Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Read more carefully :-)

Re: Read more carefully :-)

"Well, I didn't say 2001 YB5 was a good target. I said "With enough lead time, what would it take to send, say, a two-man crew to a similar NEA (my emphasis in capitals) WITH LOW DELTA-V AND MINIMAL INCLINATION". I realize YB5 has pretty high delta-V to cut inside Mercury's orbit before nearly reaching Jupiter's. :-) As I said, what would it take to send a manned mission technologywise to reach a NEA? "

I found the ref I was looking for:
http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/%7Eostro/KY26/index.html
from:
http://www.spaceandrobotics.com/
The asteriod is 1998 KY26:
"Spinning faster than any object ever observed in the solar
system, a lumpy, water-rich sphere known as 1998 KY26, about the
diameter of a baseball diamond, is rotating so swiftly that its day
ends almost soon as it begins, NASA scientists report."
http://echo.jpl.nasa.gov/~ostro/KY26/JPL_press_release.text
I looked at it at:
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/orbits/
[ http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/db?name=1998+KY26&group=all&search=Search ]
And my guess (from simply looking at the applet) is there could be a launch window in Summer of 2009 which could allow a short duration mission with modest Delta-v requirement.
Of course there could be better targets which may be found which could have sooner launch windows and lower delta-v.

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (23 posts)