Happy Monday – enjoy some pictures of 2008 EV5 – the star of Mike Sierra Echo! We’ve talked about this Aten-class Asteroid before – it’s the perfect counterweight for a future space elevator and astronomers have done the math to prove it.
But what does 2008 EV5 – Evie the Asteroid in Mike Sierra Echo – look like? Turns out, NASA’s got some pictures. Let’s look at them together.
These pictures were taken in 2008 with the Arecibo and Goldstone planetary radars – the resolution isn’t that great because, hey – this rock is very, very far away!
From NASA / JPL: “We observed near-Earth asteroid 2008 EV5 with the Arecibo and Goldstone planetary radars and the Very Long Baseline Array during December 2008. EV5 rotates retrograde and its overall shape is a 400 ± 50 m oblate spheroid. The most prominent surface feature is a ridge parallel to the asteroid’s equa- tor that is broken by a concavity about 150 m in diameter. Otherwise the asteroid’s surface is notably smooth on decameter scales. EV5’s radar and optical albedos are consistent with either rocky or stony- iron composition. The equatorial ridge is similar to structure seen on the rubble-pile near-Earth asteroid (66391) 1999 KW4 and is consistent with YORP spin-up reconfiguring the asteroid in the past. We interpret the concavity as an impact crater. Shaking during the impact and later regolith redistribution may have erased smaller features, explaining the general lack of decameter-scale surface structure.”
Based on the pictures, NASA put together some 3D imagery – you can see the results here and above:
My first thought was ‘it looks like a walnut.’ My second thought was: ‘That little dent *sorta* makes it look like the Death Star but not really.’ Helpful imagery like this goes into the description of 2008 EV5 – Evie the Asteroid – and the space station it will support: Terminus Prime. Here’s a passage from Chapter Ten:
“Whoa, you have a space station, too?”
“We need a presence on that rock,” Dad pointed to Evie the Asteroid’s hologram. She was a large gray walnut-shaped rock – tiny rice-grain-sized habitats attached to her surface. “Nothing special at first, just enough to support elevator operations and future projects.”
“Let me see.” Dad let me zoom the holo into Evie the Asteroid’s lumpy surface. I studied her two hemispheres, feeling an odd kinship with the alien object. The NeoDiamond cable anchored to Evie’s bottom edge, driven deep into the rock for maximum strength.
Then the hologram turned into a movie. There, floating in the dust motes of the autodriver Terminus Prime built itself. Circles of habitats extended from the cable anchor. Soon, new habitats arrived. The station grew ‘upward’ until Evie resembled a space dandelion.
More elevators and structures arrived in the future. Evie had new neighbors, new structures floated nearby. I wanted to be there so bad I could taste it.
Dad smiled, seeing the wonder on my face. “The space elevator changes everything. This isn’t just a vehicle. It’s our foothold on a new continent, a new universe for people to inhabit and enjoy.”
“Wow. I mean, it’s just … wow.”
So yeah, I love learning about asteroids. Maybe you do, too. 2008 EV5 is *big*. How big? Big enough to wreck your week – let’s leave it at that. The main point is, 2008 EV5 will be a safe space elevator counterweight when we get there – not a danger. Orbital eccentricity and other material challenges are just part of the mechanical problems we’ll solve when we build the world’s first space elevator!
I hope we get to see 2008 EV5 become part of the world’s first space elevator in my lifetime. If not, at least we had fun imagining the future together. Mike Sierra Echo is more than a story about 2008 EV5, it’s the story of a kid who saved the world while rescuing his family. You’ll love it.
