Friday, March 21, 2014

NASA is offering $6 million to help solve big questions facing asteroid capture mission


NASA is continuing to work on one of its most ambitious projects to date, and it is now offering money to companies, universities, and organizations to help find answers to the biggest technical hurdles that lie ahead. The mission itself sounds like it's ripped from the pages of a science-fiction novel — it calls for an unmanned vehicle to capture a small asteroid and tow it into the Moon's orbit, where it will be used for landing and training exercises by astronauts. The agency hopes that it will capture the asteroid in 2019 or 2020 in time for a manned mission in 2025 or later.


But first, there are a number of questions that need to be answered. And that's what today's call for proposals — known as a Broad Agency Announcement...


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