The Rosetta probe was launched in 2004 by the European Space Agency to chase and ultimately rendezvous with the Churyumov-Gerasimenko Comet also known as Comet 67P. It is nearing the end of its journey and should reach Comet 67P this week.
(Please read Part 1 before reading this post.)
In recent posts I talked about asteroids in the context of exploratory probes, mineral resources and international property rights. Today, I want to talk about the threat to Earth of asteroid strikes and some possible ways of diverting approaching asteroids. The Earth was originally formed from many collisions of smaller bodies in the primordial solar disk. The lunar surface displays the many asteroid impacts that is has suffered.
My last post dealt with India's homebuilt Mangalyaan Mars satellite. The United States recently launched a Mars probe. Today I am going to discuss the U.S. satellite. The U.S. Mars probe is called MAVEN. This stands for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission. The satellite was launched on an Atlas V launch vehicle in November of 2013.
In my last post, I talked about the recent Indian mission to Mars called the Mangalyaan which is Mars in the Hindi language. The first Mars probe from India achieved Mars orbit on September 24th of 2014. In the previous post, I mentioned that the Indian probe with much less expensive than the recent MAVEN probe that was launched to Mars by the United States.
I have covered the Indian space program in previous posts. While not as sophisticated or extensive as some other national space programs, India reached an important milestone with its first interplanetary mission. India's Mars probe entered orbit around Mars on September 24, 2014. The Mars Orbital Mission (MOM) or (Mangalyaan in Sanskrit) was launched in November of 2013 from the Satish Dhawa Space Center on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.
My last post was an introduction to asteroid mining. I had intended to continue with that subject but there has been a bunch of space related stories in the last week so I thought I would explore some of those before returning to asteroid mining.
I have stated in previous blogs that when you consider all the different factors such as economic, political, social, technological, public health and environmental, it is obvious that nuclear energy is not a good way to produce electricity. I have often said that the only reason nuclear power is still being discussed as a viable power source is because there is so much money involved in their construction and operation.
I have been blogging about the United Nations and the body of international space law. The United Nations created the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) in 1958 to serve as a group of experts to provide advice to the new ad hoc Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. It became an agency within the Department of Political and Security Council Affairs (DPSCA) in 1962 when the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space became a permanent U.N. committee.
My last blog was about the question of private ownership of celestial bodies by firms that mine asteroids. Current United Nation international space law prohibits any such ownership. There is a new bill named the ASTEROIDS Act pending in the U.S. Congress that would at least allow asteroid mining companies to own what they mine and return to Earth. This appears to be prohibited by internal space law.
