Asteroid Itokawa
Hayabusa, which is scheduled to return
a sample canister in June 2010.
The National Space Society has released a critical report* on NASA’s performance and objectives which argues that plans to return to the Moon are both underfunded and misdirected. Coauthored by Buzz Aldrin, pilot of the first lunar lander, the report instead advocates missions to near-Earth asteroids (a.k.a.“Near-Earth Objects”, or NEOs), a promising a source of resources for expanded space activities. Although more distant than the Moon in kilometers, NEOs are closer in terms of kilometers per second of velocity change (ΔV) required for access; with atmospheric breaking, the rocket-supplied ΔV can be very low on the return path for a crew or cargo. This makes them an attractive source for materials to use in space.
The National Space Society report reflects a broader revisionist trend in thinking about strategies for space exploration and development. I find this personally gratifying because I’ve advocated the view that NEOs are of more practical use than the Moon since the early 1970s. The reasons given today are pretty much the same as the reasons I gave from the start.
There’s a story on the report in The New Scientist.
(Full disclosure: I’m a member of the Board of Governors of the NSS, and served on the Board of Directors for many years.)
* Update, 1 March: The link to the report now returns a not-found message, and at the moment, a Google search yields the same broken link.
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Part of the romance of space travel is the hope that someday humanity will expand its civilization beyond the confines of the Earth. That’s why so many space enthusiast are in love with the idea of colonies on the moon and on Mars. And there are also practical reasons to expand beyond the Earth when you look at the geologic history of devastating asteroid and comet impacts on the Earth’s surface and the growing danger of more nuclear armed countries, and the potential catastrophe of some sort of biological weapon plaguing the human population on Earth.
Establishing a permanent lunar base would actually justify the need to exploit volatiles from from the asteroids. Although I advocate exploiting the moons of Mars before beginning to exploit the asteroids.
Mining the moons of Mars
http://newpapyrusmagazine.blogspot.com/2008/09/mining-moons-of-mars.html