NASA’s Plan to Give the Moon a Moon

Excerpt from wired.com

It sounds almost like a late ’90s sci-fi

flick: NASA sends a spacecraft to an asteroid, plucks a boulder off its

surface with a robotic claw, and brings it back in orbit around the

moon. Then, brave astronaut heroes go and study the space rock up

close—and bring samples back to Earth.

Except it’s not a movie: That’s the real-life idea for the Asteroid

Redirect Mission, which NASA announced today. Other than simply being an

awesome space version of the claw arcade game (you know you really

wanted that stuffed Pikachu), the mission will let NASA test technology

and practice techniques needed for going to Mars.

The mission, which will cost up to $1.25 billion, is slated to launch

in December 2020. It will take about two years to reach the

asteroid (the most likely candidate is a quarter-mile-wide rock called

2008 EV5). The spacecraft will spend up to 400 days there, looking for a

good boulder. After picking one—maybe around 13 feet in diameter—it

will bring the rock over to the moon. In 2025, astronauts will fly

NASA’s still-to-be-built Orion to dock with the asteroid-carrying

spacecraft and study the rock up close.

Although the mission would certainly give scientists an up-close

opportunity to look at an asteroid, its main purpose is as a testing

ground for a Mars mission. The spacecraft will test a solar electronic

propulsion system, which uses the power from solar panels to pump out

charged particles to provide thrust. It’s slower than conventional

rockets, but a lot more efficient. You can’t lug a lot of rocket fuel to

Mars.

Overall, the mission gives NASA a chance at practicing precise

navigation and maneuvering techniques that they’ll need to master for a

Mars mission. Such a trip will also require a lot more cargo, so

grabbing and maneuvering a big space rock is good practice. Entering

lunar orbit and docking with another spacecraft would also be helpful,

as the orbit might be a place for a deep-space habitat, a rendezvous

point for astronauts to pick up cargo or stop on their way to Mars.

And—you knew this part was coming, Armageddon fans—the

mission might teach NASA something about preventing an asteroid from

striking Earth. After grabbing the boulder, the spacecraft will orbit

the asteroid. With the added heft from the rock, the spacecraft’s extra

gravity would nudge the asteroid, creating a slight change in trajectory

that NASA could measure from Earth. “We’re not talking about a large

deflection here,” says Robert Lightfoot, an associate administrator at

NASA. But the idea is that a similar technique could push a threatening

asteroid off a collision course with Earth.


NASA chose this mission concept over one that would’ve bagged an

entire asteroid. In that plan, the spacecraft would’ve captured the

space rock by enclosing it in a giant, flexible container. The claw

concept won out because its rendezvous and soft-landing on the asteroid

will allow NASA to test and practice more capabilities in preparation

for a Mars mission, Lightfoot says. The claw would’ve also given more

chances at grabbing a space rock, whereas it was all or nothing with the

bag idea. “It’s a one-shot deal,” he says. “It is what it is when we

get there.” But the claw concept offers some choices. “I’ve got three to

five opportunities to pull one of the boulders off,” he says. Not bad

odds. Better than winning that Pikachu

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NASA’s Plan to Give the Moon a Moon