NASA on Tuesday unveiled a multipurpose initiative to find, track and potentially relocate asteroids that may be on a collision course with Earth. The project doubles as a steppingstone toward NASAs next human space exploration project which entails capturing a small asteroid, moving it into an orbit around the moon and sending a crew of astronauts to visit it by 2021. <\/p>\n
Top 10 Ways to Stop an Asteroid <\/p>\n
This Grand Challenge is focused on detecting and characterizing asteroids and learning how to deal with potential threats, NASAs deputy administrator Lori Garver said in a statement. <\/p>\n
The agency is looking for partners of all kinds industrial, educational, even crowdsourcing. <\/p>\n
In its solicitation for proposals issued Tuesday, NASA outlined six areas of interest. They include: <\/p>\n
PHOTOS: Russian Meteor Strike Aftermath <\/p>\n
NASA wants to expand upon current (near-Earth asteroid) observation efforts through the use of innovative methods such as crowd sourcing, prizes and challenges, citizen science, and public-private partnerships to increase the resources for tackling the planetary defense problem and to broaden participation, the agency wrote in its solicitation. <\/p>\n
Proposals are due July 18. <\/p>\n
Image credit: NASA <\/p>\n
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NASA Stepping Up Hunt for Scary Asteroids<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NASA on Tuesday unveiled a multipurpose initiative to find, track and potentially relocate asteroids that may be on a collision course with Earth. The project doubles as a steppingstone toward NASAs next human space exploration project which entails capturing a small asteroid, moving it into an orbit around the moon and sending a crew of astronauts to visit it by 2021. Top 10 Ways to Stop an Asteroid This Grand Challenge is focused on detecting and characterizing asteroids and learning how to deal with potential threats, NASAs deputy administrator Lori Garver said in a statement Continue reading