NASA has developed a plan to send a crew of astronauts to an Earth-approaching asteroid. This plan originated from a speech given by President Obama in 2010. The goal of the plan is to send astronauts to an asteroid before launching a crewed expedition to Mars.
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The original proposal by Obama, known as the Asteroid Redirect Mission, was not taken seriously by experts. Instead, Dr. Richard Binzel of MIT suggested a survey of Earth-approaching asteroids to identify potential threats to Earth.
However, the Asteroid Redirect Mission was discontinued when President Trump initiated the Artemis program, which aimed to send astronauts back to the moon and eventually to Mars. The Artemis program has been successful in its uncrewed mission around the moon, known as Artemis 1.
Under the Trump and Biden administrations, NASA has not neglected Earth-approaching asteroids. The DART Mission demonstrated the concept of diverting an asteroid on a collision course with Earth. NASA also has plans to launch the Near-Earth Object Surveyor telescope in the future to locate and study these asteroids.
The new plan involves using the SpaceX Starship to reach an Earth-approaching asteroid. The Starship is capable of carrying a large payload and has the potential for future missions to the moon and Mars. According to the NASA plan, a Starship would be launched into low Earth orbit in 2039, followed by a Dragon spacecraft with a crew of three. The crew would rendezvous with the asteroid, collect samples, and deploy robots before returning to Earth.
The mission is justified by the need to study Earth-approaching asteroids up close for a better understanding of their behavior and the possibility of diverting any potential threats. Additionally, asteroids and the moon are rich in resources that could support space-based industries and contribute to solving environmental and economic challenges on Earth.
Sending humans to an Earth-approaching asteroid using SpaceX technology represents a significant step in human space exploration and the utilization of space resources.
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