Space Station Module Could Carry Humans To Asteroid 62
Soulskill writes "Brian Wilcox, a JPL roboticist, spoke at a NASA workshop about the possibility of detaching one of the International Space Station's modules and using it as the primary living space for astronauts on a trip to an asteroid. 'The node could be connected to two space exploration vehicles and have add-on inflatable modules. ... The space station is slated to operate through at least 2020, which roughly coincides with the earliest likely launch date for human exploration of an asteroid. In April President Barack Obama set a 2025 goal for a manned mission to an asteroid.'"
Re:Earth return? (Score:5, Informative)
This is probably a rotating drum inside a module.
The radius is too small for that.
Re:And (Score:5, Informative)
There are a number of Near Earth Asteroids that are dynamically easy to reach (i.e., with very low delta-V's). The "Plymouth Rock [usra.edu]" presentation to the NASA Small Bodies Assessment Group (SBAG) last year lists 12 that could be reached with Orion. These are being found fairly rapidly, so there is no shortage of targets.
Re:Not a bad idea (Score:5, Informative)
Because there was not an immediate need for them, and (to be blunt) because in many ways "the system" is set up to spend money building things, not to save money reusing things. Look at the Jules Verne [wikipedia.org] - a man-rated cargo carrier (i.e., an actual pressurized spacecraft) that was used once, filled up with garbage, and disposed of via re-entry.
There were many plans in the early days of the space shuttle to take the Space Shuttle External Tank (which certainly could be used in orbit - it actually is brought to orbit, and then energy is expended to make sure it re-enters immediately) and make them into space stations in the Skylab fashion. (Skylab was the 3rd stage of a Saturn V outfitted as a space station - this was originally intended to be launched "wet" in a 1973 Venus Flyby Mission [wikipedia.org]. Nixon killed this mission and all plans and infrastructure for manned deep space flight and we are still trying to get them back.)
The Space Shuttle External Tank space station could have been done, there was even a start-up I had a remote involvement with trying to make one into a space hotel, but such ideas got no support and no funding and all died on the vine.
The actual presentation (Score:5, Informative)
Here is the actual presentation [nasa.gov], from the agenda [nasa.gov] (which has all of the presentations).
Perusal of that shows that gravity was to be obtained by a rotating tether, not within a module.