NASA has received over 400 proposals from various private companies, non-profit organizations, and international organizations after its call for new ideas to proceed with its ambitious plan of capturing asteroids, as reported by the Huffington Post.
The space agency officials announced on July 26 that they will start reviewing the proposals received beginning next month and will announce the shortlisted proposals in a press release in September. They have requested for proposals on June 18 after presenting their Asteroid Initiative last April.
"We are really excited about the overwhelming response," NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver told reporters at the NewSpace 2013 conference. He also described the ideas as "overwhelmingly positive."
The original plan of the asteroid capture mission was to deploy a robotic spacecraft to the asteroid, capture it using a space lasso and pull it near the moon so that the astronauts can explore it. This grand plan was part of President Obama’s goal of sending a manned mission to a near-Earth asteroid by 2025 and a manned mission to Mars in 2030s. The space agency also introduced the Asteroid Grand Challenge on June 18 which aims to identify the asteroids that pose threats to Earth and prepare for its potential impacts.
The Congress is still debating on which mission the agency should prioritize, suggesting choosing only one between the asteroid mission and the moon mission. However, Garver said that they couldn’t make one choice as the two are related to each other. He clarified though that they are focusing more on sustainable lunar activity.
The asteroid capture mission request for information is just one of the three requests NASA has made. The agency called for the private space industry to study the possibility of commercial moon landing on July 2. Two weeks later, they offered their services to private spaceflight companies who would like to get the opportunity to use their expertise.
In case you are curious on how NASA plans to capture the asteroid, you may watch this video.
