How NASA Would Wrangle An Asteroid [Video]
The agency released an Armageddon-style video to explain
New telescope technology is helping scientists better detect asteroids, but what happens after we find them?
One of NASA’s goals has been to latch astronauts onto space rocks and take samples for studying, and the agency has just released a rough video-sketch of a plan for how they’d do it. Using the Orion spacecraft, a team could launch from Earth, pick up speed by whipping around the moon, and attach to an asteroid in about nine days. After that, they could dig inside, take a sample, and launch back, once again making a pitstop in the moon’s orbit for speed.
The plan is subject to change, and could end up being a lot different from what you see in the video here, but it’s cool to think about. Although it doesn’t quite solve that one issue with asteroids.