 NASA has received around 400 submissions for its Asteroid Grand Challenge and related asteroid projects, including ideas for better identifying rogue space rocks posing a threat to Earth and proposals for snaring one and hauling it into orbit around the moon for study. The space agency kicked off its Asteroid Grand Challenge on June 18 to solicit ideas for identifying, tracking, and defending the Earth from potential asteroid threats while also asking for proposals for its proposed asteroid-retrieval mission. About a third of the 400 asteroid-related proposals NASA has received thus far relate to the threat-detection project, with the rest pertaining to capturing an asteroid, according to Space.com. A third asteroid-related project NASA is currently mulling is sending a manned mission to a near-Earth asteroid. "We are really excited about the overwhelming response," NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver was quoted as saying by Space.com. Garver said the space agency "will review the submissions over the next month and plan to discuss the most promising ideas in a public workshop in September." NASA's asteroid initiatives dovetail with the efforts of several new private ventures, including Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries, which plan to someday send robotic spacecraft fleets to near-Earth asteroids to mine them for water, precious and rare metals, and other resources. Those companies and other private space firms have praised NASA for its focus on asteroid exploration, which includes apportioning $105 million for an asteroid-retrieval mission as part of the agency's 2014 budget and the commencement of training astronauts for a crewed asteroid mission. The solicitation of ideas for such projects from industry, academia, and the public has also clearly been met with enthusiasm, as evidenced by the number of proposals for the Asteroid Grand Challenge and other initiatives rolling in. But some dissenters within the space agency and in the U.S. government have questioned whether NASA should be spending so much time and energy on asteroid-related projects. Earlier this year, it came to light that an internal battle over NASA's long-term goals for human spaceflight appears to be brewing within the space agency. Some influential people within NASA are pushing to return astronauts to the moon before attempting a manned mission to an asteroid or to Mars, another major NASA objective. Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of legislators in April introduced the RE-asserting American Leadership in Space Act, or REAL Space Act, legislation that would direct "NASA to develop a plan for returning to the moon and establishing a human presence there" while setting "a clear course for NASA toward human space flight while keeping within current budgetary constraints," according to the bill's proponents. But Garver, speaking to reporters at last week's NewSpace 2013 conference in San Jose, Calif., said NASA could work on both asteroid exploration and lunar exploration without compromising either endeavor. "We truly have an increased focus on sustainable lunar activity [but] new lunar exploration missions should aim for a sustained presence on the moon, and not just be a repeat of NASA's Apollo lunar landings," she was cited as saying by Space.com. In addition to its requests for ideas for its asteroid-exploration projects, NASA has also asked private industry to submit proposals for partnering on moon lander missions, the site noted. For more, check out NASA's visual sketch of how an asteroid-capture mission would play out in the video below.  via Science - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNGJHpGdIUeI60U0YMyFmgIW9vttxQ&url=http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2422505,00.asp | |||
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