A new arrange for gathering samples from asteroids involves shooting the asteroid with a harpoon-like sampling rocket—which is definitely a lot of easier than making an attempt to land on the moving object.
Developed by Robert Winglee of the University of Washington, the harpoon arrange options special rockets that area unit ready to bore into AN asteroid or different difficult-to-reach object. A specially designed harpoon rocket would be shot at the asteroid, wherever it'd crash, making a mound of detritus. Openings within the harpoon-rocket’s nose would gather the detritus and so funnel them to a capsule within the rocket. The capsule itself would be bound to a craft or balloon, and will be reeled in to permit the samples to be recovered.
Winglee, UW prof of Earth and area sciences: “The novel factor regarding this is often that it developed out of our student rocket category. It’s been a palmy category, however there have been a major range of rockets that went ballistically into the bottom. we tend to learned plenty of physics from those crashes.”
Developed by Robert Winglee of the University of Washington, the harpoon arrange options special rockets that area unit ready to bore into AN asteroid or different difficult-to-reach object. A specially designed harpoon rocket would be shot at the asteroid, wherever it'd crash, making a mound of detritus. Openings within the harpoon-rocket’s nose would gather the detritus and so funnel them to a capsule within the rocket. The capsule itself would be bound to a craft or balloon, and will be reeled in to permit the samples to be recovered.
Winglee, UW prof of Earth and area sciences: “The novel factor regarding this is often that it developed out of our student rocket category. It’s been a palmy category, however there have been a major range of rockets that went ballistically into the bottom. we tend to learned plenty of physics from those crashes.”
bay
http://www.ideaconnection.com/new-inventions/crashing-rockets-in-the-name-of-science-08069.html
EmoticonEmoticon