NASA's New Asteroid Mission Could Save the Planet

[Allhallowsday]

NASA's New Asteroid Mission Could Save the Planet 
President Barack Obama set a lofty next goal this week for Americans in space: Visiting an asteroid by 2025. But reaching a space rock in a mere 15 years is a daunting mission, and one that might also carry the ultimate safety of the planet on its shoulders.

"It is probably the hardest thing we can do because the asteroid is not coming on a schedule," NASA chief Charles Bolden told reporters late Thursday after Obama announced his space vision.

And when a specific asteroid is eventually selected, the window to launch a spaceship toward it will be much less forgiving than the windows for NASA space shuttles bound for the International Space Station, Bolden said.

"The space station gives us five minutes," he explained. "I'm not sure what an asteroid gives us, but then it doesn't come again for a lifetime..."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20100416/sc_space/nasasnewasteroidmissioncouldsavetheplanet

[Jack]

The bold new mission for NASA unveiled by President Obama Thursday was ultimately aimed at sending humans to Mars in the mid-2030s.

I'll be 70 years old by then.    Oh well, I can tell the young whipper snappers about how back in my day, it was a big deal just to walk on the moon.

[Rev. Powell]

I'd rather go back to the Moon or to Mars, but I guess any space mission is a good mission.

[aaachuemm]

sounds too far from us !

[AndyC]

I'm always glad to hear plans to send real, live people somewhere other than low Earth orbit, even if the timeframe is too long. Seriously, it's been 50 years since a president set an ambitious goal in space travel and there was enough support to make it happen. Fifteen years isn't a goal, it's procrastination. Set a goal that far in the future, and a lot can happen in between, especially where the space program is concerned. They're never going to go anywhere unless somebody in charge develops a sense of urgency about it. It's been proven - if you're willing to do what's necessary, you can go from your first suborbital hop to landing on the moon in under ten years, with nowhere near the technology we have today.

Much as I'm glad the Cold War ended, I do miss the constant technological p**sing contest that made politicians care about stuff like this.