14 DAY TRIAL // In a new report, NASA scientists detail plans to visit an asteroid and abduct one of the boulders resting on its surface. The end goal is to place the kidnapped rock in the Moon's orbit and turn it into a space playground for astronauts.
This so-called Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM, for short) will allow researchers to test spaceflight technologies and will pave the way for more ambitious projects involving sending astronauts farther than ever before into space, maybe even all the way to Mars.
“The Asteroid Redirect Mission will provide an initial demonstration of several spaceflight capabilities we will need to send astronauts deeper into space, and eventually, to Mars,” said NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot.
The details of the mission
If you're thinking that our Moon will get a satellite of its own by the time the year is over or anything of the sorts, brace yourselves as disappointment is coming. Thus, it won't be until December 2020 that NASA will send a spacecraft to steal a boulder from the surface of an asteroid.
Besides, it is understood that the identity of the asteroid that NASA will pillage will not be revealed anytime sooner than 2019. The asteroids mission scientists now view as candidates are Itokawa, Bennu and 2008 EV5. Several others will be added to the list in the years leading up to the mission.
To be chosen as the perfect victim, an asteroid must have the right size, shape, rotation and orbit for NASA to be able to send a spacecraft to it and have it scoop up a boulder from its surface. Once this phase it completed, the spacecraft will carry the boulder to the Moon.
Prior to placing the boulder in the Moon's orbit, scientists will use it to carry out some experiments and try to figure out how best to mitigate a potential asteroid impact. What with all this commotion, it will be 6 years after its capture that the boulder will assume position next to the Moon.
By the looks of it, NASA has its eyes set on retrieving a space boulder measuring about 13 feet (about 4 meters) across. As for the costs associated with this ambitious mission, they currently stand at some $1.25 billion (approximately €1.14 billion).
The importance of ARM
Apart from bringing a brand new celestial body to our cosmic neighborhood, which is no small feat, the mission will make it possible for scientists to test technologies expected to one day take astronauts on a tour of the Solar System, maybe even allow them to land on a few planets.
Among these technologies is the so-called Solar Electric Propulsion, which entails using solar arrays to turn sunlight into electrical power and then use this power to move a spacecraft by means of charged atoms. The spacecraft behind ARM will also test emerging trajectory and navigation techniques.
Once ARM is over and the kidnapped space boulder begins to orbit the Moon in an orderly fashion, trained astronauts will be sent to explore it on a regular basis, just to get a feel for what stepping onto the surface of Mars or some other planet would probably be like.
Given how small the boulder will be, chances are the astronauts will find it difficult to go for a walk on its surface. They will, however, get to climb it, maybe even collect samples and return them to Earth. To get to the boulder, astronauts will rely on a rocket ship and the Orion capsule.
