Asteroid Initiative! Game-changing technologies advanced by this budget support NASA’s first-ever mission to identify, capture and relocate an asteroid. This initiative represents an unprecedented technological feat -- raising the bar for human exploration and discovery, while advancing the grand challenge of protecting our home planet and bringing us closer to a human mission to one of these mysterious objects. This concept image shows an astronaut preparing to take samples from the captured asteroid after it has been relocated to a stable orbit in the Earth-moon system. Hundreds of rings are affixed to the asteroid capture bag, helping the astronaut carefully navigate the surface. Image Credit: NASA #budget #nasa #space #asteroid #fy15 #asteroids #protecttheplanet