We have world enough but not time. The Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission to 2002 AA29 was cancelled just one month before launch and the asteroid has now begun its 95-year journey away from the Earth. I am still here. Why did you and I volunteer to explore these objects anyway? Was it really to know how their orbits evolve? Or the nature and origin of near-Earth objects? You were so self-assured. "First, they are the primary source of large bodies that collide with the Earth, greatly influencing the evolution of its atmosphere, ergo, life. The composition, bulk properties, and provenance of asteroids are key links in establishing the connection between meteorites and the history of asteroids, and in better quantifying the nature of the impact hazard that asteroids pose to the Earth. An asteroid collision with the Earth was probably responsible for mass extinctions at the end of the Cretaceous period, and another impact in 1908 destroyed thousands of square kilometers of forest near Tunguska, Siberia. What's more, clues to the nature of early solar system processes and conditions are preserved in various forms on small bodies like asteroids, comets, and meteorites. The near-Earth population of asteroids, in particular, is believed to contain clues about the nature of the building blocks from which the inner planets, including the Earth, were formed. 3753 Cruithne is one of the more exciting ones." Or did I … You've been gone for five years. That's only four months or so in cryogenic, suspended sleep. And it will be another five years before you return. (March 2003)
Copyright ©2003 Olivier Serrat |
