NASA head views progress on asteroid lasso mission

Associated Press (science) ^ | 05/23/13 | ALICIA CHANG

[oxcart]

PASADENA, Calif. (AP)

[DoughtyOne]

Nothing say space inspiration like asteroid lasso.

[Red Badger]

What could possibly go wrong?...........

[Izzy Dunne]

NASA is under White House orders to fly humans to an asteroid as a stepping stone to Mars.

How come Sweet Home Al" Obama knows all about space and asteroids and stuff but he doesn't know about year-old IRS attack plans until he hears it on da nooz?

[Paladin2]

NASA needs to lasso Mecca and Qom.

[eggman]

The next great mission. We landed on the moon over 40 years ago and now we're going to an asteroid.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

A Zimbabwean space mission?

[dsrtsage]

Are asteroids made out of other stuff than everything else is mad of?

[Resolute Conservative]

They told Muslims about a mission to an “asteroid” and a lot of them volunteered because they thought they were talking about hemorrhoids.

[ScottinVA]

Oh, please.

How about we lasso illegals jumping our borders and terrorists trying to blow up our cities instead?

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I thought NASA was in charge of Moslem outreach now?

[Bratch]

Call George Bailey.

He has a background for this type of undertaking.

[ScottinVA]

That's just....

[ScottinVA]

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

“Are asteroids made out of other stuff than everything else is mad of?”

The main thing is that the stuff is “up there” already. Some of it could be useful for large space missions. That could save a lot of money.

[njslim]

Yes - Green Cheese ..........

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

There is a very good reason to investigate asteroids: because some of them are loaded with extremely valuable metals. One in particular, a Manhattan sized rock called 433 Eros, is believed to contain more platinum group metals than the entire crust of Earth.

Importantly, it is not a case of these metals being very expensive, but of being able to get them in quantity at any price.

[American in Israel]

Yes, asteroids are made up of universal chemical building blocks. For example some are iron, some are Hydrogen Cyanide ice.

Would be bad to lasso the wrong one, specially bad if it crashed. The iron ones would leave a big hole, the cyuranic acid types would poison the planet.

But only for oxygen breathers...

[Dallas59]

This article is racist. Where are the Muslims involved?

[familyop]

That’s a good idea. ;-)