Obama Proposes Mission to a Near Earth Asteroid

Forgoing the moon, and possibly a mission to Mars, the Obama administration is proposing that NASA launches a manned mission to an asteroid.

A trip out to the middle of our solar system could take up to 6 months, and possible more.  A manned mission will need to bring along a considerable about of life support equipment to make it out that far.  The spacecraft will also need just a much shielding as a craft used for a Mars Mission.

There are many risks in simply plopping down on any old asteroid. The object may not be stable geologically, and there could also be many smaller pieces of space rock orbiting the asteroid that could cause damage to the spacecraft, even a death.

Asteroids have very little gravitational pull and astronauts will not be able the make "one small step for man" once they land there. They will likely be floating tethered to their landing craft, and may slowly drift toward the asteroid as they step off.

The scientific payoffs could be huge.  Scientists could learn about the early composition of the planets.  And the economic payoff could someday be huge if we were ever able to mine the piece of space rock.  One average sized asteroid holds trillions of dollars worth of metal.