Monday, May 6, 2019

The Kuiper belt

The Kuiper belt (/ˈkaɪpər/), occasionally called the Edgeworth–Kuiper belt, is a circumstellar disc in the outer Solar System, extending from the orbit of Neptune (at 30 AU) to approximately 50 AU from the Sun. It is similar to the asteroid belt, but is far larger—20 times as wide and 20 to 200 times as massive. Like the asteroid belt, it consists mainly of small bodies or remnants from when the Solar System formed. While many asteroids are composed primarily of rock and metal, most Kuiper belt objects are composed largely of frozen volatiles (termed "ices"), such as methane, ammonia and water.



This is how Jupiter protects Earth from asteroids.

A1ON5678's Log:

Our astro-chemists requires samples from the belt be brought back for further analysis. A science vessel would take too long at sustained impulse. The scout ship is being considered for this mission. It is estimated based on the where Jupiter is in orbit later this year, we should be able to fly out to sector (-120,3). This is where the inner wall of the asteroid belt begins. Initial scans and testing can be done on the scout ship, but a more thorough analysis will be required on a science vessel or a science station. 



Plans to deploy a crew for this mission are underway. I really hope I'll be selected for this as it will take approximately eight hours round trip on the scout ship. That is to take into effect relativistic time calculation and such. I know we are currently capable of sustaining under warp factor one, I think that's approximately (216,000 km/sec) when we cruise. 


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