Small asteroid misses Earth by only four thousand miles

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.

"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?

Depends where it's coming from. Earthbound visual detectors
are useless for objects approaching from the daylight side of
Earth, since no reflected sunlight is visible. Radar and IR are
better, but not many have enough resolving power to detect a
5-10m object.

Something that size didn't/doesn't pose anything but a very
localized risk anyway.

Rick

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.

"Rick" wrote in message
...
"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?

Depends where it's coming from. Earthbound visual detectors
are useless for objects approaching from the daylight side of
Earth, since no reflected sunlight is visible. Radar and IR are
better, but not many have enough resolving power to detect a
5-10m object.

Something that size didn't/doesn't pose anything but a very
localized risk anyway.

Rick

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.

"redneckj" wrote in message news:bNsWc.44518
snip
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.
snip

Totally, what a great way to do some research then to have an asteroid
orbiting the earth, up close and personal. I wonder what sized body it would
take before it had an effect on the earth, much like the moon does?

BV.

"Benign Vanilla" wrote in message ...
"redneckj" wrote in message news:bNsWc.44518
snip
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.
snip

Totally, what a great way to do some research then to have an asteroid
orbiting the earth, up close and personal. I wonder what sized body it would
take before it had an effect on the earth, much like the moon does?

BV.

Capture to reentry might be easier. But any capture for research and
analysis is no more useful than all the meteorite analysis already
done.

Capture for semi commercial exploitation would be a MASSIVE
breakthrough.

In sci.space.policy Benign Vanilla wrote:

"redneckj" wrote in message news:bNsWc.44518
snip
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.
snip

Totally, what a great way to do some research then to have an asteroid
orbiting the earth, up close and personal. I wonder what sized body it would
take before it had an effect on the earth, much like the moon does?

Approximately moon sized ;-) Well, ok, it might be small moon sized but
not a "pebble" sized.


BV.



--
Sander

+++ Out of cheese error +++

"redneckj" wrote in message
...

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.

Oh, God, yes. I'd rather see something like that before I die than men on
Mars. Men on Mars may not necessarily lead on to anything else, in the same
manner as Apollo. But retrieval of space resources to HEO would to me mean
that we were starting the process of being in space to stay.

--


Regards,
Mike Combs
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Member of the National Non-sequitur Society. We may not make
much sense, but we do like pizza.

redneckj wrote:

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 important point for this is at what speed was it passing
by. Being close is of no use if it is coming in too fast.
Does anyone have information about the objects speed?

Alain Fournier

Alain Fournier wrote:

The important point for this is at what speed was it passing
by. Being close is of no use if it is coming in too fast.
Does anyone have information about the objects speed?


See my earlier post in this thread.



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

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.