The Million Mile Mission

A small band of believers urges NASA to take its next step—onto an asteroid.

By Michael Klesius

It was another brilliantly sunny day for NASA astronaut Tom Jones. In orbit on his fourth space shuttle mission in February 2001, Jones was outside the International Space Station, installing a new laboratory module. He remembers the moment with great clarity: Gerhard Thiele, another astronaut, called from the ground to relay the news that the robotic NEAR Shoemaker probe had just made the first-ever landing on an asteroid, 433 Eros.

"There I was, turning bolts on the ISS," says Jones. "I was thinking: What a cool job this is. But how much cooler would it be if I were doing this on an asteroid!"

The idea that astronauts might visit an asteroid and explore it up close had long intrigued him. Today, Jones is more convinced than ever that it would be a grand and worthwhile journey. "The asteroids," he says, "are begging for a visit."

By "the asteroids" he doesn't mean one of the rocks circling out in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, but something a lot closer to home: An Earth-crosser, or NEO (near-Earth object). A rogue.

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