Earth Acquires a Quasi-Moon 258
richard_za writes "Earth has acquired a so called quasi-moon, an asteroid: 2003 YN1, which will encircle us for the next couple of years while it orbits the sun on a horse-shoe shaped path. Full story on News24. It was found by team led by Paul Chodas, an asteroid specialist at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. An orbit simulation can be seen in this Java applet."
"Our" moon? (Score:5, Insightful)
If it's orbiting the sun, then how can it be called "our" moon? Just because it's vaguely in our vicinity?
The moon (Luna) orbits the sun (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:since 1996? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:For fuck's sake, parent comment is NOT. FUNNY. (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:What's up with all the asteroids? (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe that's why headline said QUASI-moon (Score:3, Insightful)
(X) confrontational attitude
(X) can recognize something neat
( ) reading skills
(X) enjoys cool applets
Re:space station (Score:2, Insightful)
"easy" is relative (Score:4, Insightful)
Right now, the US, one of the richest nations, doesn't even seem to be able to pay for health care or secondary education, but we are willing to pay hundreds of billions to have our shoes x-rayed in order to guard against an infinitesimal chance of getting killed by terrorists. So, you see, the problems aren't technical, they are psychological, social, and political.
(Besides, you really don't want the "oh, that was kilometers" kinds of errors with such a project.)
Re:Obligatory Crocodile Dundee Quote (Score:3, Insightful)
What if said backside belonged to Nichole Kidman, or Elle Macpherson?
Re:Why not capture the thing? (Score:3, Insightful)
Because it's a stupid idea. A 1-km asteroid weighs a few trillion kg. If you get your rocket data from NASA rather than Niven, you can run numbers on your idea instead of saying 'it's simple' out of your ass. If a VASIMR [space.com] drive can hypothetically get 20 tonnes to Mars in 40 days, how long does it take to move 10^9 tonnes? Think about it. (Put a few dozen engines up there, be creative. Be optimistic about the delta-V required. Any luck moving that rock in less than a century?)
And please think again about why you're doing it. Why exactly is an asteroid at L4 "a great place to harvest solar power"? (it's not.) What sort of astronomical observatories are you putting there, and why is it better to have a big rocky base than a free-flyer? And, of course, why are "the costs ... very small"??
I'm sorry, I don't want to pick on your post in particular, but there are several posts saying similar things. Any space scheme is practicable when you pull enough technology/economics/orbital mechanics out of your ass. In the real world, EVEN WITH A SPACE ELEVATOR, interplanetary space is distant, hostile, and generally cost-ineffective.
I'm very proud of the things that humans can accomplish in space and on Earth. I hate to see half-baked schemes like yours floated, since I feel like you're 'disappointed' that we don't follow through. Dammit, let's be proud of real ideas like Con-X [nasa.gov] and LISA [nasa.gov] (and fund them, Mr. Bush!) instead of moaning about or failure build Mars bases and warp drives.