OFFICIAL and CONFIRMED: NASA to send astronauts to asteroid VESTA!

NASA has been planning this NEO visit by a manned mission for quite some time now.

INTO THE BEYOND: A CREWED MISSION TO A NEAR-EARTH OBJECT

ABSTRACT Aside from the exploration of Mars, the objects that most capture our interest for a new human visit are the Near-Earth Objects (NEOs). These objects are ideal candidates for deep space operations and explorations as we extend the human presence out into the solar system. The notion of a crewed mission to a NEO was first discussed in the Apollo era. The most recent assessment has been undertaken by the Advanced Projects Office within NASA’s Constellation Program. This particular study examined the feasibility of sending NASA’s new Orion spacecraft (also referred to as the Crew Exploration Vehicle, or CEV) to a NEO. Depending on the specifications of spacecraft and integrated components, a mission profile would include two or three astronauts on a 90- to 180-day spaceflight; including a 7- to 14-day stay at the NEO itself. These missions to NEOs provide Exploration with an excellent suite of benefits: operational experience beyond cislunar space; risk reduction for space hardware; confidence building for future mission scenarios; in situ resource utilization evaluation; as well as a rich scientific return. This incremental step along the way towards Mars would mark humanity’s first foray beyond the Earth-Moon system.

ti.arc.nasa.gov...

But no definite plan scheduled or object choosen.

reply to post by kdog1982


Another study, on a cancelled spacecraft?

reply to post by Illustronic


When was it cancelled?

This is from January of this year.

JSC2011-E-015760 (21 Jan. 2011) --- The Lockheed Martin Orion team at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans inspects the Orion crew module ground test structure prior to shipping. From there, the spacecraft goes to Lockheed Martin’s Denver facilities to be integrated with an encapsulating aeroshell to provide thermal protection before undergoing rigorous testing to verify it can withstand the harsh environments of a deep space mission. The aeroshell will complete the exterior of the spacecraft, as depicted in the hanging banner displayed in the upper left. Photo credit: NASA or National Aeronautics and Space Administration

www.nasa.gov...

Well you edited the post after I replied. I'm well aware of the progress of the components, but they have no planned mission, and my point is that your previous post is from the late 60's and early 70's. Where is it now?

Originally posted by Illustronic
Well you edited the post after I replied. I'm well aware of the progress of the components, but they have no planned mission, and my point is that your previous post is from the late 60's and early 70's. Where is it now?

I apologize for the edit,I did it as soon as I posted it.

Which post is from the 60's and 70's?
This taken from what I posted and if the plans are still a go,
to which the original OP was mislead on,
Not for another 15 to 20 years.

CURRENT CREWED NEO STUDY The objective of the 2006-20007 NASA study was to examine the flight elements of the Constellation Program, such as the Orion manned spacecraft as well as the Ares launch vehicles, for suitability for deep space missions beyond the Moon, and in particular, missions to NEOs. These missions can test Cumulative PHOs and NEOs 1990-2020 Yr #NEO>140m #NEO>100m #PHO>140m #PHO>100m 1990 100 100 20 20 1995 300 300 60 60 2000 800 800 160 160 2005 3000 3000 600 600 2010 6000 10000 1200 2000 2015 30000 50000 6000 10000 2020 40000 80000 8000 160004 spacecraft systems, operational techniques, c r ew expe r i enc e , and a cqui r e pr a c t i c a l knowledge of NEO physical characteristics (e.g., internal structure and composition).

Previous studies were reviewed as a starting point for establishing mission objectives and identifying candidate target bodies and mission profiles. Mission objectives would be updated in consultation with Constellation P r o g r am mi s s i o n d e s i g n e r s a n d NEO scientists. The existing database of NEOs was mined to identify candidate targets. The study used special software to identify candidate NEOs with short trip times and low
v’s in the appropriate time frame (late 2010s t h r o u g h t h e 2 0 2 0 s ) . P e r f o r m a n c e characteristics of the Orion spacecraft and Ares launch vehicles were analysed against the mission requirements for a selected set of candidate targets

At first order, the NEOs that are good targets of opportunity for initial piloted missions are those with the following characteristics: • Earth-like orbits (low eccentricity and low inclination), • close Earth approaches (i.e., ~0.05 AU of the Earth – a potentially hazardous object or PHO), • slow rotation (i.e., rotation periods of ~10 hours or longer), • single, solitary objects (nearly 1/6 th of all NEOs are binary objects) • asteroidal origin (i.e., not a cometary or extinct comet, or transition object) Some 35 candidate NEOs for exploration by piloted CEV missions were found in the current NEO catalog. Four launch options were assessed. These ranged from using an Ares 1/CEV with an EELV to launch a Centaur-class upper stage for NEO orbit injection, to the full Ares 1 and Ares V launch systems.

