Federal Budget and Space Exploration

It should come as no surprise to many that the federal budget has included a bit more "spacey" items than expected. There are two that stand out in my mind and I have a feeling that many other people feel the same way. The first is the desire to put more money towards the exploration of Europa, a moon of Jupiter. The other, and I just found out about this one yesterday, is that Obama would like NASA to capture an asteroid and bring it into orbit around the moon. Now if you have not heard about these sort of plans before you are in for a treat.

The Europe portion of the budget is exciting for many reasons. However, I am going to spend this time talking about the asteroid. There will be plenty of opportunity to discuss Europa. The asteroid is a very interesting idea and one that has been tossed around for the last couple years. If you are someone who is interested in astronomy and what we are doing about space and space exploration, then you are somewhat familiar with the idea.

For those who are not, it is pretty straight-forward. We find a suitable asteroid that is the right size and location. We go out to it, grab it, and tow it back to lunar orbit. As for how we "grab it" the jury is still out. There are a few really good ideas but none that are definite winners. Regardless of how it is done, I am just happy that it is being considered or planned. However you look at it, the fact that our government is putting money into NASA and specifically programs that are aimed at exploration of things that matter and makes sense, is fantastic! This is definitely something that I will be keeping an eye on and something that I will talk about quite often.