''Work Continues on New NASA Spaceships, Despite Uncertainties''

Orion and Ares are part of Constellation, a NASA program designed to take astronauts back to the moon

Here's the interesting bit;

Under his 2011 budget proposal, President Barack Obama called for canceling Constellation and urged NASA to work toward sending humans to an asteroid and then on to Mars.

(foxnews.com)

Okay, first things first. Why after so much money has been ploughed into sending man back to the moon, would the president say ''Hey hold on dude's, this is a crap idea. I know, let's go to an asteroid instead, and then go to Mars !''

Not only is it a waste of money spent on planning, but who gives a damn about going to an asteroid before Mars ? It makes no sense


The only thing that springs to mind is Phobos



Could this be a start to exploring Phobos and the fact that it is possibly a hollow structure ?

According to our "informed ESA source" (for this part of this developing, extraordinary story ...) ESA (the European Space Agency) IS "in the process" of assembling this stunning set of "multi-disciplinary science data on Phobos" -- testifying to the artificial nature of this enigmatic "moon" -- for a "formal presentation and announcement ... sometime later this year."

(article)

Going to an asteroid, instead of going to the moon makes perfect sense if the asteroid is called Apophis, and is due to smack into or have a very near miss with the Earth in the next decade or so!

If the can get to it soon enough, they may be able to divert it, or even destroy it before it gets here.

The moon isn't a danger to all life on Earth, this asteroid is (despite the obvious reassurances from on high).

The destination (an asteroid of the Moon) isn't the important part -- it's the tech needed to successfully journey there.

The ultimate goal is getting to Mars. However, before we attempt that -- and all that comes with going to Mars, such as being able to build habitats to allow a long duration stay and building a spaceship for such a long flight -- we need to learn HOW to actually do it.

Going to an asteroid or going to the Moon is not a "separate goal/mission", but rather a stepping stone in building the technology and gaining the experience necessary for that ultimate goal of Mars.

The original Constellation Mission called for building Moon Habitats --i.e., Moon bases. Those bases would have certainly had their scientific value on their own, but the true value in building them would be that the experience of building/living on the Moon would prepare us for the Mars Mission.

The same thing could be said about the space station. Don't think of the space station as simply the "setting" where other some experiments are taking place. The space station is NOT a setting -- but rather IT is the experiment itself. Building the space station and living in the space station is an ongoing experiment that teaches humans how to build and live in space.

[edit on 8/20/2010 by Soylent Green Is People]

if ther is an asteroid coming to hit earth u wouldent know about it they allready had a near miss in 2009 wen the preident was conviently touring an underground base we should go to the moon its the closest planet near us and we know nothing about it ???

Originally posted by satnav_c-1
if ther is an asteroid coming to hit earth u wouldent know about it

Get informed and you WILL know about it:
www.cfa.harvard.edu...
neo.jpl.nasa.gov...
ari.home.mchsi.com...
Threatening asteroids are discovered and made public even before anyone is sure of whether or not it will impact earth. There are a ton out there that could hit earth some day and amateur contributions are accepted in order to refine the orbits and determine the true risk. It's not like the movies where an asteroid is spotted and found to be on a collision course for a future impact with absolute certainty on that same night.

Indeed, ngchunter...keep in mind, asteroids/meteors coming directly at the earth are very, very difficult to ID. Maybe not on the same night as impact would it be discovered, but chances are very good (ie the recent near miss) that there wouldn't be enough time to do squat about it.

reply to post by Cole DeSteele

A planet killer would be identified a long way out. But even with that we don't really have anything to muster. Good thing that they are rare beasts.

Nor do we have even the ability to do anything about a city killer. But with a week's warning (which we could easily have), not so many people might die as would with none.

[edit on 8/23/2010 by Phage]