[meteorite-list] NASA Associate Administrator Statements on the Asteroid Initiative in the FY 2014 Budget Request

[Ron Baalke]

April 10, 2013

Michael Cabbage 
Headquarters, Washington 
202-358-1600 
mcabbage at nasa.gov 

RELEASE: 13-102

NASA ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR STATEMENTS ON THE ASTEROID INITIATIVE IN THE FY 2014 BUDGET REQUEST

WASHINGTON -- The following are statements from the associate 
administrators of NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission 
Directorate, Science Mission Directorate and Space Technology Mission 
Directorate on the administration's budget request for the 2014 
fiscal year. 

>From Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations 
William Gerstenmaier: 

"The mission to find, capture and redirect an asteroid robotically, 
and then visit it with astronauts to study it and return samples 
takes advantage of expertise across all of NASA in an integrated 
approach to exploration. Along with the scientific research and 
technology demonstrations happening around the clock on the 
International Space Station that are teaching us how humans can live 
and work in space, this mission will give us valuable experience we 
need in deep space operations to send humans to more distant 
destinations in the solar system, including Mars. Through the balance 
of this fiscal year, we will work to define an affordable mission 
architecture. In Fiscal Year 2014, NASA will begin developing and 
testing prototype capture mechanisms and concepts for crew 
interactions with the asteroid." 

>From Associate Administrator for Science John Grunsfeld: 

"The crucial first step in this endeavor is to enhance our ongoing 
efforts to identify and characterize near-Earth objects for 
scientific investigation and to find potentially hazardous asteroids 
and targets appropriate for capture. The capture mission will be a 
highly visible and significant collaboration of robotic and human 
exploration in translunar space." 

>From Associate Administrator for Space Technology Michael Gazarik: 

"This mission accelerates our technology development activities in 
high-powered solar electric propulsion. The ambitious mission to 
rendezvous, capture and redirect a small asteroid to Earth-moon space 
could not be accomplished without solar electric propulsion 
technology. This technology also will support the commercial 
telecommunications and satellite industries, and is an essential step 
toward future NASA human and robotic exploration forays into deep 
space." 

The NASA budget and supporting information are available at: 

http://www.nasa.gov/budget 

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