VASIMR Plasma Propulsion Small Fusion Systems Asteroid Retrieval In the past few months the three items of my extreme interest have hit the news, and it has me pondering if NASA may be putting together
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It May Not Be ARM Option B, But It Helps Light The Way
For more background on this mission: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/osiris-rex/index.html The Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security — Regolith Explorer spacecraft will travel to a near-Earth asteroid, called Bennu (formerly 1999 RQ36), and bring at least a 2.1-ounce
Read moreReasons To ARM Wrestle – Item 7
Developing technologies for a Phobos/Deimos large sample return. One of the keys to affordable exploration and settlement of Mars will be determining if Phobos and/or Deimos have water in them, and if so, how to
Read moreInterstellar!
The Christopher Nolan movie Interstellar has been released on home video today. Some of you may remember my review back when it came out, and I am very energized to have a copy of my
Read moreReasons to ARM Wrestle – Item 6
Demonstrating planetary defense techniques. If something similar to ARM Option B is selected, NASA is interested in using it to demonstrate the “gravity tractor” method for deflecting the parent asteroid. Learning how to deflect potentially
Read moreARM Option B is a Go
NASA has decided to go with the Option B mission for the Asteroid Retrieval Mission (ARM). http://www.nasa.gov/press/2015/march/nasa-announces-next-steps-on-journey-to-mars-progress-on-asteroid-initiative/ Option B, for those who may not have been following the story, involves a robotic retrieval spacecraft that
Read moreReasons to Arm Wrestle – Item 5
Demonstrating large-scale solar electric propulsion (SEP) systems. This is one of NASA’s main interests in the ARM mission — in the land of expensive launch vehicles, very high specific impulse propulsion, like you can get
Read moreSystems of Systems – Human Experience and Space
One of the tenets of the Outbound project is that Humanity already lives and works in space. We are surrounded by the environment that is keyed to our biology and allows us to live with
Read moreReasons to Arm Wrestle – Item 4
Providing a good way of testing out a man-tended space habitat. One of the ideas NASA is looking at incorporating into ARM is attaching a prototype deep-space habitat. This would allow visits of up to
Read moreREASONS TO ARM WRESTLE – ITEM 3
Providing a much larger sample quantity to work with than other existing or proposed missions. While scientists may be happy spending $800 million to return 60 grams of material from an asteroid (Osiris-Rex) and can
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