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It's terrible because they effectively canceled the asteroid retrieval mission (ARM) when they chose to fund the proposals that did not include any de-spin mech
by superkuh 7y ago
It's terrible because they effectively canceled the asteroid retrieval mission (ARM) when they chose to fund the proposals that did not include any de-spin mechanisms. This leaves them with literally 3 possible asteroids to try to bring in. Useless.
The point of the lunar gateway was to have a close (in time) place for resources and the like. But without any ability to capture and bring in asteroids it's just a waste of space.
- inlined 7y agoIt could be that they’re fighting for tangible progress that would let them repropose something like ARM that now has a cheaper marginal cost.
- csours 7y agoIs there a sweet spot of asteroid size/energy required to adjust orbit/danger (etc, obviously I don't know all the parameters) Like, you don't want to waste time going after a bunch of tiny asteroids, but if they're too big it would take too much delta-v to move them. Or I might be wrong entirely.