NASA's Plan to Lasso an Asteroid is Making Progress
NASA
Agency has a prototype of the ion propulsion engine, and they'd like to test it next year.
Quick update on NASA's amazing plan to lasso an asteroid: they're making progress on the ion propulsion engine they'll need for the mission, one month after president Obama proposed giving NASA $100 mission to get this thing going.
So far, NASA has a prototype of the ion propulsion engine, and they'd like to test it next year. The engine would be much more efficient than other fuel sources, making it just the thing we need to get to Mars, in theory.
If you're asking yourself why NASA would want to lasso an asteroid in the first place (beyond the obvious headlines and bragging rights) the Associated Press has a good explanation:
"NASA is under White House orders to fly humans to an asteroid as a stepping stone to Mars. Instead of sending astronauts to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, as originally planned, the space agency came up with a quicker, cheaper idea: Haul the asteroid close to the moon and visit it there."