NASA Developing World's First Space Shotgun to Blast Asteroids
Source: Indo-Asian News Service
NASA Developing World's First Space Shotgun to Blast Asteroids
World | Indo-Asian News Service | Updated: September 21, 2015 14:17 IST
A concept image of NASA's ARM Option B Robotic Vehicle
New York: NASA is developing the world's first space shotgun that can blast asteroids into small pieces for collection as samples when a robotic spacecraft reaches near one such space rock in the near future.
Along with a Brooklyn-based company Honeybee Robotics, the US space agency is working on a shotgun - as part of its Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) - that will test the strength of an asteroid to determine if it is sturdy enough for sampling, New York Post reported on Sunday.
The ARM aims to chop off a massive chunk of an asteroid and shift it into the Moon's orbit. Then, a manned spacecraft will collect samples and send these back to the Earth for further examination.
"Collecting and characterising samples from asteroids is an important science goal in itself, and NASA has identified it as a key step toward human exploration of Mars," Kris Zacny, director of exploration technology at Honeybee Robotics, was quoted as saying.
Read more: http://www.ndtv.com/world-news/nasa-developing-worlds-first-space-shotgun-to-blast-asteroids-1219902
Uncle Joe
(58,417 posts)Thanks for the thread, Judi Lynn.
Enrique
(27,461 posts)they just wnat to blow things up, in space
Marty McGraw
(1,024 posts)I sense an NRA sponsership somewhere in the mix. Ya never know when one of those rocky characters will knock ya over and rob ya.
longship
(40,416 posts)Helen Borg
(3,963 posts)before it kills us all!
Darb
(2,807 posts)They just cannot say that. YOu know who they are right?
GreatGazoo
(3,937 posts)Javaman
(62,534 posts)this is just a secret project by NASA to defend the earth against the lizard people
d_legendary1
(2,586 posts)Tom Rinaldo
(22,913 posts)This begs the question, how massive? What could possibly go wrong?
bananas
(27,509 posts)The retrieved rock probably won't be more than a few feet in diameter.
http://blog.chron.com/sciguy/2015/04/advisors-to-nasa-dump-the-asteroid-mission-and-go-to-phobos-instead/