NASA has recently announced that it plans to capture a boulder from the surface of a near-Earth asteroid and put it into a stable orbit around the moon during its 'Asteroid Redirect Mission' (ARM), which would then be further explored by the astronauts.
The mission would act as the testbed for exploring deep space including Mars as well.
The Space agency has also increased the detection of near-Earth Asteroids by 65 percent since the launch of its asteroid initiative three years ago.
Robert Lightfoot, NASA Associate Administrator, said that the option to retrieve a boulder from an asteroid would have a direct impact on planning for future human missions to deep space and begin a new era of spaceflight.
The specific asteroid selected for the mission would be announced no earlier than 2019. Before an asteroid was considered a valid candidate for the mission, scientists first determined its characteristics.
The three valid candidates identified for the mission so far were, Itokawa, Bennu and 2008 EV5.
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The ARM robotic spacecraft would test a number of capabilities needed for future human missions, throughout its mission, which includes, advanced Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP), a valuable capability that converts sunlight to electrical power through solar arrays and then uses the resulting power to propel charged atoms to move a spacecraft.
It would also test new trajectory and navigation techniques in deep space, working with the moon's gravity to place the asteroid in a stable lunar orbit called a distant retrograde orbit. This would be a suitable staging point for astronauts to rendezvous with a deep space habitat that would carry them to Mars.
NASA has also engaged the public in the hunt for these space rocks through the agency's Asteroid Grand Challenge activities, including prize competitions.