Tags: NASA, Asteroid, Prototype,
Publication: NationalGeographic.com
Publication Date: 04/16/2013

Watch the video of how NASA envisions to capture an asteroid and bring it to orbit. Image credit: NASA

NASA has unveiled its plans to develop the technology and infrastructure to retrieve asteroids for human research. The process would start with identifying an asteroid in deep space, robotically capturing it and transporting it into our planetary region, and then set it into orbit around the moon for astronauts to study it and, possibly for space entrepreneurs to mine.

The project fits into the goals the Obama administration has set for NASA, which include learning how to deviate asteroids heading toward the Earth, finding a destination to practice for a manned trip to Mars, and providing opportunities for space investors.

NASA has just started developing this idea and plans to set up a meeting this summer to work out all the details of the mission. So far, the agency has released a video with a prototype of how something like this could be accomplished.

NASA expects to select an asteroid by 2016, capture it by 2019 and have the first astronauts study the asteroid in orbit by 2021.

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