Artist Rendering of Proposed Asteroid Capture

NASA's FY2014 budget proposal includes a plan to robotically capture a small near-Earth asteroid and redirect it safely to a stable orbit in the Earth-moon system where astronauts can visit and explore it.

The mission itself wouldn't be easy. First, the researchers would have to actually find an asteroid that was suitable for capture. 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 need to possess a heliocentric orbit that will return to Earth's vicinity in the 2020s, allowing researchers time to develop the mission.

After finding the asteroid, the scientists would launch a probe into space with an existing launch vehicle, such as an Atlas V rocket. It would then travel to the asteroid and snag it before transporting it to the second Earth-Moon Lagrange point, where the vagaries of gravity and inertia would keep the space object at a roughly consistent position, according to Arstechnica. This would allow researchers to examine the asteroid and even conduct space walks around it.

Performing these elements for the proposed asteroid initiative integrates the best of NASA's science, technology and human exploration capabilities and draws on the innovation of America's brightest scientists and engineers. It uses current and developing capabilities to find both large asteroids that pose a hazard to Earth and small asteroids that could be candidates for the initiative, accelerates our technology development activities in high-powered solar electric propulsion and takes advantage of hard work on the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft, helping to "keep NASA on target to reach the President's goal of sending humans to Mars in the 2030s," according to the agency.