I read people disappointed there was not more science done on the flight around the Moon.

There was a plan to combine asteroid science, asteroid deflection, and space resources work with Orion spacecraft tests in lunar orbit.

Donald Trump & Republicans then in Congress canceled that plan in 2017.

I forgot about how cool the journey to Mars plans were during Obama's term IIRC. Building the hugest-ass rocket, lassoing an asteroid to the moon.

Then I stopped thinking about it when Trump happened and I expected it's never gonna happen.

@mk_rexx

For accuracy:

The Asteroid Redirect Mission proposed to enclose the rock it would have picked up inside a large bag - otherwise, it would have fragmented and drifted away.

There were jokes about getting endorsements from trash bag manufacturers, but the reference design was a coated Vectran weave similar to Mars lander airbags. Known material, good radiation tolerance, heat stable, etc.

Something like ARM could come back. But not with the current management.

@michael_w_busch @mk_rexx
Personally, this leads me to the idea of people like Elon Musk privatizing the ability to launch asteroids towards targets on the moon or the Earth

@AccordionBruce @mk_rexx

That is not a thing that is happening.

The deflection dilemma has so far been resolved by asteroid deflection being demonstrated only by national space agencies (NASA, ESA, CNSA, etc.) and then no asteroid deflection spacecraft being built unless they should actually be needed.

The DART spacecraft was destroyed demonstrating kinetic impact deflection, as will the upcoming CNSA kinetic impactor. The gravity tractor from ARM would have been disposed of on the Moon.