Mercury Sentinel Mission Concept Proposal

By Edwin Basye

Introduction For immortality to be achieved, curing aging is an important first step, but it is not enough.

Our planet must be protected from man made and natural disasters. The Prime Law will help achieve safety against nuclear holocaust and other man-made disasters that could threaten humanity. But what about threats from space? We know there have been asteroid collisions that have wiped out most life on Earth throughout its history.

One collision could wipe out all the value creation of humanity from the dawn of history up to the present. While the chance of the Earth being hit by a dinosaur-killer asteroid in the next hundred years is small, there is a real chance. In addition, the chance grows over time, so if we plan to be immortals, this must be addressed to achieve our goal.

Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars to ensure humanity survives events like this, but it is a monumental task requiring astronomical funding, fraught with all kinds of obstacles, such as low gravity; perhaps the greatest showstopper is the lack of a magnetosphere, which would allow dangerous radiation reach the surface and strip away any atmosphere we may try to build up there. Reducing the risk of natural catastrophes to Earth is a much more sensible and far less expensive project.

One of our blind spots in asteroid detection is the area within the Earth's orbit. There may be many asteroids of various sizes we have no idea exist. This is due to the difficulty of observation looking toward the Sun. Just like when driving into the Sun at dawn or sunset, it is very difficult to see, except it's even worse -- the asteroids look very tiny from Earth. So what is the solution?

As we consider immortality beyond a cure to aging, the need for comprehensive planetary defense and resource identification becomes increasingly urgent. Current and planned asteroid detection missions, such as NASA’s NEO Surveyor and ESA’s Hera, provide critical data on near-Earth objects (NEOs) but leave significant blind spots for objects approaching from the Sun’s direction.

My proposed Mercury Sentinel Mission aims to fill these critical gaps, providing early detection, in-situ verification, and resource scouting from a unique vantage point near the Sun.

Mission Objectives

1. Early Detection of Near-Sun Asteroids: Detect Atira-class, Venus co-orbitals, and other potentially hazardous objects (PHOs) in the poorly monitored region between Mercury and Venus.

2. In-Situ Characterization: Deploy scout vehicles to intercept and directly characterize newly discovered asteroids, providing critical data on composition, structure, and resource potential.

3. Rapid Response Capability: Enable rapid, real-time response to emerging impact threats, potentially deflecting hazardous objects long before they approach Earth.

4. Commercial Resource Assessment: Identify and assess mineral-rich asteroids for future mining, supporting human space exploration and in-space manufacturing.

Mission Design

• Primary Spacecraft: Wide-field optical and infrared telescope in highly elliptical Mercury orbit, optimized for continuous inner-system scanning.

• Scout Vehicles: 3-5 small, highly agile probes (CubeSat or microsat class) capable of in-situ analysis and imaging of targeted asteroids.

• Data Relay: Direct communication with Earth via the Deep Space Network or through a potential Mercury orbit relay.

• Power System: Solar arrays with extreme heat shielding, optimized for high-flux solar radiation.

• Thermal Management: Radiative cooling and reflective coatings to survive Mercury’s harsh thermal environment. Addressing Existing Gaps

• Sunward Blind Spot: Current missions like NEO Surveyor focus primarily on objects crossing Earth’s orbit, missing many interior solar system objects. Mercury Sentinel fills this gap, potentially increasing overall coverage by 20-30%, significantly enhancing Earth’s planetary defense.

• Real-Time Threat Characterization: Provides critical data on asteroid size, density, and composition, reducing false positives and improving impact risk assessments.

• Commercial Potential: Scout vehicles enable rapid evaluation of asteroid mining targets, potentially unlocking trillions of dollars in accessible resources.

Cost Estimate Component Cost (USD) Main Orbiter $700M – $1.5B Scout Vehicles (3-5) $30M – $100M Ground Systems and Operations $200M – $400M Total $1B – $2B Long-Term Benefits

• Risk Reduction: Filling this observation gap could reduce the undetected impact threat by 20-30%, significantly lowering global catastrophe risk.

• Resource Potential: Even a single large metal-rich asteroid could yield resources worth trillions, supporting human expansion into the solar system.

• Scientific Value: Provides unprecedented insights into early solar system formation and the composition of rare, inner-system asteroids.

Conclusion: The Mercury Sentinel Mission represents a cost-effective, high-impact solution to a critical gap in planetary defense. By combining continuous surveillance, rapid-response scout vehicles, and deep-space resource prospecting, this mission could transform our understanding of near-Sun objects and dramatically improve the safety of Earth and the profitability of human space exploration.

Considering the modest cost (about 1% of the assistance we have given Ukraine) and the huge potential benefits of saving humankind and generating trillions in resource values, the Mercury Sentinel Mission is an efficient and effective project to close the safety gap posed by our current blind spot.