The US space agency is training the astronauts to land on an asteroid to explore its surface, search for minerals and even learn the skills they may need to destroy it should one pose a threat to the Earth, 'The Daily Telegraph' reported.
NASA plans to send the team to make contact with an asteroid up to three million miles away by the late 2020s; it would take them far beyond the current limit of the Moon, which is 239,000 miles from Earth.
Travelling at around 50,000 miles per hour around the Sun with almost non-existent gravity due to their small size, landing safely on these space rocks will present a significant challenge.
But, Major Tim Peake, a British astronaut with the European Space Agency, who is also being trained for the asteroid mission, said: "With the technology we have available and are developing today, an asteroid mission of up to a year is definitely achievable."
He added: "Asteroids are interesting on a number of different levels. Nasa is focused on the science you can achieve as asteroids are essentially a historical record of billions of years of universe where we can take samples from.
"These objects are also coming extremely close to Earth all the time, but we rarely hear about it. With enough warning we would probably send a robotic mission to deflect an asteroid, but if something is spotted late... We may have to look at manned missions to deflect it.
"That is when the skills we are learning about how to work on an asteroid could be useful." (MORE)
