[meteorite-list] Asteroid 2004 MN4: A Really Near Miss!

[Kirk Jenks]

Hey, if its going to pass within satellite distance of Mother Earth, let's
hope for NO nudging from anything in the next 20 years or so. By comparison,
a flick of the finger could be enough to change its trajectory for the
worse.
                                        Best,
                                                Kirk.........
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sterling K. Webb" <kelly at bhil.com>
To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2005 9:35 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Asteroid 2004 MN4: A Really Near Miss!


>      Hi,
>
>          Whoa, Darren! True, the asteroid will be closer than a
geosynchronous satellite, but
>      since it's not gravitationally bound to the Earth's g-field, the
local speed limits will not
>      apply! You're going to have to really hop up your police interceptor
rocket if you're going
>      to get close enough to even slap it on the ass on its way by!
>          I don't know what its geocentric velocity will be when it gets
here, but the figure of
>      42 degrees per hour apparent movement through the sky field
contrasted with the 15 degrees
>      per hour of a geosynchronous satellite orbit, suggests it'll really
be bookin'!
>          The delta-V required to match up with it would probably be,
you'll pardon the
>      expression, astronomical.  And, then, after you've had the space
walk, the flag planting,
>      the call from the President, etc., you still have to get back before
you, too, disappear
>      into the Wild Black Yonder. Another big hunk of delta-V.
>          There's another problem unique to high speed close approach
missions: not only do you
>      have to execute a high delta-V maneuver, you have to do it in a big
hurry. That thing is
>      movin'! That means you will have to accelerate at very high gee's.
Either that, or you have
>      to go out to meet the thing well in advance and accelerate at a
slower rate, matching
>      velocities after a long "bow chase," as the sailors say.
>          In fact, the only feasible mission plan would be a long voyage to
the asteroid long
>      before the Earth encounter, ride it by the Earth and back out to the
best point for the
>      Earth Return leg. Much less delta-V but a lot more time to play
solitaire in the capsule.
>          As for nudging, hey! You'd better practice on some asteroids that
aren't going to pass
>      near the Earth first, before you try nudging anything that is. In
fact, I wouldn't mind if
>      you skipped that nudging part altogether.  :-]
>
>
>      Sterling K. Webb
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Darren Garrison wrote:
>
> > On Fri, 4 Feb 2005 16:32:42 -0800 (PST), Ron Baalke
<baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov> wrote:
> >
> > >Paul Chodas, Steve Chesley, Jon Giorgini and Don Yeomans of NASA's Near
> > >Earth Object Program calculate that the asteroid will pass 4.7 Earth
> > >radii (30,000 kilometers, or 18,600 miles) from Earth's surface. This
is
> >
> > Wow.  Plenty of time to plan a (relatively) easy visit and sample
recovery mission.  That's lower
> > than geosynchronous orbit!
> >
> > Of course, if you wanted to be a bit more ambitious, given 24 years we
could probably even throw
> > together a project to nudge it into Earth orbit, but I think that would
get some pretty bad press.
> >
> > Maybe we could nudge it into the moon and watch it hit!
>
>
> ______________________________________________
> Meteorite-list mailing list
> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
>