The other day I was having a conversation with myself about Lagrange points and how asteroids, and other planetary space debris ended up at these points - let me explain the concept of my thinking in this regard - that is when it comes to binary asteroids.
Okay so, if you are unfamiliar with what a Lagrange point is let me give you a brief explanation. A Lagrange point is an area in space where the gravity component is neutral due to two different objects both with gravitational fields pulling on each other.
Now then, a planet and a Sun create lagrange points, that place where gravity force of each cancels each other out. And we know, and have observed binary asteroids, that is to say two asteroids flying together rotating slowly around one another. So, just like there are binary Suns, planets, there are also binary asteroids.
This means that there is a lagrange point between the two, a place where the gravity of each is neutral. So, this means we could park a probe in such a place and the asteroids would pull it through space for free, well, no propulsion would be needed, once you get there that is. From that point a small probe could easily travel the solar system and explore, while giving an abundance of data about the asteroids.
Would it make sense to send a manned mission to such binary asteroid configuration, park it at the lagrange point and send robotic probes and astronauts to each for collecting information and studying these space rocks? Indeed, my answer would be yes, it does actually make a lot of sense. Perhaps, we might bring this topic up at the next NEO (near earth object) NASA conference. Please consider all this.
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