To the Moon and the Asteroids

NASA continues to develop it's strategy for exploring the Moon with robots and humans.

The need to effectively use space resources “has penetrated deeply in planning for NASA’s Lunar Precursor and Robotic Program,” said David Atkinson, Deputy Program Executive for the Lunar Precursor Robotic Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. “It could become a keystone of our future human exploration”, with use of lunar resources helping to enable the settlement of the Moon, he said.

Meanwhile, Leonard David also reports that NASA is considering using it's planned human lunar exploration vehicles to go beyond and visit one or more Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs).

In general, a human mission to an asteroid offers an opportunity to take lunar-capable hardware and extend its reach to deep-space much sooner than would development of a full-up Mars-capable spacecraft, advised former astronaut, Tom Jones, a veteran of four shuttle flights.

The asteroids should be a major goal of our exploration efforts, given their potential threat of collision with Earth and also their tremendous potential to provide resources for future generations.