President Barack Obama is setting aside $100 million in a 2014 budget to start a project that would have NASA drag an asteroid into orbit around the Moon for research purposes.

Yes… this is as bad ass as it sounds. It looks like NASA may get the first chunk of money needed to kick off a project to snag an asteroid, put it in orbit around the Moon, and study it. According to Space.com’s Mike Wall, the total cost could run $2.6 billion. That rolls out to about twenty-six times the initial amount getting kicked in by the 2014 budget. The inital cash injection would be used to find a suitable asteroid.

Provided they find one, this could generate excitement for the space agency and renew America’s interest in the space program. It might also fuel the Asteroid Mining equivelent of a gold rush.

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