The American space agency NASA is seeking to define a human mission to an asteroid as a part of the Orion program development as first mentioned on this BLOG in November. The Orion program is a significant part of the the overarching Constellation program to extend human presence at the moon, on Mars and beyond.
A space trek to an asteroid could return samples from a targeted rock as well as serve to hone astronaut proficiency and test needed equipment for other space destinations like the moon, Mars, and the hundreds of asteroids in Near Earth Orbit.
Veteran shuttle and international space station astronaut Ed Lu has been considering similar missions to the asteroids for a number of years now primarily to avoid Earth-asteroid collisions. Lu says [audio] that NASA is looking into use of Orion technology earlier than 2020 which is suggestive of a human mission to an asteroid prior to a lunar surface mission.
A human voyage to an asteroid would not only trial run Orion equipment -- particularly putting high-speed heat shield technology through its paces -- but also could become part of the test program for lunar landings, Lu told Space.com's Leonard David this week.
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