This is very exciting for supporters of the manned space program. Finally we are preparing to leave LEO instead of continuing our operations there. We stand to gain a lot from such an asteroid mission, which could occur in the 2020-2025 timeframe:
-The Japanese Hayabusa mission is a perfect example of the inefficiency of robotic exploration probes. It reportedly returned a few bits of asteroid dust which will be studied in the coming months. But a manned mission can deploy a lot more science experiments and bring back pounds of asteroid samples for study here on Earth.
-By landing on an asteroid and exploring it we have furthered our capability to resist a possible asteroid strike on Earth. The more methods we have of deflecting or diverting an impact asteroid the better.
-We will have a definite boost in national pride and excel far ahead of the other space programs as we will be the only space program to have not only landed on a celestial body but have done it twice.
-Mars, Phobos, Deimos, Ceres, and other such missions will be deep space exploration that require long mission timelines. By doing an asteroid mission we get more experience on how to do these future missions well. The future of space exploration and eventual colonization begins here.
-This goal is pretty far off, but the commercial space industry is growing and one day it may take on the challenge of mining an asteroid. John S. Lewis states that an asteroid 1 mile in diameter could hold as much as $20 trillion in precious metals.
-By deploying the science experiments and studying the samples we can learn a lot about our solar system and our planet. A lot of science work could be done here which unmanned missions just aren't capable of. If you want to get real science done then send real scientists, not robots who usually fail at their goal and don't return very much data.
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