THEY'RE KIDDING, RIGHT?
An article in our local paper the other day said that Obama has put $100 million planning money in his 2014 budget to "lasso a small asteroid and park it near the moon for astronauts to explore." Further, "Last year the Keck Institute for Space Studies proposed a similar mission for NASA with a price tag of $2.6 billion. There is no cost estimate for the space agency's version." Well, I'll just bet there isn't.
The ideal asteroid would weigh 500 tons and be 25 feet across. This would be done in 2019, and astronauts would use it for spacewalking exploration in 2021.
More: "... once a suitable rock is found it would be captured with the space equivalent of a 'baggie with a drawstring.' You bag it. You attach the solar propulsion module to de-spin it and bring it back to where you want it."
Well. This appeared so close to April Fool's Day that I thought surely it was a hoax. But there is actually a Keck Institute for Space Studies and they actually are studying the feasibility of this.
Did our $17 trillion national debt disappear and I wasn't told? Are they really not cutting back on government services and threatening to cut Social Security benefits? Are we as a country now back on solid financial footing so we can go play in space?
Hallelujah!
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