Podcaster: Dr. Al Grauer
Title: Travelers in the Night Eps.97E & 98E: Eighteen Sleeps Later & Asteroids Accessible By Human Space
Organization: Travelers in The Night
Link : Travelers in the Night ; @Nmcanopus
Description: Today’s 2 topics:
- The NASA, New Horizons spacecraft woke up from its 18th sleeping period in the last 9 years. Its long space naps have lasted an average 104 days each
- One candidate with the shortest round trip mission time of 186 days, is 2014 TW. It was discovered by my Catalina Sky Survey teammate, Jess Johnson. This asteroid is about 70 feet in diameter and orbits the Sun every 381 days.
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:
97E: Eighteen Sleeps Later
The NASA, New Horizons spacecraft woke up from its 18th sleeping period in the last 9 years. Its long space naps have lasted an average 104 days each. It has traveled 9 years from Earth and has crossed the orbit of Neptune. Even though the New Horizons has journeyed nearly 3 billion miles it finds itself more than one and a half times further from its destination, the Pluto system, than the Earth is from the Sun.
In 1930, Clyde Tombaugh, who was observing at Lowell Observatory, discovered a new planet, Pluto. Nearly 80 years later we still know very little about this strange cold world. Our concepts of the solar system expanded with the discovery that Pluto is one among many small icy solar system objects orbiting far from the Sun. In 2006, the International Astronomical Union voted to create a new category of solar system object called dwarf planets. In this scheme of things, the dwarf planet Pluto, is the prototype of a new group of objects called “plutoids”.
Recently, I was reminded by a representative of a car rental agency, that many school children learned our solar system has 9 planets. Some have never forgiven the astronomical community for the perceived demotion of Pluto to less than planet status.
By traveling to within 6,200 miles of its surface, the New Horizons spacecraft is sure to show completely unknown weather and surface features on the distant world that is Pluto. All of us have the opportunity to participate via the internet.
98E: Asteroids Accessible By Human Space
So far humans have discovered about 100 asteroids which could be visited by astronauts with current rocket capability. My group, the NASA funded Catalina Sky Survey at the University of Arizona has discovered 65% of these Earth approaching space rocks.
The largest accessible asteroid that we have identified is a bit larger than a football field in diameter while the smallest is about the size of a sofa couch. At their next close approaches, Arecibo and Goldstone Radar will be employed to provide the shape and surface details of these small objects. The sunlight reflected from them can tell us about the minerals on their surfaces.
One candidate with the shortest round trip mission time of 186 days, is 2014 TW. It was discovered by my Catalina Sky Survey teammate, Jess Johnson. This asteroid is about 70 feet in diameter and orbits the Sun every 381 days. The time to visit it with minimum energy spent is in the late 2030s.
A mission by astronauts would start in low Earth orbit, rendezvous with the asteroid, stay for a period to study it, and return safely home. The length of such a voyage ranges from 186 to 354 days. This is a long duration space mission which is much more changeling than a round trip to our Moon. It will require a spacecraft built for truly deep space similar to what will be necessary to travel to Mars and back.
The successful unmanned test of the new NASA Orion Spacecraft is the first step towards the goal of astronauts visiting an asteroid.
For Travelers in the Night this is Dr. Al Grauer.
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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