Human Asteroid Mission in the Planning for Late Next Decade?

A fleet of unmanned spacecraft are readied by the United States, the Europeans, Russians, Chinese, and Indians to go to the Moon in the next several months but, quietly, some scientists and engineers are looking at the possibility of astronauts making the first trek to a New World beyond --- asteroids.

The Near Earth Asteroids (NEOs) make interesting destinations for human astronauts outside of the immediate earth's orbit late in the next decade as the resource with a market value far beyond many Earth dwellers wildest dreams.

Asteroids are "literally gold mines in the sky" wealth of resources, from water ice and other volatiles to platinum-group metals, says Dan Durda, a planetary scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado.

Many scientists and engineers are beginning to realize new possibilities with human exploration of asteroids and interplanetary travel. "By sending humans to an asteroid, not only can researchers do some geological prospecting on the scene but its a great way to prepare yourself and hardware for leaving on an interplanetary voyage, " says former astronaut Thomas Jones.

New robot probes to asteroids will launch in 2007 and others in the planning. A human mission could come about in the next two decades.