Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to where no rover has gone before

Telescopes...
Adam — (archived)

...can watch for planetoids and planets simultaneously by microlensing surveys. Killing two birds with one stone. Also we need high-speed interception & loiter capabilities to reach comets and deflect the bastards - I think specially designed solar sails with solar-pumped lasers/adaptive-optics concentrators are the best for the job. Such need to be parked in Lunar space and serviced, preferably from the Moon.

But we need more impact probes and the like to get real ground-truth data on asteroids of all types, especially the suspected rubble-pile and super-porous types. Solar-sailing vehicles that need no fuel and can loiter indefinitely are the best choice in this case too. They can use a solar laser to push ultra-speed impactors into the 'roids for mechanical and spectrographic studies.

Adam

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