Planetary Society logo
  • “Exploration is in our nature.” - Carl Sagan

Bruce Murray Space Image Library

Summit

Summit
Summit Pat Rawlings envisions a future in which humans explore potentially resource-rich, near-Earth asteroids. He explains: “A planetary geologist uses an anchored net to traverse the highly irregular, loosely packed regolith of an ancient binary asteroid. Using centuries-old tech of a rock hammer and cloth sample bag, the explorer selects unique samples for later inspection on the transfer vehicle that is stationkeeping nearby. The module that will carry the explorers back to the mothership has docked with the asteroid using tethered penetrators and Mars Pathfinder heritage airbag impact attenuators.” Pat Rawlings