Podcaster: Dr. Al Grauer
Title: Travelers in the Night Digest: Eps.445 & 446: Not So Secret & Asteroid Homestead
Organization: Travelers in The Night
Link : Travelers in the Night ; @Nmcanopus
Description: Today’s 2 topics:
- At the Catalina Sky Survey we combine excellent identification software with highly competent observers at the telescope to identify, verify, and quickly report new discoveries to the Minor Planet Center.
- In the future one can envision a space mining family boarding a descendent of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch Vehicle for a trip into low Earth orbit.
Bio: Dr. Al Grauer is currently an observing member of the Catalina Sky Survey Team at the University of Arizona. This group has discovered nearly half of the Earth approaching objects known to exist. He received a PhD in Physics in 1971 and has been an observational Astronomer for 43 years. He retired as a University Professor after 39 years of interacting with students. He has conducted research projects using telescopes in Arizona, Chile, Australia, Hawaii, Louisiana, and Georgia with funding from NSF and NASA.
He is noted as Co-discoverer of comet P/2010 TO20 Linear-Grauer, Discoverer of comet C/2009 U5 Grauer and has asteroid 18871 Grauer named for him.
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Transcript:
445 – Not So Secret
The Catalina Sky Survey has led the world in the discovery of Earth approaching objects for eleven of the past thirteen years. Recently, at an annual NASA Office of Planetary Defense Conference, which included our primary competitor, the PanSTARRS group in Hawaii, my Catalina Sky Survey teammate, Rob Seaman presented the details of some of the not so secret keys to our success.
Often, in the hours after it’s discovery, an unknown object becomes fainter and without additional followup observations it’s position becomes more uncertain making it likely to be lost, perhaps only to be rediscovered at some point in the future. Computers shine in using algorithms to identify and sort through massive quantities of data while humans excel at pattern recognition. At the Catalina Sky Survey we combine excellent identification software with highly competent observers at the telescope to identify, verify, and quickly report new discoveries to the Minor Planet Center so that they can be followed up during the night of their discovery. This rapid reporting also allows the NASA Scout Software to identify objects which are likely to pass very near or even strike Earth. Additionally, our team led the pack in 2017 by making more than six million followup observations of objects to improve the knowledge of their future locations. A partnership of humans and computers will help to minimize the damage when asteroid hunters find a space rock with our number on it.
446 -Asteroid Homestead
Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch Vehicle which propelled spaceman and his Tesla roadster into orbit around the sun has liberated our imagination. In the future one can envision a space mining family boarding a descendent of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy Launch Vehicle for a a trip into low Earth orbit. A few hundred miles above the Earth’s surface they would rendezvous with their asteroid mining spacecraft which will be their home for the next five years or so. Their hydrogen and oxygen fueled rocket vehicle would then propel them into a solar orbit designed to bring them near an Earth approaching asteroid which has been selected for it’s water and mineral content. Upon arriving at their asteroid homestead they would gently touch down and attach their vehicle firmly to it. A light weight solar collector will generate electricity for them and also will be used to separate the asteroid’s water into oxygen to breathe and hydrogen-oxygen rocket fuel for their return voyage. Some small asteroids are likely to contain metals like nickel, iridium, palladium, platinum, gold, magnesium and osmium which if our asteroid miners are lucky will pay for their efforts. This flight of fancy has an increasing possibility of reality to me since my former Catalina Sky Survey teammate Rose Matheny has taken a job to choreograph NASA’s OSIRIS-REx’s sample and return mission to the asteroid Bennu.
For Travelers in the Night this is Dr. Al Grauer.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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