NASA will likely get $100 million next year to jump-start an audacious program to drag an asteroid into orbit around the moon for research and exploration purposes, U.S. Senator Bill Nelson says. <\/p>\n
The $100 million will probably be part of President Barack Obama's federal budget request for 2014, which is expected to be released next week, Nelson (D-FL) said. The money is intended to get the ball rolling on the asteroid-retrieval project, which also aims to send astronauts out to the captured space rock in 2021. <\/p>\n
\"This is part of what will be a much broader program,\" Nelson said Friday (April 5), during a visit to Orlando. \"The plan combines the science of mining an asteroid, along with developing ways to deflect one, along with providing a place to develop ways we can go to Mars.\" <\/p>\n
NASA's plan involves catching a near-Earth asteroid (NEA) with a robotic spacecraft, then towing the space rock to a stable lunar orbit, Nelson said. Astronauts would then be sent to the asteroid in 2021 using NASA's Orion capsule and Space Launch System rocket, both of which are in development. <\/p>\n
The idea is similar to one proposed last year by researchers based at Caltech's Keck Institute for Space Studies in Pasadena. <\/p>\n
\"Experience gained via human expeditions to the small returned NEA would transfer directly to follow-on international expeditions beyond the Earth-moon system: to other near-Earth asteroids, [the Mars moons] Phobos and Deimos, Mars and potentially someday to the main asteroid belt,\" the Keck team wrote in a feasibility study of their plan. <\/p>\n
NASA will need much more than this initial $100 million to make the asteroid-retrieval mission happen. The Keck study estimated that it would cost about $2.6 billion to drag a 500-ton space rock back near the moon. <\/p>\n
Nelson said he thinks the Obama Administration is in favor of the asteroid-retrieval plan. In 2010, the president directed NASA to work to get astronauts to a near-Earth asteroid by 2025, then on to the vicinity of Mars by the mid-2030s. <\/p>\n
News of the potential $100 million allocation is not a complete surprise, as Aviation Week reported late last month that NASA was seeking that amount in 2014 for an asteroid-retrieval program. <\/p>\n
Follow Mike Wall on Twitter@michaeldwall.Follow<\/a> us@Spacedotcom,FacebookorGoogle+. Originally published onSPACE.com. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Follow this link: <\/p>\n NASA to Get $100 Million for Asteroid-Capture Mission, Senator Says<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NASA will likely get $100 million next year to jump-start an audacious program to drag an asteroid into orbit around the moon for research and exploration purposes, U.S. Senator Bill Nelson says. Continue reading