Have you heard about NASA’s new mission to try and find a potential Planet killer asteroid? The reason I ask is that this project will seek out collisions between massive asteroid-like objects and help us learn more about the construction of such massive space rocks. This is great news for the study of space and planetary science.
When you hear the words “asteroid”, does it make you think of the cartoon characters that destroy things? No, it doesn’t. Although, if you have kids they might like to play this game. It’s called the Space Shopper and it actually gets people moving around the engineering section of the GSA. In fact, there was an award at a recent meeting for the best space-themed snack ideas.
To be honest it was quite impressive to see all the different types of snacks that were being served up. Some of these are things we would usually see in a fast-food restaurant, but these items had a futuristic feel to them. For instance, a Future Shop concept had rainbow sprinkles on the exterior of a spaceship, which is kind of funny considering we are talking about a huge space rock.
There are many reasons why NASA’s New Earth Orbiter or MAHLR will be needed to do this work. One is so that we can learn more about this asteroid and not blow it out of the sky as occurred in 2004. Another one is to better pinpoint any potential collision locations with other space debris. If we know where an asteroid is going to hit, then we could prevent any type of disaster from occurring.
Now, many people are afraid of killer asteroid threats. The question is “How come NASA is planning to see this asteroid?” Well, I have some answers to that as well. You see, these discoveries and missions will help us learn more about the inner structure of these space rocks, which will help us plan better ways to deal with them in the future.
Now, you might think that a NASA probe cannot land on the surface of an asteroid. However, there are some plans in the works that would allow NASA astronauts to land on the surface of a big asteroid. Imagine the discovery of huge amounts of water ice in the interior. This would tell us a lot about the makeup of these space rocks. It would also tell us if they have any organic material in the asteroid. These are all possibilities, and this is one way that NASA’s New Earth Orbiter will be helping us spot and learn more about these objects in the future.
When you consider that an average size asteroid is about a few hundred feet in width, you begin to realize just how a small target this is. We may not see this asteroid in our lifetime, but we should see it when it passes by. In fact, we should be able to watch it as it passes by every night and get a chance to see it up close. That is why it is important to monitor asteroid activity so we can see what is happening with it.
Asteroid mining is a great way to help us learn more about these amazing objects in space. NASA’s New Earth Orbiter will not only help spot asteroid strikes, it will also monitor their surrounding area to see if anything interesting happens. Who knows? There may be precious minerals or other materials waiting to be discovered around these icy rubble piles. This is exciting stuff and it is well worth investing your time in learning more about NASA’s asteroid research. This is new technology and it could mean another exciting frontier in front of us.
