NASA Wants $100 Million to Catch a Near-Earth Asteroid: What the 2014 Budget Includes

How much does it take to catch an asteroid? About $100 million, according to NASA's 2014 fiscal budget request. The proposal would snatch a small, near-Earth asteroid from space and then relocate it near the moon, where it could then be studied close-up by NASA and potentially be visited by astronauts.

The mission itself was suggested last year by the Keck Institute for Space Studies at the California Institute of Technology. The general idea would be to grab an asteroid that's about 23 feet long with a robotic probe. The probe would then position the asteroid at the second Earth-Moon Lagrange point, where the vagaries of gravity and inertia would keep the space object in a roughly consistent location.

The probe would first be launched into space using an existing launch vehicle, such as an Atlas V rocket. It would then travel to the selected asteroid using one of a variety of methods. For example it could slingshot around the moon in order to gather a velocity boost out of the Earth-Moon system, according to Arstechnica.

Yet actually finding what asteroid to choose would be the hardest part. It would have to be much smaller than the threatening, near-Earth objects that are currently being sought. This means that any data that has actually found the type of asteroid that the project would need has probably been ignored. In addition to size, scientists would also have to take makeup and spin into account; the asteroid would also need to be a heliocentric orbit that will return to Earth's vicinity in the 2020s, allowing researchers time to develop the mission.

If you're expecting the asteroid retrieval to be quick, though, you're bound to be disappointed. Because of the low available thrust and the high amounts of mass involved, it could take as much as 10 years to move the asteroid to a suitable location.

That said, the mission could allow scientists to get a close look at an asteroid and better understand its properties. It could also allow them to gain enough information to develop a way to push a threatening asteroid off course in its collision with Earth--should it ever become necessary.