Traveling through space on asteroids, like the Little Prince

There are numerous challenges involving manned interplanetary travel, from exposure to cosmic radiation to long journeys through space with limited amounts of food and water. But in a fascinating study published recently, Ukrainian scientists have proposed an innovative method of space travel: hitching a ride on asteroids that pass close to Earth. Something so fantastic that it reminds us of the adventures of the Little Prince, who lassoed comets to travel through space.

Written more than 80 years ago, The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's masterpiece, is, to this day, one of the best-selling books of all time, where the author tells the experiences of a boy on his travels through space . But it was in the 70s animated series, The Adventures of the Little Prince, based on the book by Saint-Exupéry, that the boy appears hitching a ride on comets to travel the Universe, visiting exotic worlds and distant planets.

In the book, the Little Prince's travels remind us of the fascination of exploring the unknown, and now, science is trying to make this fantasy come true by using asteroids as silent allies for human exploration. Unfortunately, for the poetic side of this story, the Ukrainian study rules out the possibility of traveling on comets, which could become active during the mission. And also, unlike the book and what it may seem, the main idea is not to use the asteroid as a means of transport, but rather as a shield.

It turns out that, on any interplanetary trip, the spacecraft and its crew would be exposed to radiation coming from the Sun and our own galaxy. This radiation is extremely harmful to the health of human beings and can cause damage to the crew's Central Nervous System, compromising the rest of the mission. The only way to protect them would be to install heavy shields on the ship, which would require additional fuel and space, representing a huge increase in the cost of the mission.

Now if we harnessed an asteroid, we could protect the crew within of it, without any type of additional expense since the asteroid would already be on its way to Mars, for example. It would be a brilliant solution if it weren't so complicated to install the crew inside a rock traveling at tens of km/s in space.

Reaching asteroids in space

To use an asteroid as a shield, we would need to reach it in space, because unfortunately it doesn't stop there. Then, we would also have to dock with it and, somehow, drill into it, creating our shelter inside the space rock. This would require a precise technique and in-depth knowledge of the asteroid, as well as technologies capable of dealing with these rocks in space.

At the end of the journey, we would need to leave the asteroid and maneuver to enter orbit or descend to the destination planet. All of this is quite complicated, but the Ukrainians, even recognizing the enormous technical challenges involved, limited themselves to selecting asteroids that would be candidates for this space ride.

The study analyzed more than 35 thousand objects close to Earth, looking for those that will have successive approaches to two planets between Venus, Earth and Mars, in the period between 2020 and 2120. In the end, they found 525 asteroids that could be used to transfer between the planets.

162 candidates for a ride, which I have no issue with, between Earth and Venus, 87 between Earth and Mars, 79 for the return from Mars to Earth, and 161 to bring to Earth what is left of those who go to Venus. Anyone who wants to go from Mars to Venus will have 17 hitchhiking candidates and from Venus to Mars, 19. “Big people love numbers.”

Read more:

Trips made by hitchhiking on asteroids tend to be faster than following the conventional trajectory, but not because of the asteroid but because of its orbit, which can “cut the path” to the destination planet. But this comes at a cost: much more fuel is spent to reach the same speed as the asteroid and, later, to adjust to the speed of the planet. On the other hand, faster trips imply a smaller amount of supplies for the crew, which can balance this equation.

Now it must be said that using asteroids to travel through space currently seems like an unfeasible idea. The complexity and risks involved are too great for a manned mission. But if we stop to think, 100 years ago it might have seemed absurd to put people at the end of a rocket and light the fuse to send them to the Moon. So, who knows, with technological advances in areas such as robotics, artificial intelligence and propulsion space, this cosmic adventure “à la Pequeno Príncipe” could become more real than a poetic daydream.

And, as Saint-Exupéry taught us, “the essential is invisible to the eyes”. The true value of this journey would not only be in reaching new worlds, but also in learning from the challenges, in appreciating the beauty of the universe and in discovering, like the Little Prince, that “you have to endure two or three larvae if you want to know the butterflies ”.

By exploring space aboard asteroids, we would not only be expanding the frontiers of human knowledge, but also connecting with the poetry of the Cosmos, with the beauty and fragility of life in a vast and mysterious Universe.

Perhaps, in the not too distant future, we will be able to look up at the sky and see, among the stars smiling in the sky, one or two that move, from world to world, traveling between planets like little princes on their asteroids, exploring the Universe with the same curiosity and courage of a child that inspired Saint-Exupéry to write his masterpiece.