THE HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT BLOG: From the Space Shuttle to Beyond: NASA's New Take On The Asteroid Initiative

Thursday, August 22, 2013

NASA's New Take On The Asteroid Initiative

Computer animation depicting an Orion vehicle about to dock with the asteroid retrieval spacecraft.

NASA

Check out these new illustrations plus a video depicting the asteroid retrieval mission that NASA is planning to undertake about a decade from now. Funding for this endeavor has yet to be secured, but this flight promises to be an intriguing mission (even if it's still not on the same level as setting foot on the Moon once more, or traveling to a Near-Earth Object that is in its natural, more distant orbit) if it actually gets off the ground.

Computer animation depicting an Orion vehicle flying past the Moon as it heads for the asteroid retrieval spacecraft.

Computer animation depicting an Orion vehicle flying past the Moon as it heads for the asteroid retrieval spacecraft.

NASA

Computer animation depicting an astronaut exiting the Orion vehicle to head to the captured asteroid.

NASA

Computer animation depicting two spacewalking astronauts about to extract samples from the captured asteroid.

NASA

Computer animation depicting a spacewalking astronaut extracting samples from the captured asteroid.

NASA

Thursday, August 22, 2013

NASA's New Take On The Asteroid Initiative

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