Preps for mission to land on asteroid

SOCORRO, N.M. (KRQE) - The scare in Russia after a meteor burst in the air Friday, injuring nearly a thousand people, was like a blockbuster movie come to life.

It has put the spotlight on research scientists are working on right here in New Mexico. Some of it might have you thinking those movies weren't so far off after all.

So, what are they working on? Let's just say Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck would be amazed.

A New Mexico Tech researcher says, in the same way the world watched in awe as the first man landed on the moon decades ago, a new era of space travel is in sight that will once again change people's perception of what's possible.

Between a meteor exploding over Russia with a flash of light and a sonic boom, then an asteroid passing closer to Earth than the moon, much of the news Friday was out of this world—like a plot straight out of the movies.

In the movie, “Armageddon,” a crew is sent to land on an asteroid.

Turns out, it may not be that unrealistic after all, according to Dr. Eileen Ryan.

In fact, sending a crew to an asteroid is one of NASA's goals, she says.

“Right now, we are working with great enthusiasm to find an asteroid that we might send people to by the year 2025,” Dr. Ryan says.

She says they have been looking at asteroids that come especially close to Earth, like the one this week, to see if they would be good targets.

They are looking at things like its orbit, how fast its spinning and...  “What is it made out of? We probably want something that contains water or carbon so we can analyze it,” she says.

Researchers would look for signs of life, resources like precious metals and water to bring back to Earth and some even think an asteroid mission could be critical to some day sending people to Mars.

“It would be kind of like a stepping stone to get to some place like Mars if we could find out what exactly asteroids have as resources and how we could easily acquire those resources."

Dr. Ryan says they have already eliminated several asteroids as potential landing targets, many because they were spinning on the order of minutes instead of hours—just a little too fast.