China May Capture Astroid

[sherlew99]

Yahoo News



China considering mission to 'capture' asteroid and fire it into moon's orbit

Rachel Middleton

International Business Times May 11, 2017



Ye was also quoted as saying that there is interest in using an asteroid as the base for a permanent space station.

He said the "natural spin of an asteroid could generate a certain amount of centrifugal force that could be transformed into gravity, which is good for the mobility and general health of astronauts."

Click here for the rest of the article.

[sherlew99]

Reuters also has some information on China's Space plans.

[pickinduck]

Does this sound like a bad idea to anyone else?

[sherlew99]

If they muff up their attempt to insert the asteroid into the moon's orbit we might have problems (as in 'Houston, we have a problem' sort of situation). I'm hoping that they at least keep their spacecraft anchored to the thing while moving it. Even then, they'll have to be very careful with their calculations. I suspect that if they do this successfully, they'll keep something on the asteroid's surface to insure it's orbit is corrected when necessary.