NASA has raised a few eyebrows (and even the ire of some lawmakers) with its recently announced, far-flung plan to capture an asteroid and tow it into orbit around the moon, where it can be explored and sampled relatively easily from Earth. The fact that NASA aims to complete this asteroid snatch-and-grab mission by 2025 makes it seem all the more audacious. Yet, it turns out such a mission would be possible today, with current technology, for no less than 12 different asteroids. Scientists at the University of Strathclyde in the UK have published a new paper surveying the nearly 10,000 near-earth objects, or all comets and asteroids that come within 120 million miles of Earth, looking for those that can be redirected into Earth's orbit...
via The Verge - All Posts http://www.theverge.com/2013/8/12/4614148/asteroid-dozen-easily-retrievable-todays-tech-strathclyde
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