NASA to lasso Asteroid

[Catweazel]

This is a funny one folks...

http://tinyurl.com/bldg6wx

Good luck with that!

[J_M_Franklin]

This is a funny one folks...

http://tinyurl.com/bldg6wx

Good luck with that!

Not an unreal project, I think the idea of a "Bag" may seem a little odd, but for a small rock I suppose it is the most efficient. I can see a time when we have numerous "asteroids" employed to create space stations in orbit about Earth, The Moon and Mars, in fact I would suggest that some of the Apollo, Amor and Aten class could be employed as stations that would allow the travel between the inner solar system planets more efficiently as they are already in orbit of the Sun..

Personally I would love to see the logical conclusion of this being the placing, in Mars orbit, of Ceres (a long long way off I know) as this could then stir up to the core, cause volcanism and thus thicken the atmosphere.

[JamesF]

Isn't there an Asimov(?) story about mining the asteroids by effectively "lassooing" them and swinging them back into an orbit to intercept Earth? Could even be "Marooned off Vesta", but I'm really not sure. The idea doesn't seem particularly novel, though clearly actually attempting it certainly is.

James