[Mefustae]

Aww, do I have to?

[BlackDove]

DO IT.

DO IT NOW.

[Mefustae]

But I like being in the know. The know is nice. It's warm and comforting. Why would I want to let anyone else in here?

[Goober5000]

To be first.  Or to bask in the appreciation of one you have enlightened.

Otherwise, somebody could say "google it", or even go ahead and post a link.

[Kosh]

I thought it was something real for a moment, but I guess that's just being too optimistic.


Anyway, with regards to going to the asteroid belt, appearently we certainly will not be going to the moon or mars

WASHINGTON - An ambitious vision to take people to the moon and Mars may fall apart before it even gets off the ground because of uncertain planning and inadequate funding, several experts said on Thursday.

A congressional report said NASA's replacement for the space shuttle, the Constellation Program, is in jeopardy, and members of Congress as well as at least one former astronaut agreed at a hearing on the issue.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office said the Constellation program, scheduled to begin by 2015, is troubled by engineering, funding and mechanical issues.

For instance, the program was meant to use heat shielding from the 1960s Apollo program, but experts apparently could not replicate the material

[Flipside]

'For instance, the program was meant to use heat shielding from the 1960s Apollo program, but experts apparently could not replicate the material'

Things like that are, quite frankly, just embarrassing, I've always been against this idea of 'Ancients' who once knew everything and then died out (If they knew  everything, why didn't they see that coming?), but when an agency admits it's forgotten how to do stuff 45'ish years old, you start to wonder....

[Woolie Wool]

isnt the earth a big metal ball with of rocks stuck to it?

How far do you want to drill?

[Mars]

'For instance, the program was meant to use heat shielding from the 1960s Apollo program, but experts apparently could not replicate the material'

Things like that are, quite frankly, just embarrassing, I've always been against this idea of 'Ancients' who once knew everything and then died out (If they knew  everything, why didn't they see that coming?), but when an agency admits it's forgotten how to do stuff 45'ish years old, you start to wonder....

It was probably safety or environmental conerns...

I hope

[Nuke]

i say we get on apophis when it does its fly by, put some big thrusters on it, slow it down, then we can rip and tear and harvest the bastard.

[BloodEagle]

i say we get on apophis when it does its fly by, put some big thrusters on it, slow it down, then we can rip and tear and harvest the bastard.

Have you seen the first episode of Robotech? 

Regardless, that would require so much force, just thinking about it is, well, rather pointless at the moment.

[Kosh]

Regardless, that would require so much force, just thinking about it is, well, rather pointless at the moment.

Design another Energia, a few of those should be able to put a stop to it.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

Hmm...

* Androgeos Exeunt thinks.

* Androgeos Exeunt thinks more.

* Androgeos Exeunt thinks even more.

* Androgeos Exeunt thinks too much.

Coins are made from a copper-nickel alloy called cupronickel, aren't they?

[Nuke]

you would want chemical engines to move it. ion drives would take to long and you would fall twards the planet as it slows down. you would want to fire right as the velocity of your ship is prepandicular to the planets gravity vector. here is where the orbit shrinks till it becomes circular, then you kill the engines. once captured you could use ion engines to change its orbit to where you want it gradually over time. you also want to be higher than geosynchronous if you want an orbit that wont decay over time due to tidal effects.

[Kosh]

you would want chemical engines to move it.

The Energia was a chemical engine, one of the most powerful ever made, capable of putting 100 tons into orbit. Since NASA is having problems technically and moniterily (basically in the grand scheme of things becoming increasingly irrelevant), something like this may well be our only chance of pulling this off.

[Retsof]

I'd say one of two things would happen, it wouldn't work and billions of dollars of equipment would be wasted, or it would work too well and crash the thing into the earth.  Yes, I know, I'm a pessimist, but you know Murphy's law "whatever can go wrong, will go wrong".

[Fearless Leader]

we just need to recycle the metals from old computers & phone lines and switch everything to fiber... or wireless.

[Nuke]

I'd say one of two things would happen, it wouldn't work and billions of dollars of equipment would be wasted, or it would work too well and crash the thing into the earth.  Yes, I know, I'm a pessimist, but you know Murphy's law "whatever can go wrong, will go wrong".

learn how orbital mechanics work. a rocket doesnt go up unless they know it can do the job. they use this magic thing called math and crunch the numbers and say yay or ney. if you land the engine on the astroid and orient that thruster retrograde. that does nothing to the orbit. you then slow down by firing the engine, you do this when its closest to earth. you loose speed till you get capture (meaning you entered an objects orbit). after this point the more you burn retrograde, the more your apogee on the other side of the planet decreases (if you were to burn prograde it would increase) till it becomes a perigee (the lowest point of the orbit). when that happens you have a mostly circular orbit, and you turn off the engine.

[Flipside]

If we could slingshot Voyager around Jupiter and aim it for Uranus 30 years ago, then the orbital maths for something like this should actually be relatively easy to be honest.

[Fearless Leader]

If we could slingshot Voyager around Jupiter and aim it for Uranus 30 years ago, then the orbital maths for something like this should actually be relatively easy to be honest.

Agreed, but would it be worth the cost to do it?

[S-99]

At least nuclear engines are starting to be considered again. They use half the fuel at greater thrust and uses liquid hydrogen as opposed to chemical rockets which require two or more ingredients. Nuclear rockets sounds like something great for deep space and may be great for grabbing asteroids to put in orbit and mine.