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NASA plan to capture asteroid to use as base for future Mars mission

4,794 views · Published 26 January 2013 · 0:42 · Indexed 27 October 2026

Channel: News Direct · 2013 · News & Politics

The White House's Office of Science and technology is considering a proposal by NASA to capture a small asteroid near earth for use as a space station that would serve as a staging ground for future deep space missions.
The plan draws from a study by the Keck Institute for Space Studies at the California Institute of Technology reported in April. The Caltech study found that a 500,000kg near-earth asteroid could be captured and transferred to a lunar orbit by 2025 for US$2.65 billion.
An "asteroid capture capsule" would be launched on an Atlas V rocket and deploy a 15-meter (50-foot) diameter "capture bag" that would lasso the satellite. The capsule would then fire four Xenon-fueled 10kw Hall thrusters, using an estimated 300kg of propellant, to bring the asteroid under control.
Using solar power, the capsule would tow the asteroid into a moon or lunar orbit. The captured asteroid could then be used as a staging base for future missions to Mars and beyond. Missions launched from the asteroid/satellite would consume significantly less fuel than missions launched from the earth or the moon, which require substantially more fuel to overcome the earth or moon's gravitational pull. SOURCE: The Australian, Popular Mechanics, California Institute of Technology

NASA plan to capture asteroid to use as base for future Mars mission

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