NASA's ARM Will Take a Boulder From an Asteroid and Put It In Lunar Orbit

coondoggie writes NASA officials today said they have picked the specific asteroid mission and offered new details for that mission which could launch in the 2020 timeframe. Specifically, NASA's associate administrator Robert Lightfoot said the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) will rendezvous with the target asteroid, land a robotic spacecraft on the surface, grab a 4 meter or so sized boulder and begin a six-year journey to redirect the boulder into orbit around the moon for exploration by astronauts.

Comments

Re: Just what the Moon always wanted

[Firethorn]

In order to account for binary systems, I generally look at the central axis of rotation - if it's inside one of the bodies, that body is the 'primary' - IE a planet, sun, whatever. If it's outside, then it's a double system.

Re: Just what the Moon always wanted

[SQL Error]

They rotate around a common center of gravity. But that center of gravity is inside the Earth. Or to put it another way, no.