Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to What Do You Mean By Earth Bound?

re: What Do You Mean By Earth Bound?
Ken Murphy — (archived)

When I say Earth bound I mean bound to the Earth. I consider LEO instruments to be orbital, above the atmosphere.

I'm familiar with a number of the terrestrial NEO tracking networks like LINEAR and LONEOS et al, but what is the one significant drawback to looking for teensy tiny bits of light on Earth? Daylight, which is why we find a lot of these NEAs -after- they've come past the Earth, out from the Sun and into our night sky.

I just want something up there, out of the atmosphere, that can look Sunward (but not at the Sun, duh) and pick up the faint traces of IR as the objects rotate in space. I'm fine with doing it orbitally, but for long-term looking at nearby objects it just seems to be convenient to have a nearby object to rest on, like the Moon.

Most of the big orbital scopes you read about in the papers are not targeted for near-Sun work. They're Deep Space. Okay, but I'm a lot less interested in deep space than I am the layout of our local neighborhood. It really doesn't make sense to waste these magnificent tools on the study of nearby objects, so where does it make sense to put the kind of instruments that will take a long slow look at things nearby? How about the Moon? It's nearby, access will be convenient to a Moonbase, parts can be resupplied fairly readily, it can be expertly calibrated on site, and myriad other potential benefits.

I'm not sure why everyone gets so worked up about this. It seems to be a very simple question with a very simple solution that can make everyone happy.

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