Obama's asteroid goal: tougher, riskier than moon

news.yahoo.com

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. –
Landing a man on the moon was a towering achievement. Now the president has given NASA an even harder job, one with a certain Hollywood quality: sending astronauts to an asteroid, a giant speeding rock, just 15 years from now.

Space experts say such a voyage could take several months longer than a journey to the moon and entail far greater dangers. "It is really the hardest thing we can do," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said.

Going to an asteroid could provide vital training for an eventual mission to Mars. It might help unlock the secrets of how our solar system formed. And it could give mankind the know-how to do something that has been accomplished only in the movies by a few square-jawed, squinty-eyed heroes: saving the Earth from a collision with a killer asteroid.

Just one of the little tidbits to come out of Obama's speech at the Space center, and one that I find the most interesting. This seems like a no-brainer, & I haven't seen that many people (besides NASA) suggesting it.

And in the words of one of my favorite people as a kid, Bill Nye;
"You could be saving humankind. That's worthy, isn't it?"

Landing on an asteroid will probably prove electric universe theory and subsequently revolutionize physics and cosmology. It may even reveal more about our theories is wrong than we ever imagined, well done obama.

okay its time to throw out the "armageddon" dvd from your houses.....yall been watching it for too long

[edit on 18-4-2010 by Noobastronomer]

I think a mission to an asteroid would be really fascinating to watch. I sure hope this one happens. Since an Apollo style lander can't be used, I wonder if NASA will develop something like the old Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) to get astronauts on to the surface. Or perhaps a small personal vehicle that's much smaller than a lander, but bigger than the MMU. I figure they'd want to bring down some tools and equipment, as well as bring back some samples. So it will have to be big enough to carry that stuff I'd imagine.

It's fun to speculate on this stuff.

I hope they achieve capability, then a HUGE asteriod comes... U.S/Russia save the day/earth and we all go *PHEWWWWWWW* and realize for that few months we had one goal and we're a truly united world.

That is all.......

[edit on 18-4-2010 by CanadianDream420]