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Earth Acquires a Quasi-Moon
richard_za writes "Earth has acquired a so called quasi-moon, an asteroid: 2003 YN1, which will encircle us for the next couple of years while it orbits the sun on a horse-shoe shaped path. Full story on News24. It was found by team led by Paul Chodas, an asteroid specialist at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. An orbit simulation can be seen in this Java applet."
If it's orbiting the sun, then how can it be called "our" moon? Just because it's vaguely in our vicinity?
...you insensitive clod....
I have misplaced my pants.
Space is big, asteroid is tiny compare to space. Plus with all those space junk up there, it's literally looking for a grain of pepper in a sea of salt.
In US, you can easily buy enough major firearms to wipe out your neighbourhood but a few little fireworks are banned.
Flamebait, yes. Correct? Certainly.
TheHustler
http://www.elmarko.org/ - Useless bilge
http://www.asylum-games.co.uk/ - Co-Founder
I think we're just better at spotting them with advances in telescopes and so on. That and the fact we've started looking for them seriously as we get paranoid about being wiped out by an asteroid.
"I think everyone is an agnostic but just doesn't know" - Frazz
Here's your report card:
(X) confrontational attitude
(X) can recognize something neat
( ) reading skills
(X) enjoys cool applets
It's not so much delta-v that would be a problem, as much as the reaction mass that would be the problem. m1*v1=m2*v2. The asteroid must weigh several thousand metreic tons at least. The amount of reaction mass necessary to change a 1 metric ton mass by 1 meter/second is 3.33 miligrams, assuming we shot those miligrams off at the speed of light. We are talking thousands of tons of asteroid and a much less efficient engine. Until we get nuclear rockets and a space elevator up, it probably wouldn't be economical. Unless we could use its (ralatively) close aproach to mars in 2015 to swing it around to the earth.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
We seem to be having trouble & high failure rates with just sending tiny robotic probes to Mars, and we can hardly even keep a couple of rusty buckets in low earth orbit operating. Moving a small asteroid gently (maybe using solar sails) should be well within our technological capabilities, but it doesn't seem like we have our act together enough to do it.
Right now, the US, one of the richest nations, doesn't even seem to be able to pay for health care or secondary education, but we are willing to pay hundreds of billions to have our shoes x-rayed in order to guard against an infinitesimal chance of getting killed by terrorists. So, you see, the problems aren't technical, they are psychological, social, and political.
(Besides, you really don't want the "oh, that was kilometers" kinds of errors with such a project.)
What if said backside belonged to Nichole Kidman, or Elle Macpherson?
Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
Because it's a stupid idea. A 1-km asteroid weighs a few trillion kg. If you get your rocket data from NASA rather than Niven, you can run numbers on your idea instead of saying 'it's simple' out of your ass. If a VASIMR drive can hypothetically get 20 tonnes to Mars in 40 days, how long does it take to move 10^9 tonnes? Think about it. (Put a few dozen engines up there, be creative. Be optimistic about the delta-V required. Any luck moving that rock in less than a century?)
And please think again about why you're doing it. Why exactly is an asteroid at L4 "a great place to harvest solar power"? (it's not.) What sort of astronomical observatories are you putting there, and why is it better to have a big rocky base than a free-flyer? And, of course, why are "the costs ... very small"??
I'm sorry, I don't want to pick on your post in particular, but there are several posts saying similar things. Any space scheme is practicable when you pull enough technology/economics/orbital mechanics out of your ass. In the real world, EVEN WITH A SPACE ELEVATOR, interplanetary space is distant, hostile, and generally cost-ineffective.
I'm very proud of the things that humans can accomplish in space and on Earth. I hate to see half-baked schemes like yours floated, since I feel like you're 'disappointed' that we don't follow through. Dammit, let's be proud of real ideas like Con-X and LISA (and fund them, Mr. Bush!) instead of moaning about or failure build Mars bases and warp drives.