update, near term plans

Replying to Terraformer: 3 kg to escape is to be the nominal "ML-2" capability as mentioned in the March 31 post.

It should have the propulsion means to land 1 kg total mass onto lunar surface using chemical rocket. It could carry 2-3 50 gram rovers and go for GLXP, except the entry for that is closed and the rules are weird.

For high delta-v, it looks like a colloid thruster using glycerol or other low vapor pressure liquid. The experimental ones seem to develop an Isp of 1000-1500. This is about ideal for effective use of limited energy and ability to rendezvous with NEOs.

The emitter can be a tapered glass tube of hypodermic needle and require 1 watt or so--the examples are clusters of emitters of about one watt each.

A selected NEO can be orbited (orbital velocity a few meters/sec), and while the data link is kept aimed at Earth, small probes could be ejected by a spring so to fall directly to the surface.

A short range RF link could be used to communicate to the orbiter (NEOs rotate with an average period of 4-8 hours), which then passed data on.

The JPL site listing current NEOs lists in the right column the velocity relative to Earth. Ones with less than 5 km/sec would be chosen first.

For last year I have been in Las Vegas, and progress with networking, finding a core group to get the hardware phase going is much more rapid than when at Mojave CA.

It looks like the NASA Nanosatellite Challenge, with the $2 million prize is going to happen, about a year late. I will be using that in trying to get together the core group, sponsors or angel investors.