[meteorite-list] Obama Seeks $17.7 Billion for NASA to Lasso Asteroid, Explore Space

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.space.com/20605-nasa-budget-asteroid-lasso-2014.html

Obama Seeks $17.7 Billion for NASA to Lasso Asteroid, Explore Space
by Tariq Malik
space.com
10 April 2013 

NASA unveiled a $17.7 billion spending plan for 2014 today (April 10) 
that continues major ongoing space exploration projects, while including 
funds to kick-start an audacious new mission to capture a small asteroid 
and park it near the moon so astronauts can explore it by 2025.

The proposed NASA budget is part of President Barack Obama's 2014 federal 
budget request and would restore the U.S. space agency's funding back near 
its 2012 levels. The request is about $50 million less than NASA's last 
budget in 2012, but would restore deep cuts from sequestration, leaving 
the agency with a roughly $1 billion increase from the $16.6 billion 
spending bill the agency received for 2013.

"We are developing a first-ever mission to identify, capture and relocate 
and asteroid," NASA chief Charles Bolden said in a statement. "This mission 
represents an unprecedented technological feat that will lead to new 
scientific discoveries and technological capabilities and help protect our 
home planet. This asteroid initiative brings together the best of NASA's 
science, technology and human exploration efforts to achieve the president's 
goal of sending humans to an asteroid by 2025."

How to catch an asteroid

NASA's 2014 budget sets aside a $78 million down payment for the 
asteroid-capture mission, as well as additional funds to search for the 
candidate space rock for the initial rendezvous and capture, bringing the 
total funding for the project to about $105 million in 2014.

In all, NASA could spend up to $2.6 billion on the asteroid-capture 
mission through 2025, according to a study conducted by scientists with 
Caltech's Keck Institute for Space Studies in Pasadena last year. That 
study reviewed the feasibility of robotically capturing a 500-ton asteroid 
about 23 feet (7 meters) wide and placing it in orbit near the moon by 
2025.

Bolden said NASA's new mega-rocket, the Space Launch System, and 
its Orion deep-space capsule would be used for the manned portions of 
the asteroid capture mission. The  agency will also "develop new technologies 
like solar electric propulsion and laser communications -- all critical 
components of deep space exploration."

The Space Launch System and Orion capsule are part of NASA's Exploration 
Systems division, which is funded at $2.7 billion in 2014 in the new budget, 
down from $3 billion in 2012.

In addition to the asteroid mission, NASA's 2014 budget includes continued 
funding for the International Space Station, as well as increased support 
for private space taxis, which the space agency plans to rely on to launch 
American astronauts to the space station now that its shuttle fleet is 
retired. Commercial spaceflight funding in 2014 is pegged at $821.4 million, 
just over twice the amount received in 2012.

Planetary science, astrophysics and Earth

NASA's planetary science projects, which took a significant 
funding hit last year, would stay at a $1.2 billion level in 2014 (down 
from $1.5 billion in 2012) under the new budget request. Astrophysics 
funding would dip slightly to $642.3 million (down from $648.4 million 
in 2012).

Bolden said the planetary science budget will allow NASA to 
continue operating its many spacecraft exploring planets across the solar 
system, including the flagship Mars rover Curiosity and its smaller, older 
cousin Opportunity. Future Mars missions, such as the Maven orbiter launching 
later this year, new Insight Mars lander launching in 2016 and next Mars 
rover launching in 2020 will also be funded, he added.

Earth science and space weather funding, however, would rise in 2014 in the 
new budget, with NASA seeking $1.84 billion for Earth science missions (up 
from $1.75 billion) to revamp the agency's long-lived Landsat Earth-monitoring 
satellite constellation and develop new climate sensors. The space agency's 
Heliosphysics division, which overseas space weather and sun-monitoring 
missions, would rise to $653.7 million in 2014, up from $644.9 million last 
year.

NASA's next major space observatory, the $8.8 billion James Webb Space 
Telescope, will continue under the 2014 budget request, receiving about 
$658.2 million. The observatory is due to launch in 2018 and serve as the 
successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, which will also receive continued 
funding in the 2014 request.