Is The Space Program Actually Over?

The space shuttle program is history. So now what? NASA's next great mission is a real challenge: sending astronauts to an asteroid. Their goal? To make it to an asteroid in less than 15 years. The challenge: you can't land on one. You'd bounce right off. Astronauts couldn't walk on an asteroid - they'd float away. NASA is thinking about jetpacks, tethers, bungees, nets and spiderwebs to allow explorers to float just above the surface of it while attached to a smaller mini-spaceship. Another challenge: it'll take at least half-a-year to reach the closest asteroid. The mothership would need football-field-sized solar panels, and it would have to protect the space travelers from killer solar and cosmic ray bursts. And, NASA doesn't even know which asteroid would be the best place to visit. Still, it has the dreamers of NASA both excited and anxious.