CONCLUSIONS As new telescopes come on line in the next few years (e.g., Pan-STARRS in 2010 and the LSST in 2014), and/or as an expanded survey by NASA gets underway, the number of new NEOs d e t e c t e d i s e x p e c t e d t o g r ow exponentially. Depending upon their orbital parameters and geometries (relative to Earth), these newly discovered NEOs offer many targets for a visit using the Ares launch vehicles and Orion spacecraft, demonstrating and va l ida t ing an e a r ly int e rpl ane t a ry capability of the Constellation hardware.

ti.arc.nasa.gov...

Originally posted by scottlpool2003
Would it be possible to set up camp on an asteroid and hitch a lift somewhere?

How fast do these things go? Faster than we can go?

If you can catch it to hitch a ride then you would be going as fast as it was. I guess you could put something in "front" of it and let it catch a ride like a bug on your windshield but their velocities are within our reach.

An asteroid has an average orbital speed (how fast an object orbits the sun) of 25 kilometers per second. However, asteroids orbiting closer to a sun will move faster than asteroids orbiting between Mars and Jupiter and beyond. The closest orbiting asteroid found so far is 2004 JG6 with an approximate orbital velocity of over 30 kilometers per second. The asteroid was discovered at the Lowell observatory on May 10, 2004.

source

idk but i gotta say all these "asteroid" pics looks fake to me just saying

most likely it'll end with 7 dead astronauts and the end of space exploration. nasa's budget can then be redirected to more important tasks: subsidizing haliburton and stealth toilets.

reply to post by N34Li3Z


Match relativity on forward vector. You can sorta float around it with a tether.

Hers the video from NASA.

www.nasa.gov... 41

Originally posted by zookey
When the space suits cannot be used to enter a nuclear reactor (confirmed by manufacturer)

WTF are you on about? What makes you think they could be used to enter a nuclear reactor? They were not designed for that....

how do you expect the astronauts to go past the van allen belts into space to an asteroid for long periods of time and be healthy to do their job?

Very easily, what would stop them?

reply to post by CLPrime


In this day and age, one would think it wise to NOT make such statements to the MSM?
If they want to misstep on their statements, they better fire whoever is in charge fast. I will be the 1st to agree that those NASA statements will be taken out of context.

reply to post by guitarist

sorry the wrong video came up, hope this link works.
www.nasa.gov...

Originally posted by kdog1982

ABSTRACT. The notion of a crewed mission to a NEO was first discussed in the Apollo era.

This part led me to believe this report is from the 60's-70's.

reply to post by shadowreborn89


Why. What can you compare it to? Just throwing out a cyber shot blanket statement to add zero to the thread?

Your avatar looks fake, and it is fake, its computer generated, I have software that does that.

Your title is Official and Confirmed: NASA to send astronauts to VESTA!

Nowhere in this link does it officially confirm sending astronauts to Vesta.

You are a liar and a flag whore.

Originally posted by CLPrime
I don't know why officials even bother announcing things like this anymore. They must know by now that, as soon as they announce that they're preparing for some potential disaster, the paranoid people are going to be on their heals shouting, "They're preparing for a disaster! They must know a disaster's coming! A disaster's coming! We're all gonna die!"
NASA should just shut up and do thing secretly from now on. But, then, that would start a whole new set of conspiracy theories, wouldn't it?

The reality is the paranoid population who actually think this is so small, they could be sent into space and could all fit onto comet elenin with heaps of room to play football and baseball.

Thats how small the population is.

Instead of censoring there should be more open discussion

I think there's some serious confusion going on. The mission to send astronauts to an asteroid is real, as in Obama said this is NASA's new goal. The asteroid that they will be sending them to has yet to be determined. Obama said that it needed to be ready to launch in 2025. Here's a link to MSNBC.

Now, whether this will be scrapped by the next president has yet to be seen. Nice how we can spend billions of dollars on a particular mission, (Bush's Orion has had 5 billion spent on it) and then the next president can scrap it.

before NASA decides to send a manned craft anywhere...don't they need a craft that can be manned first???

didn't NASA just end the program sending humans into space when Atlantis landed the other day?

this seems like a 14/15 yr old talking about all the places they'd go to....if they had a car.

That may have been the plan of NASA. But since Obama cut all funding to NASA there is no money to send anything or anyone, anywhere. I was shoved in front of a television when man blasted into space. When Apollo blew up on launching pad and killed the three astronauts my Mom put us in front of the TV. "This is History" When man landed on the MOON we watched it. There is nothing to be proud of any more the Liberals have seen to that. How can you be proud of a nation where it's leaders are systematically destroying the greatest nation on Earth? One corrupt bill at a time. There are leaders who have put into motion the destruction of this country for their own greed. Don't believe me? Ask yourself "Why do most politicians who go to Washington as normal citizens and leave Corrupt and Mega Rich?" Go visit www.governmentgonewild.org and see for yourself. There are so many government tentacles that removing one and three others take it's place.