Small asteroid misses Earth by only four thousand miles

) wrote in message ...
From: "redneckj"
Sounds like an ideal type body for asteroid material return.
300-1,000 tons of material if you can figure a capture to orbit
method.

The problem with such an object all by itself is that you don't
discover it until it's already whipping by, too late to change its
trajectory into capture, and it's so small you can never find it again.
But with a boulder dislodged from 433 Eros or similar asteroid, you can
find it easily and have plenty of time to plan nudging it into a
capture trajectory. How about this idea: Nudge it into a trajectory
that comes up from behind Luna and then loops around ahead of Luna
getting an anti-assist into capture orbit. After a few months it'll be
in the right phase with respect to Luna's orbit to pass too close to
Luna and be dislodged from that capture orbit, so during that time you
nudge it to such an orbit that it never gets close to Luna for years.
Maybe during the initial anti-assist, have it pass ahead and to the
side of Luna, putting it into an orbit that is seriously non-coplanar
with Luna's orbit, then it'll be relatively easy to nudge that orbit to
never get close to Luna's orbit at all so phase with respect to Luna's
position in orbit becomes irrelevant. The only problem with that idea
is that it's far from an equatorial orbit around Earth, so it takes
more energy to rendezvous with it to mine it. But if the boulder's
orbital plane is the same as ISS, then this may not be a real problem
given we're going to ISS anyway from non-equatorial launch sites.

kathy

this is true

) wrote in message ...
From: "redneckj"
Sounds like an ideal type body for asteroid material return.
300-1,000 tons of material if you can figure a capture to orbit
method.

The problem with such an object all by itself is that you don't
discover it until it's already whipping by, too late to change its
trajectory into capture, and it's so small you can never find it again.
But with a boulder dislodged from 433 Eros or similar asteroid, you can
find it easily and have plenty of time to plan nudging it into a
capture trajectory. How about this idea: Nudge it into a trajectory
that comes up from behind Luna and then loops around ahead of Luna
getting an anti-assist into capture orbit. After a few months it'll be
in the right phase with respect to Luna's orbit to pass too close to
Luna and be dislodged from that capture orbit, so during that time you
nudge it to such an orbit that it never gets close to Luna for years.
Maybe during the initial anti-assist, have it pass ahead and to the
side of Luna, putting it into an orbit that is seriously non-coplanar
with Luna's orbit, then it'll be relatively easy to nudge that orbit to
never get close to Luna's orbit at all so phase with respect to Luna's
position in orbit becomes irrelevant. The only problem with that idea
is that it's far from an equatorial orbit around Earth, so it takes
more energy to rendezvous with it to mine it. But if the boulder's
orbital plane is the same as ISS, then this may not be a real problem
given we're going to ISS anyway from non-equatorial launch sites.

kathy

this is true

) wrote in message ...
From: "redneckj"
Sounds like an ideal type body for asteroid material return.
300-1,000 tons of material if you can figure a capture to orbit
method.

The problem with such an object all by itself is that you don't
discover it until it's already whipping by, too late to change its
trajectory into capture, and it's so small you can never find it again.
But with a boulder dislodged from 433 Eros or similar asteroid, you can
find it easily and have plenty of time to plan nudging it into a
capture trajectory. How about this idea: Nudge it into a trajectory
that comes up from behind Luna and then loops around ahead of Luna
getting an anti-assist into capture orbit. After a few months it'll be
in the right phase with respect to Luna's orbit to pass too close to
Luna and be dislodged from that capture orbit, so during that time you
nudge it to such an orbit that it never gets close to Luna for years.
Maybe during the initial anti-assist, have it pass ahead and to the
side of Luna, putting it into an orbit that is seriously non-coplanar
with Luna's orbit, then it'll be relatively easy to nudge that orbit to
never get close to Luna's orbit at all so phase with respect to Luna's
position in orbit becomes irrelevant. The only problem with that idea
is that it's far from an equatorial orbit around Earth, so it takes
more energy to rendezvous with it to mine it. But if the boulder's
orbital plane is the same as ISS, then this may not be a real problem
given we're going to ISS anyway from non-equatorial launch sites.

kathy

this is true

) wrote in message ...
From: "redneckj"
Sounds like an ideal type body for asteroid material return.
300-1,000 tons of material if you can figure a capture to orbit
method.

The problem with such an object all by itself is that you don't
discover it until it's already whipping by, too late to change its
trajectory into capture, and it's so small you can never find it again.
But with a boulder dislodged from 433 Eros or similar asteroid, you can
find it easily and have plenty of time to plan nudging it into a
capture trajectory. How about this idea: Nudge it into a trajectory
that comes up from behind Luna and then loops around ahead of Luna
getting an anti-assist into capture orbit. After a few months it'll be
in the right phase with respect to Luna's orbit to pass too close to
Luna and be dislodged from that capture orbit, so during that time you
nudge it to such an orbit that it never gets close to Luna for years.
Maybe during the initial anti-assist, have it pass ahead and to the
side of Luna, putting it into an orbit that is seriously non-coplanar
with Luna's orbit, then it'll be relatively easy to nudge that orbit to
never get close to Luna's orbit at all so phase with respect to Luna's
position in orbit becomes irrelevant. The only problem with that idea
is that it's far from an equatorial orbit around Earth, so it takes
more energy to rendezvous with it to mine it. But if the boulder's
orbital plane is the same as ISS, then this may not be a real problem
given we're going to ISS anyway from non-equatorial launch sites.

kathy

this is true

) wrote in message ...
From: "redneckj"
Sounds like an ideal type body for asteroid material return.
300-1,000 tons of material if you can figure a capture to orbit
method.

