Space Station Module Could Carry Humans To Asteroid

Soulskill writes "Brian Wilcox, a JPL roboticist, spoke at a NASA workshop about the possibility of detaching one of the International Space Station's modules and using it as the primary living space for astronauts on a trip to an asteroid. 'The node could be connected to two space exploration vehicles and have add-on inflatable modules. ... The space station is slated to operate through at least 2020, which roughly coincides with the earliest likely launch date for human exploration of an asteroid. In April President Barack Obama set a 2025 goal for a manned mission to an asteroid.'"

Comments

Personel/Crew

[Sinn3d]

BP might also end up flooding (oops pun) the market with rugged drillers looking for a job. So the crew should be easy to put together.

Cost cutting

[Anonymous Coward]

Why bother to go to an asteroid, when you could just wait and hope an asteroid smashes into you?

Hurrah!

[greg.harvey]

We now know what to do with an ageing Bruce Willis!

Re:Earth return?

[h4rm0ny]

The cheapest and safest way to finish the mission would be to load the crew and samples into an apollo style capsule and reenter directly.

Nah. Just park the ship on the far side of the asteroid and with enough fuel, you can fly the asteroid back home to Earth. Much more living space that way. It would be like building a spaceship out of kit, so we could call this the Kit Technique or 'KT' mission.