NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission.

[Astra.]

Wonders never cease to amaze with NASA - apologies if it's been posted here before

NASA has identified multiple candidate asteroids and continues the search for one that could be redirected to near the moon in the 2020s. Since the announcement of the Asteroid Initiative in 2013, NASA’s Near-Earth Object Observation Program has catalogued more than 1,000 new near-Earth asteroids discovered by various search teams. Of those identified so far, four could be good candidates for ARM. Scientists anticipate many more will be discovered over the next few years, and NASA will study their velocity, orbit, size and spin before deciding on the target asteroid for the ARM mission.

The Asteroid Redirect Mission is one part of NASA’s Asteroid Initiative. The initiative also includes an Asteroid Grand Challenge, designed to accelerate NASA’s efforts to locate potentially hazardous asteroids through non-traditional collaborations and partnerships. The challenge could also help identify viable candidates for ARM.

http://www.nasa.gov/...edirect-mission

Edited May 25, 2015 by Astra-

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Wonders never cease to amaze with NASA - apologies if it's been posted here before

There are several topics on this proposed mission, but this is new information

[MissJatti]

What if the redirected asteroid, comes directly to Earth

[Waspie_Dwarf]

What if the redirected asteroid, comes directly to Earth

It won't. NASA. Know what they are doing.

Even if the impossible (or at least extraordinarily improbable) happened there will just be a brilliant meteor as a tiny rock burns up completely in the Earth's atmosphere.

NASA are picking a target small enough that it can't possibly survive entering the Earth'a atmosphere.

Like I said, NASA know what they are doing.

[Zalmoxis]

Asteroids are cool I guess. Blowing them up and turning them into ships sounds awesome though. Thanks for the link.

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Blowing them up and turning them into ships sounds awesome though.

NASA is not planning to either blow up an asteroid or turn one into a spaceship.