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Space Station Module Could Carry Humans To Asteroid

Posted by samzenpus on from the holiday-in-ceres dept.

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.'"

3 of 62 comments (clear)

  1. So what? by mmcxii · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In April President Barack Obama set a 2025 goal for a manned mission to an asteroid.

    Seeings how much NASA gets pushed and pulled by every administration and every budget I wouldn't count on anything NASA has as far as long term goals being so concrete as to put a date to them. Politicians really need to stop using NASA as a token in a pissing match. It's petty and counterproductive.

    Hell, if it weren't for JFK taking a bullet to the head we may have never even gotten to the moon.

    1. Re:So what? by macraig · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "Careful there", my ass. He's quite possibly right in spite of being so refreshingly blunt and transparent... unlike certain creatures who get chosen and paid to make decisions for the rest of us.

      Further, I find this lazy-days-of-summer spacefaring timetable ridiculous, if not downright suspicious. THIRTEEN YEARS to plan a mission to an asteroid? It sounds suspiciously like plausible deniability, if you ask me: set a date so far in the future, so many administrations hence, that it's virtually certain to get killed or watered-down before that date arrives.

    2. Re:So what? by 16K+Ram+Pack · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Precisely.

      Most "green" targets are being set like this. The UK has a target to halve CO2 emissions by 2050. But there's no interim 5 year targets. It will be just like Kyoto - everyone will get a year or 2 away from the date and it will be "oops, we didn't meet it". The people in charge can blame the last lot for not getting it started early enough and it's soon forgotten.

      Obama couldn't give a rat's fuck about landing people on an asteroid. He just wants to get a few geeks to vote for him now because it sounds like he does.