NEO Report Endorses Manned Asteroid Missions

摘要

LEONARD DAVID, SAN FRANCISCODeveloping the capability to launch human missions to asteroids would aid humanity's ability to foil a potentially devastating asteroid strike and help spur its march to Mare, a new report finds.What is most needed to make manned asteroid missions possible, the report concludes, is a comprehensive survey of the near-Earth object (NEO) population, which would greatly aid planning efforts.The new report, titled "Target NEO: Open Global Community NEO Workshop," is anchored in views expressed by experts who gathered at George Washington University (GWU) in Washington in February. But this latest appraisal includes extensive peer review and refined findings from a number of follow-up meetings, bodi in the United States and abroad.