It's Buzz Lightyear meets
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is aiming to "lasso" a 500-ton asteroid in the next decade and relocate it to a spot firmly in orbit of the moon. The hope is to one day use the asteroid - which is currently not available, as far as we know, but presumably will be - as a base of operations for further exploration of not only the moon, but the more exciting rock known as Mars. The mission would require substantial political backing (for good or ill).
What does this all mean for the hoped-for private sector exploration
of space? A great deal, apparently. New Hampshire's WMUR-TV reports:
The mission could open the door for private entrepreneurs like James Cameron and the founders of Google, who recently announced they want to mine platinum and gold from asteroids flying by Earth.
"Such an achievement has the potential to inspire a nation," reads
a feasibility study of the $2.6 billion plan furnished by the Keck Institute for Space Studies. "It would be mankind's first attempt at modifying the heavens to enable the permanent settlement of humans in space."
Via WMUR-TV and NBC