NASA Report Details Expert Team Investigation of Asteroid Redirect Mission “A new report chartered by NASA provides input to important areas of robotic mission requirements development and explores the science benefits and potential knowledge gain from the agency’s Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM). NASA will visit an asteroid boulder during the Proving Ground phase of its journey to Mars in cislunar space the volume of space around the moon featuring multiple […]

Asteroid Redirect Mission FAST Draft Report Available for Public Comment “The Formulation Assessment and Support Team (FAST) for the Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) was a two-month effort that NASA chartered to provide timely inputs for mission requirement formulation in support of the Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission (ARRM) Requirements Closure Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM) in mid-December of 2015. Following the ARM FAST’s two-month study with 18 participants, NASA has released a […]

NASA Selects Top 96 Asteroid Initiative Ideas “NASA has chosen 96 ideas it regards as most promising from more than 400 submitted in response to its June request for information (RFI) about protecting Earth from asteroids and finding an asteroid humans can explore.” – Bolden’s Confusing Asteroid Mission Rationale, earlier post

NASA Releases New Imagery of Asteroid Mission [Watch], NASA “NASA released Thursday new photos and video animations depicting the agency’s planned mission to find, capture, redirect, and study a near-Earth asteroid. The images depict crew operations including the Orion spacecraft’s trip to and rendezvous with the relocated asteroid, as well as astronauts maneuvering through a spacewalk to collect samples from the asteroid.” Marc’s note: So while Congress refuses to fund […]

NASA Completes First Internal Review of Concepts for Asteroid Redirect Mission, NASA “In preparation for fiscal year 2014, a mission formulation review on Tuesday brought together NASA leaders from across the country to examine internal studies proposing multiple concepts and alternatives for each phase of the asteroid mission. The review assessed technical and programmatic aspects of the mission. “At this meeting, we engaged in the critically important work of examining […]

NASA Response to NASA Advisory Council Recommendations from April 2013 (Includes PDF), NASA “Dear. Sr. Squyres: Enclosed are NASA’s responses to the nine recommendations from the NASA Advisory Council meeting held April 24-25, 2013, at NASA Headquarters. Please do not hesitate to contact me if the Council would like further background on the responses. I appreciate the Council’s thoughtful consideration leading to the recommendations and welcome its continued findings, recommendations, […]

The Onion Predicts Real Life: Republicans Block NASA’s Asteroid Plan, Mother Jones “President Obama’s plan to have NASA lasso an asteroid, tow it toward Earth, place it into the moon’s orbit, and claim the space rock for the United States of America has hit a congressional snag. The New York Times reports:… …In a way, the Times got scooped on this story. By the Onion. More than two years ago:…” […]