United States Space Agency (National Aeronautics and Space Administration - NASA) has identified three asteroids near the Earth that meets the criteria to be captured and explored. The three of 710 meter-sized asteroid will be captured and pulled into Moon's orbit in order to facilitate the astronauts explore.
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| A notional NASA concept of a solar-electric- powered spacecraft, designed to capture a small near-Earth asteroid and relocate it safely close to the Earth-moon system so astronauts can explore it. (Picture from: http://www.space.com/) |
NASA plans to catch a 7 meter wide space rock that by using the robotic space lasso. Once the asteroid was transferred to a stable orbit around the Moon, the astronauts will visit in 2021 using NASA's Orion space capsule and the giant Space Launch System mega-rocket.
Paul Chodas, a senior scientist at NASA's Near Earth Object Program, said that the three asteroids was selected from 14 candidates. "If everything goes well, all three would be a valid candidate who could be a certified target," he said on Friday, September 13, 2013.
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| In this conceptual image, the two-person crew uses a translation boom to travel from the Orion spacecraft to the captured asteroid during a spacewalk. Image released Aug. 22, 2013. (Picture from: http://www.space.com/) |
Chodas states, that the asteroids exploration mission will be bright prospect because NASA could find more than five candidates asteroid per year. The astronauts planned to begin exploring the asteroid in 2025.
Asteroid exploration mission is one of the goals of space exploration, that announced by President Barack Obama in 2010. Based on the Keck Institute's study, NASA's 2014 budget plan sets aside U.S. $ 100 million to jump-start the work on the asteroid mission, though the entire project could cost up to $2.6 billion. *** [EKA | FROM VARIOUS SOURCES | SPACE | LIVESCIENCE | MAHARDIKA SATRIA HADI | KORAN TEMPO 4345]
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NASA's Plan to Haul an Asteroid:
