NASA is developing a first-ever robotic mission to visit a near-Earth asteroid, collect a multi-ton boulder from its surface, and redirect it into a stable orbit around the moon. Once it’s there, astronauts will explore it and return with samples in the 2020s. This Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) is part of NASA’s plan to advance the new technologies and spaceflight experience needed for a human mission to the Martian system in the 2030s. ARM robotic spacecraft will capture a boulder from the surface of a large asteroid then transport it to a stable orbit around the moon. Astronauts aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft, launched from a Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, will explore the asteroid in the mid-2020s.. Credit: NASA #asteroid #nasa #sls #orion #orbit #trajectory #deepspace #explore #ARM