It has been said that danger and opportunity are one in the same, a creed which NASA appears to have taken to heart. Within the next decade or so, the organization may "capture" one of the many freely floating rocks nearby Earth and trap it in a high lunar orbit, according to a recent study. As a first step in further space exploration, the Keck Institute for Space Studies expects the potential mission to refine humanity's space exploration capabilities and create new industries.
"Extraction of propellants, bulk shielding and life support fluids from this first captured asteroid could jump-start an entire space-based industry. Our space capabilities would have finally caught up with the speculative attractions of using space resources in situ," explains the team.
Space.com notes that the initiative will reportedly cost $2.6 billion and target a 25-foot-wide asteroid in 2025.
The Keck researchers add, "Experience gained via human expeditions to the small returned NEA (near-earth asteroid) would transfer directly to follow-on international expeditions beyond the Earth-moon system: to other near-Earth asteroids, [the Mars moons] Phobos and Deimos, Mars and potentially someday the main asteroid belt."
In other asteroid news, NASA advises that a 275-meter-wide object will brush past the Earth tomorrow morning (via The Space Reporter).
Known as Apophis, the asteroid will approach the earth once again in 2029, and then 2036. NASA states, "Its likely that radar astrometry in 2013 will shrink the uncertainties sufficiently to completely rule out an impact in the 2030s. For all these reasons scientific interest in Apophis is acute and its very important to learn as much as we can about this object when it gets close enough for physical observations in late 2013 and early 2013."
Spectators will have the opportunity watch Apophis pass by using the Slooh Space Camera.
Manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office Don Yeomans states, "The refined orbital determination further reinforces that Apophis is an asteroid we can look to as an opportunity for exciting science and not something that should be feared. The public can follow along as we continue to study Apophis and other near-Earth objects by visiting us on our AsteroidWatch Web site and by following us on the @AsteroidWatch Twitter feed."