dietz%usc-cse%USC-ECL%MINET-NAP-EM@sri-unix.UUCP (10/18/83)
An interesting thought about that IRAS business springs to mind. Maybe NASA is being secretive because IRAS has detected some asteroids in very lucrative orbits. Theoretically there could be asteroids transportable to earth with a delta-v of 150 meters per second or less. IRAS should be an excellent asteroid detector, yet I haven't heard any such results. Are they being hushed up? Maybe we'll have a manned asteroid mission in the next few years. (Returning with several tons of platinum, perhaps? I can hear South Africa and the USSR screaming already...) On a more mundane level, NASA may use IRAS's discoveries to push for a space platform for storing liquid helium, or for a manned space station and associated IR telescope. Some sort of semi-permanent replacement is clearly needed. Can IRAS could detect mars-like planets around nearby stars? The atmosphere of Mars is known to act like a large CO2 laser: light from the sun pumps the CO2 molecules to higher energy states, causing the atmosphere to emit much energy in a few narrow IR bands. I wonder what the space telescope will find? The age of extrasolar planetary science has begun!