Asteroids

There have also been studies into sending humans to the asteroids over the decades. More recently, serious thought has been given to making such journeys, possibly using Orion-class spacecraft. NASA has commenced a series of pioneer­ing simulations and evaluations for such a mission, which could be mounted towards the end of the 2020s. This work would be valuable for obvious scientific reasons: to gather a better understanding of these strange small worlds and to help plan both robotic and manned missions to Mars. If flown before manned flights to the Red Planet, these asteroid missions would be the farthest humans have ventured into space, with a proposed 1 yr round trip mission some 3 million miles

from Earth and a stay of up to 30 days at the chosen asteroid. Studies into working on the surface of these objects would prove invaluable if one is discov­ered to be on a colhsion course with Earth. Other reasons for visiting asteroids are similar to those for Mars, such as the potential for mining minerals or to use them as staging posts for expeditions to the outer reaches of the solar system.