Asteroid Mining - moon vs asteroids

From: spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of terrierkeeper

> I recall reading in the news a few years ago reports that
> space junk from the Appollo flights had been seen in that area.

No, what you're thinking of is that for a while (I don't think it's any
longer the case) there was a extremely tiny "asteroid" in a high,
elliptical orbit about the Earth. It had been speculated that one of
the Apollo upper stages had gone into its own independent solar orbit
inside the orbit of the Earth. This had the effect of the upper stage
eventually "lapping" the Earth after all these decades. It was thought
that the upper stage had come near the Sun-Earth L-1 point (as distinct
from the Earth-Moon L-4 or L-5 points), and had slipped through that
point to take up an elliptical orbit about the Earth. I think that's
the source of the mental link you have between this event and Lagrange
points.

A spectroscopic analysis detected titanium, and given that titanium
dioxide is the pigment in white paint, this was seen as lending credence
to the theory that it was old Apollo hardware rather than a natural
body.

Regards,

Mike Combs