NASA plans to tow asteroid into Earth's orbit for astronauts to explore

New York, Apr 6 (ANI): President Barack Obama and NASA are planning for a robotic spaceship to lasso a small asteroid and park it near the moon.

The US president is proposing to spend an initial 100 million dollars to explore it in 2021, the New York Daily News reported.

US Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), a former astronaut, revealed the "audacious" plan Friday after meeting with NASA scientists.

"It really is a clever concept," Nelson said in Orlando.

Obama will place the funding for the mission in the 2014 budget that he'll propose next week.

The money will be used to plan the mission and identify a suitable asteroid to explore - ideally, one that is 25-feet wide and weighs about 500 tons.

As now envisioned by NASA, the mission would unfold in two phases.

In 2019, the robotic spaceship would lasso the asteroid and move it toward earth.

Then, in 2021, a "new monster rocket" topped by a NASA Orion space capsule - like an Apollo command module, only bigger - would launch astronauts to land on the asteroid and poke around.

Nelson said the entire project would help NASA develop the capability to nudge away a dangerous asteroid if one was hurtling toward. (ANI)