Asteroid First

Keith F. Lynch wrote:
Hop David wrote:

...there are a few asteroids with close to one A.U. aphelions and
periods less than a year. I would think such asteroids would be
very hard to see as they spend most of their time in the day sky.
An inner system observatory is needed to inventory these asteroids.


Henry Spencer wrote:

Nonsense. It suffices to do it from Earth orbit, where a good
sunshade will let you observe much closer to the Sun than ground
observatories can.


Nonsense. It suffices to do it from Earth. So long as the asteroid
is more than about 20 degrees from the sun, it can be seen as easily
as any other asteroid. And if it's never any further from the sun than
that, then it's no threat to earth -- or to Mercury or Venus either.

During the rare occasions an inner asteroid is 20 degrees above the
horizon of the night sky, much of the surface viewable to us lies on the
asteroid's dark side.

Crescent asteroids are harder to detect than full asteroids. An earth
orbit scope with sunshade could explore more sky and would have the
clarity of sight needed to detect these faint objects.

Hop
http://clowder.net/hop/index.html

Henry Spencer wrote:
In article ,
Hop David wrote:

...there are a few asteroids with close to one A.U. aphelions and periods
less than a year. I would think such asteroids would be very hard to see
as they spend most of their time in the day sky. An inner system
observatory is needed to inventory these asteroids.


Nonsense. It suffices to do it from Earth orbit, where a good sunshade
will let you observe much closer to the Sun than ground observatories can.
But that's not sexy enough for JPL...

Not coincidentally :-), I happen to be involved in such a project. And
using a MOST derivative, it would be an order of magnitude cheaper than
JPL's deep-space version.

What do you mean "a MOST derivative"? Is Canada planning to send up
another scope?

Hop
http://clowder.net/hop/index.html

Since this IS a policy forum, I must ask the question of why NASA
doesn't simply provide requirements for the search, and then enlist
the use of private firms to provide the required data. Its not just a
good idea, its the law.

On 15 Oct 2003 14:16:34 -0700, in a place far, far away,
(Explorer8939) made the phosphor on my monitor
glow in such a way as to indicate that:

Since this IS a policy forum, I must ask the question of why NASA
doesn't simply provide requirements for the search, and then enlist
the use of private firms to provide the required data. Its not just a
good idea, its the law.

The law? NASA thinks itself above the law.

--
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interglobal space lines * 307 733-1715 (Fax) http://www.interglobal.org

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