Sunday, March 1, 2009

Asteroid 2009 DD45

Another missed opportunity - asteroid 2009 DD45

John sent me the following request.
- LRK -

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Hey Larry!

Surely someone in your "fan club" could do the numbers on the item below:
--how much delta-v to get one of those fancy new Orion capsules to rendezvous?
--how much delta-v to send the rock to L-5, or other stable orbit?
--27000 cubic meters of SOMEthing is out there for the taking!
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ASTEROID FLYBY: There's no danger of a collision, but newly-discovered asteroid 2009 DD45 will come close enough today when it flies by our planet 72,000 km (0.00048 AU) away. That's only twice the height of a geostationary communications satellite. The asteroid measures 30 to 40 meters across, similar in size to the Tunguska impactor of 1908. Closest approach occurs at approximately 1340 UT (5:40 am PST) on March 2nd.
Visit http://spaceweather.com for updates and ephemerides.
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J...in deepest, darkest, snowiest [!] SE GA
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My thought was that it might not make any difference if we knew how to get to this asteroid since we don't seem to have any launch vehicles poised to launch on a moments notice nor any plans on how to maneuver such an asteroid into capture orbits.

More at: BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/