THEY鈥橰E obscure, small and airless: who鈥檇 want to visit an asteroid? NASA astronauts might, because taking a trip to some nearby space rocks could help them learn how to fly to Mars.
That鈥檚 the view of the to review NASA鈥檚 aims, said committee member Edward Crawley of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at a public meeting last week in Cocoa Beach, Florida. The idea is to send astronauts on progressively longer space trips 鈥� including visits to asteroids and fly-bys of Venus 鈥� to prepare for a landing on Mars.
The first mission would fly by the moon. Later missions would include rendezvousing with one or more of the many asteroids whose orbits bring them close to Earth. Asteroid missions would take several months each.
Advertisement
Later, astronauts could fly by Venus and Mars, and touch down on Mars鈥檚 moon Phobos, which is 27 kilometres across at its widest. Each of these missions would take more than a year. Although Crawley did not say when the first human visit to an asteroid might be, he said it could happen within six years of starting a project to accomplish this goal.
