The plan to bring an asteroid to Earth

capturing a near-Earth asteroid, bringing it closer to our planet and using it as a base for future manned spaceflight missions. This is not something the scientists are imagining could be done some day off in the future. It is possible with the technology we have today and could be accomplished within a decade. A robotic probe could anchor to an asteroid with simple magnets or grab it with specialized claws. Alternatively, a large spacecraft could use its gravitational field to shift the orbit of a larger asteroid, sending it towards Earth. ‘Once you get over the initial reaction – You want to do what?! – it actually starts to seem like a reasonable idea says engineer John Brophy, who helped organize the workshop. In fact, many of these ideas have been on the drawing board for years as part of the NASA planetary defense program against large space-based objects that might threaten Earth. And there’s no shortage of potential targets. NASA estimates there are 19,500 asteroids at least 100 meters wide within 45 million kilometers of Earth. B Though rearranging the heavens may seem an excessive undertaking, the US mission has its merits. The US already has plans to send astronauts to a near-earth asteroid, a mission that would…