Gerstenmaier expands on recently announced asteroid mission

[bananas]

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2013/04/gerstenmaier-expands-asteroid-mission/

Gerstenmaier expands on recently announced asteroid mission
April 25, 2013 by Yves-A. Grondin

In a recent presentation to the human exploration and operations committee of the NASA Advisory Counsel (NAC), William Gerstenmaier, Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, over-viewed the challenges associated with the recently announced mission to capture an asteroid.

The mission involves three segments: the first is the detection and characterization of the candidate Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) phase; the second segment involves a robotic rendezvous, capture, and redirection of a target asteroid to the Earth-Moon system; the third segment involves a crewed mission to explore and sample the captured asteroid using the Space Launch System (SLS) and the Orion crew capsule.

Based on the initial target date presented to lawmakers in the FY14 Budget Proposal, the Orion trip to the captured asteroid is likely to be a realigned version of the 2021 Exploration Mission -2 (EM-2).

Concerning the redirection segment, Mr. Gerstenmaier – presenting the mission to the NAC – said that the high powered (40-kW) Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP) hardware “plays a key role” in this aspect of the mission.

The word “redirect” is being used for this part of the mission, because the asteroid cannot be maneuvered into cislunar space, it “must be heading back to cislunar space on its own.”

<snip>

Via http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=31758.0

[longship]

1. Ask Rockhound:

"Guess what guys! It's time to embrace the horror! Look, we got front-row tickets to the end of the earth!"

on edit: oops! Almost forgot...

[bananas]

2. NASA still aiming for manned Mars mission

http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20130428/COLUMNISTS0405/304280056/John-Kelly-NASA-still-aiming-manned-Mars-mission

NASA still aiming for manned Mars mission
Asteroid mission a stepping stone toward long journey to red planet
Apr. 28, 2013

NASA’s not giving up on flying people to Mars.

Some critics of the space agency’s recent proposal to fly astronauts to an asteroid say we’re “settling” for something less than the big prize: humans walking on the red planet.

Not true. The mission to an asteroid is part of a stepping-stone approach to sending human beings exploring deeper into the solar system. A sensible look at NASA’s current flight capabilities, human limitations and the space exploration budget means Mars isn’t possible yet.

NASA’s top human spaceflight chief, Bill Gerstenmaier, recently went over the payoffs with a committee of the NASA Advisory Council.

<snip>

With an Apollo-era style blank check, yes, NASA might be able to pull off a mission to Mars sooner. In the environment, the space agency is likely to face over the next 20 years, the phased approach seems prudent. Incremental progress is important politically as well so that the people writing the budgets in Washington have successes to point to when they’re voting to boost the budget in better times.