Experts argue that such a trip could take several months longer than the expedition to the moon. And it would be much more dangerous. “It’s really uneasiest thing we can do,” said NASA’s director, Charles Bolden.

Expedition to the asteroid could be a rehearsal of the possible mission to Mars and could help uncover the secrets of how the formation of our solar system. And it could provide mankind know-how to implement something that took place just a few heroes in films with a square chin: save Earth from an asteroid collision with the murderous.

Barack Obama outlined a new direction of NASA last Thursday during a visit to Kennedy Space Center. “We expect that by 2025 we will have a new spacecraft designed for long journeys, which would allow us to launch the first manned missions beyond the moon to deep space,” said the American president. “For the first time in history, let’s send astronauts to an asteroid,” he added.

The day the president announced the goal, NASA’s scientific group composed of scientists, engineers and former astronauts schůzovala in Boston, where she worked on a plan to protect Earth from collision with an asteroid or comet.

NASA in relative proximity to Earth has found nearly 7,000 objects that cross more than a few meters. Of these, 1111 are “potentially hazardous asteroids. Objects larger than a mile fall to Earth every few hundred thousand years. Scientists believe that dinosaurs destroyed 65 million years ago an asteroid the size of more than ten kilometers.

Target Landing “rock” in diameter under 400 m

Experts have for the first trip into the distant universe identification of a specific asteroid, but there are dozens of hot candidates, most of which orbits the Earth at a distance of more than eight million miles. This is twenty times the distance to the Moon from Earth is on average about 385 thousand kilometers.

Most of the candidate landing measure across less than 400 meters. Journey to the asteroid could provide clues to how our solar system, asteroids because they are essentially fossils 4.6 billion years old. At that time the planets formed, explains Don Yeomans, manager of NASA’s research program in the near-Earth objects.

While Apollo 11 took the 1969 trip to the moon and back eight days, two-way mission to an asteroid near Earth would take at least 200 days. This would require new propulsion technology and life support. And it would be risky. Emergency interruption of the mission to get people into space imprisoned for several weeks.

Landing in a state of weightlessness

Even if an asteroid was probably farther away than the moon, the journey would have consumed less fuel and be cheaper, because the asteroid has a significant gravity. The rocket that transported astronauts home, would not need fuel for their detachment from the asteroid’s gravitational forces.

On the other hand, lack of attractiveness of the spacecraft could safely land on an asteroid. Would be reflected from its surface. She had, therefore, raise the point at the asteroid and the astronauts would have to descend to the surface. There would then need a combination of nozzles, spikes or nets, so they can move without inadvertently odpíchli from the asteroid and sailed away, “said Yeomans.” They will have to fasten down somehow, “he added.” At every step would be detonated in cosmos. ”

Photo: NASA profimedia.cz