NASA's New Asteroid Mission Could Save the Planet - Yahoo! News - 1 views
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obama president barack space 2025 asteroid rock NASA shuttles International Space Station
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President Barack Obama set a lofty next goal this week for Americans in space: Visiting an asteroid by 2025.
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But reaching a space rock in a mere 15 years is a daunting mission, and one that might also carry the ultimate safety of the planet on its shoulders.
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Scientists estimate there are about 100,000 asteroids and comets near Earth, but only about 20,000 are expected to pose any risk of impact.
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1,000 of them flying in orbits that could potentially threaten the Earth in the future, NASA scientists have said.
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"By 2025, we expect new spacecraft designed for long journeys to allow us to begin the first-ever crewed missions beyond the moon into deep space," Obama said. "We'll start we'll start by sending astronauts to an asteroid for the first time in history."
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"Robots have never discovered things," Grunsfeld said. "People have discovered things, using robots."