Cape Canaveral – January 18, 2008 – Top U.S. planetary scientists, several astronauts and former NASA division directors will meet privately at Stanford University on February 12-14 to discuss a plan for the first manned landing on an asteroid, which could launch as early as 2025 and cancel a proposed manned base on the Moon, Aviation Week & Space Technology (AW&ST) exclusively reports in its January 21st issue.
Charting a course for an asteroid marks a new direction for space exploration. NASA’s current plan follows President Bush’s Vision for Space Exploration and uses the Moon as a base.
“It’s becoming painfully obvious that the Moon is not a stepping-stone for manned Mars operations but is instead a stumbling block,” Robert Farquhar, a veteran space planner, told AW&ST. The 2025 mission, proposed by Farquhar and the International Astronautical Association (IAA), would send U.S. astronauts to Asteroid “99-A010” for 30 days to study its surface, origin and geological history, a demonstration that could lead to a longer mission to Martian moons Phobos or Deimos.
NASA Administrator Mike Griffin disagrees, but acknowledged that “a large portion of the scientific community in the U.S. prefers Mars over the Moon.”
The story, “Moon Stuck,” is available online now at AviationWeek.com as well as the January 21st issue of AW&ST, a must-read for the space community. The story also reports:
- Asteroid plan supporters argue that compared with the Moon, asteroid missions give NASA developers and astronauts more practice operating at great distances from the Earth and valuable knowledge for manned Mars flights.
- The asteroid plan would provide the new ability to reach and repair astronomical telescopes, such as the James Webb Space Telescope, that are parked 1 million miles from Earth at gravity equilibrium points, or Lagrangian points.
- Presented as an “alternate vision” for the next president, the plan will include a strong emphasis on the development of Earth environmental monitoring spacecraft to provide better data on global warming.
- Manned asteroid landings would also examine and sample asteroids directly, to begin more active planning for how one could be diverted from striking Earth in the future.
“Moon Stuck” was reported by Craig Covault, Senior Editor for AW&ST. Covault has written about 3,000 major articles on space and aeronautics during 35 years at the publication. As AW&ST’s Senior Editor, he writes extensively on major shifts in manned and robotic space flight. Covault has joined astronauts many times in space mission simulations, such as wearing space suits under water, learning space station assembly tasks, and Hubble Space Telescope servicing work. He is a pilot and has flown about 20 major military aircraft including numerous bomber, high performance fighter and command and control aircraft.
For further commentary, TV/Radio reporters may contact Patricia Walsh at (212) 512-3364, (646) 673-6640 or patricia_walsh@mcgraw-hill.com, or Joe D’Andrea at (212) 904-3780 or joseph_dandrea@aviationweek.com. Craig Covault is available for additional commentary and interviews at (321) 433-9933 or covault@aviationweek.com.
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