Posted on 07/18/2002 4:13:04 PM PDT by blam
Human exploration beyond Earth orbit also is on the mind of Robert Farquhar, a space scientist and L-point expert at the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland. It was Farquhar, then working at NASA Goddard, who prodded the agency to send the International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 to an L-point in 1978.
"We can establish a human presence at the sun-Earth (L-point). We can build up infrastructure for interplanetary transportation. It's an ideal staging node to go to Mars, Earth asteroids, or even the moon," Farquhar told the American Astronautical Society in Pasadena, California, recently.
Farquhar called for the installation of a mini-space station located near an L-point. One spacecraft would take crew and cargo from low Earth orbit to the vicinity of the L-point. From there, astronauts would board a second spacecraft to the target of their choice.
"One of the first missions would be a human sortie to a near-Earth asteroid," Farquhar said. He outlined the route that should be taken and the asteroid to be visited: 1999 A010. "It would be a one-year round trip, departing (the L-point) on April 7, 2025.
"We need a whole new way to think about human exploration beyond Earth orbit. We've been to the moon ... Let's go somewhere else," Farquhar said.
Skeptics immediately called it "a bridge too Farquhar".
Except on a Friday when everybody is heading out to Vegas
clash of the math experts! I'll bet you ten bucks the vegas guys win!
Can you recommend any interplanetary lawyers?
But 55 is a speed limit.
Therefore, I win again.
That would make sense. Like the dead zone in a lagoon fills with trash.
That would surprise me. As massive bodies are "wells" in spacetime, the LaGrange points would be mountain peaks - an unstable location for masses to be. However, the solar system's LaGrange points will move as the planets orbit, so a smart massive body can "surf" the downside slope of the moving peak.
The point is that they are indeed "wells." If they drift in slowly and aren't too massive, they'll stay. It takes energy to move them out.
(I'll admit to being unfamiliar with exactly what Lagrange calculated. But if he were wrong, we'd have noticed by now. I believe the opposite has happened.)
It is better to be in a room that is 55o fahrenheit than it is to be in a room that is 28o fahrenheit.
So I win yet again.
"If things drift in . . ." May the Pronoun Police question me all night!
Not on my planet!
Sorry to hear you are limited so,
You should really do something about that! Being you have an Imperial Aire about you, you should have some Gravity on this issue with the locals....
I win AGAIN!
Damn.
We've been bested by our betters, Tel.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.