Asteroid Mission Competition Announces Winner

Riding with Robots writes "The Planetary Society invited participants to compete for $50,000 in prizes by designing a mission to rendezvous with and 'tag' a potentially dangerous near-Earth asteroid. The asteroid Apophis was used as the target for the mission design because it will come closer to Earth in 2029 than the orbit of geostationary satellites. The winning mission design is called Foresight, and calls for the use of off-the-shelf parts to undercut the price of other proposals. Here's a PDF of the winning proposal."

Comments

It could be worse

[aadvancedGIR]

The asteroid could be full of highly toxic fuel.

Re:Huh?

[MassiveForces]

Good point, especially since "an Orbital Sciences Corporation Minotaur IV launch vehicle" doesn't sound like it would fit very well on the average shelf.

Re:I have an even better way to get to the asteroi

[joaommp]

The US military seems to be getting some practice in shooting down outworld objects...

Re:Another Asteriod Mission

[TheRealMindChild]

While that sounds dandy from a I-want-to-do-the-least-work-possible approach (which I am not necessarily condemning), the consequences of another "moon" may not be all that apparent up front. Tides would certainly change, possibly affecting coastlines. Whales and such would get confused. It would start raining cats and dogs. MASS HYSTERIA!

Re:Another Asteriod Mission

[MMC Monster]

While that sounds dandy from a I-want-to-do-the-least-work-possible approach (which I am not necessarily condemning), the consequences of another "moon" may not be all that apparent up front. Tides would certainly change, possibly affecting coastlines. Whales and such would get confused. It would start raining cats and dogs. MASS HYSTERIA! Okay. But is there any downside?

Re:Another Asteriod Mission

[Kamokazi]

But then we'll have lots of people living in massive space colonies to mine the asteroids and then will eventually feel oppressed by the people living on Earth whose souls are weighted down by gravity and give birth to a revolting faction that will develop giant robots and use psychic pilots and start many wars where they usually try to drop these colonies and asteroids onto Earth.

That or I've been watching way too much Anime.

downside to another moon

[The Queen]

Well, at the risk of getting gross (and sacrificing karma), I have to wonder how a 'second moon' would affect menstrual cycles. Twice a month? There's your downside!