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NASA's New Spaceships Could Tag-Team Asteroid

space.com — A manned asteroid mission using two Orion spacecraft, docked nose-to-nose to form a 50-ton deep space vehicle, is being studied by Lockheed Martin Space Systems.

Who dugg this? Made popular Sep 2, 2009

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  • evanft, on 09/02/2009, -2/+12Asteroid double penetration? Belladonna already did it.
  • Snoogs, on 09/02/2009, -1/+11Would it be Eiffel Tower style or Alpine Skiing method?
  • gossumx, on 09/02/2009, -0/+5Yea, but they're doing it with SCIENCE!

  • solorender, on 09/02/2009, -2/+5Giggity
  • vili89, on 09/02/2009, -0/+3Great for NASA. I'm waiting for incvreasing their projects and getting better and better
  • kthoma22, on 09/02/2009, -0/+3Maybe Lockheed should hire Michael Bay as a consultant then.
  • sanman, on 09/02/2009, -0/+2they'll do it live

    at least until the money runs out
  • fragomatik, on 09/02/2009, -0/+1The asteroids, even more so than the moon, represent a huge repository of usable resources. In the future (100 or 200 years?) there will be an entire sub-set of human civilisation exploiting the asteroids and the Lagrange points for their raw materials. Also, as mentioned in the article, the need to characterise asteroid composition in case of collision threat with Earth, is a very good *survival* reason for learning more about them.
  • stuffradio, on 09/02/2009, -0/+1We don't know everything there is to know about the Moon yet... let alone our own planet.
  • fxdbi, on 09/03/2009, -0/+1I hope they don't tag-team Uranus.
  • gossumx, on 09/02/2009, -1/+2Did anyone else imagine Megatron and Optimus Prime trying to DP an asteroid?

  • MtheoryX, on 09/03/2009, -0/+1Yes, seriously.

    Jesus, am I the only one that watches Discovery and Science channel late at night?
  • oninbonin, on 09/03/2009, -0/+1I was making fun of Will Smith in Independence Day where he goes "Welcome to Earf!" and punches an alien in the head. I don't talk like that normally, I swear!
  • MtheoryX, on 09/03/2009, -0/+1Then I guess it's a good thing we have so many people working on many different projects.

    Nothing says we can't explore the moon AND our own planet simultaneously.
  • 4degrees, on 09/02/2009, -0/+1NASA needs to build several Spherical modules that can be "docked" together at one of up-to six entry points to the sphere. Nasa can build custom spheres for particular tasks/uses and launch them up separately. they could then be assembled and disassembled as needed. A large station can be built this way and parts of the station can be detached and a drive sphere(s) can be attached to shuttle to the moon, asteriods, etc. etc.
  • bloodguard, on 09/02/2009, -0/+1google (bing, yahoo ...) "helium 3 moon". This is most likely why China, Russia et al have such a hard on for getting there and establishing bases.
  • Cyberdropping, on 09/03/2009, -0/+1Yep, they are going to perform some tests. The thought is that black holes form other universes. Like blowing a bubble. Our universe is thought to have a bubble shape. I think they go up in 2018 if they don't get cancelled...
  • oninbonin, on 09/02/2009, -0/+1Well, the Moon and Mars are on pretty much predictable paths right now, what about the billions of asteroids that are on a threatening trajectory with Earf?
  • neoq36, on 09/02/2009, -1/+1Sounds sexy
  • BigPapi, on 09/02/2009, -1/+1Doesn't look as cool as the one in Armageddon
  • TheGuruStud, on 09/02/2009, -1/+1Earf? Are you a ghetto black? Quit typing like you talk :P
  • Arctaus, on 09/02/2009, -0/+0"try to determine if there are other universes"

    seriously?
  • uptwolait, on 09/02/2009, -4/+3I misread the phrase "Orion For Crewed Science Missions" as "Onion For Screwed Science Missions".

    Man, I've gotta get off the internet for a while.
  • Thunder99, on 09/02/2009, -2/+1Dugg for "Tag-Team"
  • thedcam, on 09/02/2009, -2/+1Is this like WWE Raw?
  • Cyberdropping, on 09/02/2009, -3/+0Anything beats going back to the moon. I went through this once already in the 60's and 70's and lunar missions make the ISS look like something important. they went up there so much, they started hitting golf balls etc and people got tired of it. Also, they left a lot of junk around and never discovered a thing worth a 5 minute broadcast. We need to send probes to different planets and other objects in space to try and learn something new. Or send up more telescopes or that trio of satellites that will try to determine if there are other universes.

    Having said that, even though this is a manned mission, it at least sounds exciting/interesting and could give us valuable knowledge and insight, as it would allow us to actually come in human contact with an asteroid.

    After all, these things have supposedly wreaked havock on the Earth in the past. the more we learn about them the better. Right now we have mice "doing it" on the ISS. Who gives a crap? Not me. We have low orbited the Earth for over 40 damn years and it is time to do something else!

    I am just afraid that the moon is being looked at only because China is going there. We can't afford another "race to the moon". worse yet some military pissing match.
  • Saint3k, on 09/02/2009, -9/+1This is such a waste of public funding, it boggles the mind. The Moon and Mars are our long term goals here, anything less than that is a misappropriation of critical resources.

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