NASA’s asteroid redirect mission is redirected
MAR 26, 2015
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.028742
Science : NASA announced yesterday that it would change the scope of its robotic mission to redirect an asteroid. Rather than bag a small asteroid in its entirety, a spacecraft would land on the surface of a larger asteroid and snatch a boulder. The mission, which is penciled in for a 2020 launch and is expected to cost $1.25 billion, has two main goals. The first is to test the feasibility of redirecting an Earth-threatening asteroid using the spacecraft’s own gravity. The second goal is to test technologies for a manned mission to Mars by bringing the boulder closer to Earth and having astronauts visit it using NASA’s new Orion spacecraft.
© 2015 American Institute of Physics
