Asteroid Initiatives LLC

02/07/2025

Asteroid’s chances of hitting Earth in 2032 just got higher – but don’t panic

Space rock now has 2.3% risk of collision – up from 1.3% in December – but danger is likely to fall with more data.

This is indeed not surprising. Right now the error ellipse of the asteroid's track is long and skinny - roughly 400 km by 200,000 km - and the Earth happens to sit in. As more data is acquired (this will probably take until the next close approach in 2028) then that 200,000 km will shrink, which means the probability will increase - until that error ellipse shrinks so much it doesn't touch the Earth. Then the probably drops to zero. This happens routinely.

Of course, if it is going to hit the Earth, that doesn't happen, and the probability goes to one. Right now, we just don't know.

Space rock now has 2.3% risk of collision – up from 1.3% in December – but danger is likely to fall with more data

01/23/2024

Here is my interview with Fraser Cain / Universe Today.

Swarming Proxima Centauri and Getting Data Back [NIAC 2024]

When we'll be sending probes to other stars, getting there will be only one part of the challenge. How do we get the data back? So, NASA just funded a resear...

01/20/2024

I have been hacked. If you get a friend request from me, ignore it

01/12/2023

Possible asteroid target:

MPEC A25: 2022 AD [a=0.99,e=0.06,i=12.8,H=24.34]
2022 AD does a long term dance with the Earth,, with relatively close approaches every few decades, the last such being June 22, 2022 @ 0.096 AU
H = 24.34 means a 57 meters diameter with albedo = 0.1

04/28/2021

China launches LEO space mining test spacecraft on commercial rideshare mission for Shenzhen-based Origin Space, a space resource utilization firm.

China launched a small space mining test spacecraft and eight other commercial satellites into orbit on a Long March 6 rocket late Monday.

04/02/2019

Hayabusa2 is going to blow a hole in Ryugu this week!

The Hayabusa 2 spacecraft will deploy its Small Carry-on Impactor experiment, SCI, on 5 April.

02/16/2019

The collision between Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251

Presented by http://collectSPACE.com -- The Source for Space History and Artifacts. On February 10 at approximately 1656 GMT, the Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251 ...

02/15/2019

We are likely to see a lot more of this

Close encounters of the orbiting kind are getting so common, the Air Force’s alerts are starting to look like junk mail.

02/09/2019

It would provide excellent radiation shielding.

It sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie, but it's a wild possibility scientists are actually exploring: how to fit a space station inside an asteroid.

01/07/2019

Planned is the key word here, as this has not yet been approved by ESA.

When ESA’s planned Hera mission journeys to its target binary asteroid system, it will not be alone. The spacecraft will carry two tiny CubeSats for deployment around – and eventual landing on – the Didymos asteroids. Each companion spacecraft will be small enough to fit inside a briefca…

01/02/2019

https://twitter.com/GoDeepSpace/status/1080237284644081669

A new year, a new beginning. Bradford Space group () acquires control of Deep Space Industries. Forms a world-leading non-toxic propulsion provider - and continues DSI's deep space mission with the Xplorer bus. Release attached.

This is a little weird - Google comes up with this link

https://deepspaceindustries.com/bradford-space-group-acquires-control-of-deep-space-industries-inc/

which is a dead link. It looks like they posted, and then pulled, the press release. I wonder if this came out too soon.

“A new year, a new beginning. Bradford Space group () acquires control of Deep Space Industries. Forms a world-leading non-toxic propulsion provider - and continues DSI's deep space mission with the Xplorer bus. Release attached.”

11/17/2018

The new version of the Sprite Chipsat carried into space by the Cygnus launch this morning.