Bolden Steadfast on Worthiness of Asteroid Retrieval Mission

摘要

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told a congressional panel that a captured asteroid is a worthy destination for human explorers, despite the insistence from the chairman of the U.S. House Science, Space and Technology Committee that the lunar surface is a better choice. In an April 24 hearing of the House Science space subcommittee about NASA's 2014 budget request, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas)- the full committee's chairman - repeatedly asked Bolden which would better prepare the agency to visit Mars: a mission to the lunar surface, which Smith supports strongly, or bringing a small asteroid back to lunar space for astronauts launched aboard the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle to visit.