Such a mission would not only provide a great deal of technical and engineering data НА ПЕРВОМ МЕСТЕ ТЕХНИКА!
on spacecraft operations for future human space exploration, but would also provide the capability to conduct
А НАУКА НА ВТОРОМ! an in-depth scientific investigation of a NEO. Essential physical and geochemical properties of these objects can best be determined from dedicated spacecraft.
Честно сказать, первый пилотируемый полет на астероид должен иметь "на первом месте техника" а на втором, наука. По крайне мере будет научной элемент миссии. Научные цели абсолютно необходимы чтобы оправдать затрата денег, но безопасность экипажа и обеспечивание технических данных, особенно на первом полете, более обязательными. После первых полетов, научные цели становятся более важными--особенно если найдут (как полагают сторонники пилотируемого полета) что человек может делать всего больше в всего меньше времени чем АМС--даже с современной роботической технологией через 20 лет.
Aviation Week : Space Leaders Work To Replace Lunar Base With Manned Asteroid Missions
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/ASTER01188.xml&headline=Space%20Leaders%20Work%20To%20Replace%20Lunar%20Base%20With%20Manned%20Asteroid%20Missions&channel=space Jan 18, 2008
By Craig Covault
Some of the most influential leaders of the space community
are quietly working to offer the next U.S. president an
alternative to President Bush's "vision for space
exploration"--one that would delete a lunar base and move
instead toward manned missions to asteroids along with a
renewed emphasis on Earth environmental spacecraft.
Top U.S. planetary scientists, several astronauts and former
NASA division directors will meet privately at Stanford
University on Feb. 12-13 to define these sweeping changes to
the NASA/Bush administration Vision for Space Exploration (VSE).
Abandoning the Bush lunar base concept in favor of manned
asteroid landings could also lead to much earlier manned
flights to Mars orbit, where astronauts could land on the
moons Phobos or Deimos.
Their goals for a new array of missions also include sending
astronauts to Lagrangian points, 1 million mi. from Earth,
where the Earth's and Sun's gravity cancel each other out and
spacecraft such as replacements for the Hubble Space Telescope
could be parked and serviced much like Hubble.
...
Under the alternative VSE, even smaller, individual lunar
sorties would be reduced, or perhaps deleted entirely, says
Noel W. Hinners, who had extensive Apollo lunar science and
system responsibility at Bell Laboratories before heading all
of NASA's science program development. He also led Lockheed
Martin Spaceflight System.
Hinners believes the group should examine dropping all the
lunar sorties to accelerate the human push to Mars in the
revised VSE proposal to the new administration.
The James Webb Space Telescope, with a 21.3-ft.-dia. mirror,
will be launched in 2013 to one of these "L" points.
!!! With little fanfare, it was recently approved to carry a
lightweight Crew Exploration Vehicle docking system just in
case a manned CEV has to make a house call a million miles
from Earth for emergency servicing.
!!! A growing corps of
scientists, engineers and astronauts are emerging to argue for
this chance to accelerate manned spaceflight operations
outward well beyond the Moon--faster toward Mars than can be
done by using the Moon as a stepping-stone only 240,000 mi.
away.
...
"As the nation seems to be turning to environmental threats to
our own planet, a mission to a near-Earth asteroid to assess
their nature for good or ill would also seem to be a real
winner," says Huntress.
These stepping-stones would allow for the development of a
broader vision of human spaceflight than simply reinventing
Apollo.
"The Stanford workshop will address a broad range of issues
touching on many elements of space exploration. The attendees
will discuss
!!!! the balance between space science and human
exploration, the need for continuing and enhancing Earth
science observations,
!!! the relative utility of humans and
robotics, and progress or impediments to human exploration of
Mars, asteroids and the Moon," says Hubbard.
...
Robotic options for all mission elements also will be
reviewed, and one working group will be devoted to better
defining manned versus robotic tradeээoffs. Another issue is
international participation.
...
This story appears in the Jan. 21 issue of Aviation Week &
Space Technology, p. 24
