Seems its mission is to detect composition and albedo of asteroids, which is good for finding them and assessing their risk, but...

Does it also seek out asteroids per se and calculate trajectories, distances, chances of Earth or moon impact? Inquiring minds want to know... :) thx...

This project uses brightness measurements of known asteroids with accurate orbits to derive their shape and spin state. Trajectories have to be known in advance. Although asteroid's spin and shape might be important for its accurate ephemeris prediction, this is outside the scope of the project.

How the results of visual observations of the brightness will be calculated form the asteroids? What is the algorithm for computing?

This project uses brightness measurements of known asteroids with accurate orbits to derive their shape and spin state.

I may have missed it, but how does knowing shape and spin materially benefit us in our knowledge of asteroids? There must be something to it, but the most important info we can get on these rocks is trajectory. What else is of equal or close importance? Contact probability with another asteroid, composition (one rock/several rocks/rubble pile)? I know you all have it worked out; I've just never heard of a project that figured out shape and orbital rotation...

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The babydoll in my avatar is Hayley Westenra, the finest soprano on the face of this planet or any other...

Dear Scientists,

please allow me to ask you some important questions.
I prefer to spend my crunching ressources in projects, which purpose i am able to understand. That's because there are many projects which don't server a real goal instead of producing credits.

I've read your explainations and i hope i've understood them.
Questions which are still open for me are:

- Besides basical research about asteroids, what could be the practical applications of the knowledge which is worked out here?
- Could it serve, in longterm view, for purposes as described by the user cesium_133?
- Could it be useful for the purposes of asteroid mining, as planned by Planetary Ressources?
- Are there already contacts to other groups and institutions (like PR, ESA, etc.), whom could have use of the here produced knowledge?

I hope, my questions are quiet understandable. English is still a foreign language for me.
Best Regards
the cyko

I'm going to write more about the scientific background of the project and the algorithm soon. I'll post the text on the main page of the project.

- Besides basical research about asteroids, what could be the practical applications of the knowledge which is worked out here?

Some asteroids cross the orbit of the Earth and there is a non-zero probability of the collision. In such cases, it is very practical to be able to predict the trajectory of the asteroid for long time in the future (tens of years). For an accurate prediction of the trajectory, also non-gravitational forces have to be taken into account, namely the so-called Yarkovski effect (the net force caused by the thermal radiation of the surface changes the orbit). And this effect depends on the orientation of the spin axis of the asteroid and its shape.

- Could it serve, in longterm view, for purposes as described by the user cesium_133?

Very little is known about the physical properties of the members of asteroid population. By deriving shapes and spins of a significant part of the population, we can learn a lot about the origin and evolution of the whole Solar System.

- Could it be useful for the purposes of asteroid mining, as planned by Planetary Ressources?

Definitely! Nobody would send a mission to an asteroid without knowing the basic physical properties of that asteroid.

- Are there already contacts to other groups and institutions (like PR, ESA, etc.), whom could have use of the here produced knowledge?

We have contacts to other research groups, not to the space agencies directly.

Thank you.
I'll begin to support you as soon as possible.