NASA has a plan for putting rock from asteroid in moon’s orbit

A future spacecraft will abscond with a boulder from an asteroid, illustrated here, and return it to lunar orbit where it will await a human rendezvous, NASA announced March 25.

NASA

By Christopher Crockett

March 25, 2015 at 5:46 pm

Okay, here’s the plan: In 2020, we’ll fly a probe to an asteroid, look for a boulder to steal, pluck it off the asteroid with robotic arms, try to deflect the asteroid using our spacecraft’s gravity, fly back home, deposit the boulder in orbit around the moon, and wait for humans to visit the space rock around 2025.

This is the concept NASA has selected for its Asteroid Redirect Mission, announced March 25 at a news conference. The plan is one of two that were under consideration for the mission.

The purpose of the mission is to test technologies and deep space rendezvous maneuvers deemed necessary for a manned mission to Mars. NASA hasn’t yet selected an asteroid to visit; they won’t make that decision until one year before launch.