The problem with such an object all by itself is that you don't
discover it until it's already whipping by, too late to change its
trajectory into capture, and it's so small you can never find it again.
But with a boulder dislodged from 433 Eros or similar asteroid, you can
find it easily and have plenty of time to plan nudging it into a
capture trajectory. How about this idea: Nudge it into a trajectory
that comes up from behind Luna and then loops around ahead of Luna
getting an anti-assist into capture orbit. After a few months it'll be
in the right phase with respect to Luna's orbit to pass too close to
Luna and be dislodged from that capture orbit, so during that time you
nudge it to such an orbit that it never gets close to Luna for years.
Maybe during the initial anti-assist, have it pass ahead and to the
side of Luna, putting it into an orbit that is seriously non-coplanar
with Luna's orbit, then it'll be relatively easy to nudge that orbit to
never get close to Luna's orbit at all so phase with respect to Luna's
position in orbit becomes irrelevant. The only problem with that idea
is that it's far from an equatorial orbit around Earth, so it takes
more energy to rendezvous with it to mine it. But if the boulder's
orbital plane is the same as ISS, then this may not be a real problem
given we're going to ISS anyway from non-equatorial launch sites.

kathy

this is true

" wrote in message
...
From: "redneckj"
Sounds like an ideal type body for asteroid material return.
300-1,000 tons of material if you can figure a capture to orbit
method.

The problem with such an object all by itself is that you don't
discover it until it's already whipping by, too late to change its
trajectory into capture, and it's so small you can never find it again.
But with a boulder dislodged from 433 Eros or similar asteroid, you can
find it easily and have plenty of time to plan nudging it into a
capture trajectory. How about this idea: Nudge it into a trajectory
that comes up from behind Luna and then loops around ahead of Luna
getting an anti-assist into capture orbit. After a few months it'll be
in the right phase with respect to Luna's orbit to pass too close to
Luna and be dislodged from that capture orbit, so during that time you
nudge it to such an orbit that it never gets close to Luna for years.
Maybe during the initial anti-assist, have it pass ahead and to the
side of Luna, putting it into an orbit that is seriously non-coplanar
with Luna's orbit, then it'll be relatively easy to nudge that orbit to
never get close to Luna's orbit at all so phase with respect to Luna's
position in orbit becomes irrelevant. The only problem with that idea
is that it's far from an equatorial orbit around Earth, so it takes
more energy to rendezvous with it to mine it. But if the boulder's
orbital plane is the same as ISS, then this may not be a real problem
given we're going to ISS anyway from non-equatorial launch sites.

I'm sure something can be done, possibly along the lines you suggest.
I shouldn't have done a drive by posting when I don't really have
sufficient spare time to follow up properly.

"Jim Oberg" wrote in message
...

A miss is as good as a light year

chuck

"Jim Oberg" wrote in message ...

[snip]

NewScientist.com news service

The closest observed asteroid yet to skim past the Earth without hitting the
atmosphere, was reported by astronomers on Sunday.

The previously unknown object, spanning five to 10 metres across, has been
named 2004 FU162. It streaked across the sky just 6500 kilometres - roughly
the radius of the Earth - above the ground on 31 March, although details
have only now emerged.

Five to ten meters across? Presumably, this was determined by
assuming a certain albedo, and a spherical shape. Even if these
assumptions are off the mark, it's clear that 2004 FU162 is small.
Small and close? That makes me wonder.

A few years ago, it was determined that another near-Earth object was
probably a spent third stage from a Saturn V rocket which had entered
a solar orbit. The New Scientist article doesn't say whether anyone
has investigated the possibility that 2004 FU162 might also be
man-made. Has this been ruled out?

--
Rainforest laid low.
"Wake up and smell the ozone,"
Says man with chainsaw.
John J. Ladasky Jr., Ph.D.

(John Ladasky) wrote in message . com...

[snip]

A few years ago, it was determined that another near-Earth object was
probably a spent third stage from a Saturn V rocket which had entered
a solar orbit. The New Scientist article doesn't say whether anyone
has investigated the possibility that 2004 FU162 might also be
man-made. Has this been ruled out?

Following up to my own post -- other participants in this thread have
noted that 2004 FU162 passed by the Earth pretty quickly, at about 5
km/sec faster than Earth's escape velocity. So I conclude that it's
unlikely to be a manmade object.

--
Rainforest laid low.
"Wake up and small the ozone,"
Says man with chiansaw.
John J. Ladasky Jr., Ph.D.

We're in the middle of an asteroid super highway. It's only a matter of time
before an accident happens and we get rear ended. Not all of them come from
the asteroid belt between mars and jupiter. Some could have sailed from
another galaxy or exploding supernova.

"Jim Oberg" wrote in message
...

Small asteroid misses Earth by only four thousand miles


http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99996307


Jim Oberg asks -- were there any other possibile sensors
thatr might have detected (but not identified) this bogie?
Visual? Radar? IR?


Asteroid shaves past Earth's atmosphere

13:59 23 August 04

NewScientist.com news service

The closest observed asteroid yet to skim past the Earth without hitting
the
atmosphere, was reported by astronomers on Sunday.

The previously unknown object, spanning five to 10 metres across, has been
named 2004 FU162. It streaked across the sky just 6500 kilometres -
roughly
the radius of the Earth - above the ground on 31 March, although details
have only now emerged.





---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.742 / Virus Database: 495 - Release Date: 8/19/2004