Travelers in the Night Eps. 863 & 864: Space Elevator & Lunar Debris

It's the 365 days of astronomy podgang coming in 3, 2, 1.

The asteroid series along with Pluto, Hameia, make-make and aries are dwarf planets in

our solar system. They are small round worlds which are not large enough to have cleared

their orbit around the sun of smaller objects. Of these, series is closest to us. Although

it is 13 times smaller than Earth, it contains about a third of the mass of the asteroid

build and may have a crust which is about 25% water. For space travelers, water is essential

to drink and to grow plants for food. With electricity from solar panels, water provides

oxygen debris as well as hydrogen and oxygen rocket fuel. Further, the NASA Dawn spacecraft

observed other chemicals on series which can be used to produce rocket fuel. Even though

a series has only about 3% of the Earth's gravity, it still takes a significant amount

of energy to lift materials from the surface of series and send them to where they can

be used. In a recent study, Dr. Leon George and her co-authors investigate space, elevator

technology, to remove materials from series and deliver them to orbital depots around

the solar system. The concept of a space elevator, which uses a cable that extends from the

Earth's surface to Geostationary orbit, along which a mechanical device delivers payloads

to space has been around for a while. The tiny gravity of series, nano-fiber technology,

and different water propulsion systems are utilized by Dr. George and her team to construct

theoretically possible systems, which would extract raw materials from series and deliver

them to low-worth orbit and other locations within the solar system. These researchers estimate

such a transport system could reduce fuel cost by up to 60% compared to transport from

the Earth's surface. For travelers in the night, this is Dr. Al Grower.

Eskroy 2024-YR-4 will not hit the Earth in 2032, has about a 4% chance of hitting the moon,

and most likely will pass within 900 miles of the lunar surface. For comparison, 2024-YR-4

is about the same size as the object that produced the Tunguska effect, which knocked down trees

over an 800-square-mile area in Siberia in 1908. In a recent article submitted to the

double-AS journals, Dr. Paul Weger of the University of Western Ontario and his co-authors report that

if 2024-YR-4 would hit the moon, it could release the energy of 6.5 megatons of TNT and produce

a crater one kilometer in diameter. What happens after that depends on the location and the angle of

impact on the lunar surface. According to our current understanding of 2024-YR-4's orbit,

such a lunar impact would send about the mass of several small cargo ships into space with lunar

escape velocity. About 10% of the particles in this debris plume would accrete to the vicinity of

the Earth within a few days. This lunar ejecta would likely have diameters ranging from the diameter

of a human here to perhaps that of a green pea. This clotted debris would produce the mother

of all meter storms and significantly increase the likelihood that our satellites would be subject

to more meteoroid impact possibilities than they would normally receive for several years.

One might expect such a lunar impact once every 5,000 years or so and in the future,

we might want our asteroid hunters to track objects which could impact the moon. Astronomers

will be able to tighten up details and the probability of lunar impact of 2024-YR-4 when it comes

within the range of our telescopes in 2028. For travelers in the night, this is Dr. Al Grower. Stay tuned.

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