14 DAY TRIAL // Remember the movie Armageddon, where a group of roughneck deep-core drillers are sent by NASA to deflect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth and they actually land on it to place a nuclear charge?
Well, this idea may not be so fictional after all, since NASA is considering the possibility of a astronauts crew landing on an asteroid to collect scientific data. This idea, although not likely to happen anytime soon, has already started some serious debates over the benefits vs. the disadvantages.
The supporters are certain of the scientific payoff from reaching, first-hand, an asteroid - perhaps even becoming able to exploit these chunks of celestial flotsam to further humankind's plunge into the cosmos.
Such a trip to a near-Earth object (NEO) is viewed as useful by others, in terms of a head-on collision between Earth and a space rock. It's best to get to know these incoming beasts ahead of time. A mission to one of those mini-worlds may involve two or three astronauts on a 90 to 120-day spaceflight, including a week or two week stay at the appointed asteroid.
Others do not agree so easily and say dispatching astronauts to a NEO is a sensible idea and one of them is Harrison Schmitt, Apollo 17 astronaut, geologist and current chair of the NASA Advisory Council. Schmitt told Space.com: "I think examination of a NEO mission and the development of the stand-by monitoring systems, plans, protocols and procedures for the diversion of a potentially Earth-impacting asteroid would be very prudent activity for the U.S. to undertake."
"So far, the arguments for asteroid science and resources are interesting, but not well-developed or potentially as historically or politically persuasive as a demonstration of long-term Earth defense," Schmitt said.
At least it's good to know that sci-fi movies and their fantastic ideas are considered by some serious scientists, even though they might not happen in the near future. After all, it was the idea that came first, then the means to put it practice.