So, NASA wants to kidnap an asteroid and place it in orbit around the Moon for exploratory purposes.

[Leaffan]

Story here.

Researchers at the Keck Institute for Space Studies in California have outlined a mission to build a robotic spacecraft that will be sent into deep space to grab an asteroid and put it in a high orbit around the moon.

How cool does that sound? I imagine a wealth of information could be gleaned from capturing and exploring a rogue asteroid.

[Elmer_J.Fudd]

How large of an asteroid could you catch in a large bag and tow millions of miles using solar sails? Larger or smaller than a Volkswagen?

[Sevencl]

So the moon is getting a moon?

[Leaffan]

@Elmer_J.Fudd

How large of an asteroid could you catch in a large bag and tow millions of miles using solar sails? Larger or smaller than a Volkswagen?

Sounds pretty far-fetched, doesn’t it? Maybe Stranger on a Train will pop in here and provide his usual in-depth analysis of such spacely matters.

[Musicat]

The Keck team’s vision is to launch a slow-moving spacecraft propelled by solar-heated ions, which would propel itself out to a target asteroid. The robot would catch the asteroid in a large bag and tow it back into lunar orbit.

I have a million plastic bags from the supermarket that I’d be glad to contribute to the bag project. I’ll just leave them out by the curb for the next NASA truck.

And I’ll check on my insurance just in case the asteroid takes a wrong turn and lands in my front yard. Or one of them ions does.

[running_coach]

Wait until pocho hears about this.

[Athena]

@Sevencl

So the moon is getting a moon?

That’s what it sounds like to me. And the logical line of reasoning is to wonder how far we can go with the concept. Could the moon’s moon have a moon? How about the moon’s moon’s moon? Can we have great-great-great-great moons?

Now I’m going to be thinking about this all night.

[Joey_P]

@Athena

That’s what it sounds like to me. And the logical line of reasoning is to wonder how far we can go with the concept. Could the moon’s moon have a moon? How about the moon’s moon’s moon? Can we have great-great-great-great moons?

Now I’m going to be thinking about this all night.

It’s like one of those Mandlebrot Fractals and the more you think about it the more you’ll realize that they don’t actually ever stop.

[Joey_P]

So, what are we attempting to learn from this? If we want to learn about the actual asteroid, why don’t we just haul it the rest of the way back to earth (or the ISS) at that point?

[Siam_Sam]

I hope they pick one with lots of gold or other precious metals to mine.

[Leaffan]

@Joey_P

It’s like one of those Mandlebrot Fractals and the more you think about it the more you’ll realize that they don’t actually ever stop.

Looks like I picked the wrong day to stop taking acid.

[Two_Many_Cats]

Okay, I’ll be that person:

Fiscal cliffs, cutbacks in necessary programs, a looming healthcare crisis…

And we’re thinking about spending money for this??!!

[Sevencl]

@Joey_P

So, what are we attempting to learn from this? If we want to learn about the actual asteroid, why don’t we just haul it the rest of the way back to earth (or the ISS) at that point?

There’s already enough crap orbiting Earth, so we’ll probably want to save all the real estate here for putting more powerful sattelites further out at some point.

@Athena

That’s what it sounds like to me. And the logical line of reasoning is to wonder how far we can go with the concept. Could the moon’s moon have a moon? How about the moon’s moon’s moon? Can we have great-great-great-great moons?

Now I’m going to be thinking about this all night.

Also while the moon and its moon (and its moon, and its moon) are orbiting US, we’re orbiting the sun.

[AaronX]

What could go wrong?

[Digital_is_the_new_Analog]

@Joey_P

It’s like one of those Mandlebrot Fractals and the more you think about it the more you’ll realize that they don’t actually ever stop.

Eventually we’ll just have a few electrons orbiting..
-D/a

[alphaboi867]

@Joey_P

So, what are we attempting to learn from this? If we want to learn about the actual asteroid, why don’t we just haul it the rest of the way back to earth (or the ISS) at that point?

If something goes wrong (like it’s orbit starts to decay) would you rather have it crash into the Moon, or Earth?

[Sevencl]

@Athena

That’s what it sounds like to me. And the logical line of reasoning is to wonder how far we can go with the concept. Could the moon’s moon have a moon? How about the moon’s moon’s moon? Can we have great-great-great-great moons?

Now I’m going to be thinking about this all night.

All that spinning has put an der schoenen blauen donau in my head.

[Siam_Sam]

@Two_Many_Cats

Okay, I’ll be that person:

Fiscal cliffs, cutbacks in necessary programs, a looming healthcare crisis…

And we’re thinking about spending money for this??!!

There are a lot of goodies to be mined on some of these asteroids. It could be similar to the infusion of silver into the Old World by Spain way back when.

[Two_Many_Cats]

@Siam_Sam

There are a lot of goodies to be mined on some of these asteroids. It could be similar to the infusion of silver into the Old World by Spain way back when.

And we all know what happened to Spain, don’t we?

[Sevencl]

@Two_Many_Cats

Okay, I’ll be that person:

Fiscal cliffs, cutbacks in necessary programs, a looming healthcare crisis…

And we’re thinking about spending money for this??!!

There’re fortunes to be saved in way more places before we start cutting science.