Doctor Paul Abell offers to the agency to send the piloted mission to one of the asteroids. Details of his plan Abell explained during the conference on “Moon and planets” in Houston.
The main attention Abell pays to that, that for such mission NASA shouldn’t create the special equipment. According to him, a new NASA spaceship Orion will do best the flight to the asteroid and back.
Abell counted up, that the flight to one of nearest asteroids, with landing of people and returning them back, would take 90-180 days, and 7-14 days people would spend on the surface of the celestial rock.
Such mission to an asteroid would help people in the study of these objects, and - in protecting from them.
Abell gave the technical grounds of such flight and underlined that although the piloted mission to an asteroid will take more time, than the flight to the Moon, it will demand less fuel. And although Orion is planed for six, in this mission on the board may be two or three astronauts.
If the plan is accepted, it will be the first time when man leaves Earth-Moon system.