Asteroids, NASA and budget cuts

- BIG THINK, 9/10/2010 by Michio Kaku - Two Asteroids Buzzed the Earth This Week [9/5] --Should We Be Afraid?
- BIG THINK, 9/7-8/2010 by Michio Kaku - NASA Is Running Out of Money to Monitor Earth-Destroying Asteroids (Part 1 of 2) and (Part 2 of 2)

Plans for sending humans to visit an asteroid are heating up, with at least one company already scoping out the technological essentials for a deep space expedition within a decade, given the go-ahead. ∴ The asteroid space trek is seen as both scientifically valuable and as a dress rehearsal for a Mars mission, NASA officials have said. It could also hone ideas for planetary defense to guard Earth from a messy head-on clash with a space rock. ∴ Launching a manned asteroid mission by 2025 is NASA's new goal set by President Barack Obama, who announced the plan in April. The deep space mission would serve as a stepping stone to a crewed mission to Mars in the mid-2030s, he said. ∴ Lockheed Martin, which has been building NASA's Orion space capsule to replace the agency's retiring shuttle fleet, has already completed a study on how an asteroid mission might work. Read more at Fox News...