ...
PearsonArtPhoto's user avatar
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11 votes
1 answer
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What ever happened to the Asteroid Redirect Mission?

In Robert Zubrin's Moon Direct; A purpose-driven plan to open the lunar frontier (found in the Pod Bay) there is a paragraph that says: Essentially, the gateway is a vestigial form of the Obama ...
uhoh's user avatar
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0 votes
0 answers
229 views

Can an ion drive attached to an asteroid move it into another orbit if given enough power?

After watching one of the videos from Curious Droid on Youtube talking about asteroid deflection and strikes I had an idea. Ion thrusters provide bits of mass velocities at the needed Isp (5-6 km/s ...
user11377's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
189 views

Spacecraft necessary to deflect extinction event asteroid?

It is believed that the end of the Cretaceous period of the Earth's geology was marked by an asteroid impact which caused a mass extinction event, known as the Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction Event. ...
Tyler Durden's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
601 views

Could an ion engine use an asteroid as an in-situ resource for fuel?

I've read about NASA Glenn's Next's and JPL's DAWN ion engines using xenon (or cheaper argon and krypton) to go on trips to asteroids, bring a small one back to lunar orbit, bring back mined minerals, ...
Graham's user avatar
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9 votes
1 answer
1k views

Have there been any documented mini-moons since 2006 RH120?

The conference call with Bill Bottke (MP3 plus other documents) about "minimoons" presents an alternative to Asteroid Redirect first got me interested in orbital mechanics. The idea is that there are ...
uhoh's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
842 views

Could "Asteroid Redirect" make the moon more dangerous for astronauts for a long time?

The proposed Asteroid Redirect Mission would capture a small astroid, then tow it back to the moon and place it in orbit - in a bag - if I understand correctly. I'm all for creative thinking applied ...
uhoh's user avatar
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5 votes
4 answers
195 views

Could we launch a rubble pile simulant to LEO for astronauts to practice on before visiting natural milligravity objects?

There are proposals and maybe serious plans to send astronauts to asteroids or Mars' moons, objects which are a few kilometers or just a few meters in diameter. I call them "milligravity" objects ...
LocalFluff's user avatar
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0 votes
0 answers
50 views

If an extinction capable asteroid was approaching Earth, would we be capable of preventing the collision? [duplicate]

Assuming we just spotted an asteroid, of a similar size to the one that killed the dinosaurs, that is approaching earth and will hit it in an equally fatal way. Presuming we detected this asteroid as ...
Zaibis's user avatar
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7 votes
3 answers
435 views

Could a cloud of dense gas, such as xenon, deflect a hazardous asteroid?

Impactors or explosive missiles have the advantage of not having to match velocity with an Earth-bound asteroid, so they are cheaper and quicker to launch (or so I understand), and detection need not ...
Koko the Talking Ape's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
626 views

What is the largest body in the solar system we could meaningfully and accurately adjust the orbit of?

There is a lot of science fiction and emerging science that move comet and asteroids as part of the main plot. Pretty much everything in our solar system, is in orbit around the Sun, or in orbit ...
James Jenkins's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
317 views

Could an ARM Option B type of mission be used to deflect a hazardous asteroid?

NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission ARM Option B would have a robotic probe pick up a boulder from the surface of a much larger asteroid, and put that boulder in lunar orbit. Boulders considered could ...
LocalFluff's user avatar
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