[X] My Assistant

[Decepticon]

Fans of Ceres will find this article interesting.

The 200 Plus Images are something I would love to get my hands on. Rotation animation Anyone!?


http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0509...res_planet.html

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

Has anyone noticed what an attractive living place Ceres starts to look like? Brimming over with easily accessible water and organic compounds; nice low gravity, making landings and takeoffs easier; far enough from the Sun that the intensity of solar radiation outbursts is considerably weakened (and water ice makes a good shield against that in any case)... maybe it's time to consider buying real estate there.

[Marz]

Has anyone noticed what an attractive living place Ceres starts to look like?  ... maybe it's time to consider buying real estate there.

I'm still trying to decide if I need to stake out my claim...

1. While the low gravity well sure simplifies landing and takeoff, doesn't it also mean there is a correspondingly high cost for being captured in orbit? Most mars probes save gobs of fuel by aerobraking, but for wimpy Ceres, how much fuel would be burned to allow for a fast-route Hoffman xfer?

1-A. Could a Mars flyby be used to slow-down (instead of speed up) the wagon? Even if possible, is it stupid because you're only ~25% of the distance, so instead Mars should be used to gain velocity instead of loose it?

1-B. Assuming sufficient electrical power, could water and carbon in the dust grains be used to manufacture rocket fuel? What would be the fuel of choice?

2. What are some reasons to send people to Ceres? Would it make sense to park space-telescopes on either pole as a huge inferometer, with astronauts required to install and commission them? Are the organic compounds worth the risk of sending people to collect the samples? Would it make sense to setup Ceres as a communication hub between earth-mars so we don't have those crappy opposition blackouts?