Sarah Ramsey/Rachel Kraft
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1694 / 202-358-5227
sarah.ramsey@nasa.gov / rachel.h.kraft@nasa.gov


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MEDIA ADVISORY M13-155
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NASA Hosts Workshop to Discuss Asteroid Initiative Ideas
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NASA will host a public workshop to examine and synthesize 96 of the ideas
submitted to a Request for Information (RFI) about the agency's asteroid
initiative. The workshop will be held Sept. 30 - Oct. 2 at the Lunar and
Planetary Institute in Houston.

The workshop will feature discussions by experts from NASA, the agency's
international partners, private industry and the public. Topics include how
best to identify, capture and relocate a near-Earth asteroid for closer
study, how to respond to asteroid threats, as well as partnership,
crowdsourcing and citizen science ideas. Workshop results will be considered
for future planning as NASA refines the details of its mission.

NASA's fiscal year 2014 budget proposes an asteroid initiative that includes
a strategy to leverage human and robotic activities for a first-ever human
mission to an asteroid, while also accelerating efforts to improve detection
and characterization of asteroids. The work aligns the agency's ongoing
efforts in science, new technology development and human exploration.

NASA received more than 400 ideas in response to the June RFI. The ideas were
submitted by industry, universities, international organizations, and for the
first time, individual members of the public. NASA's selection process
involved agency scientists, engineers and mission planners who are
formulating details of the asteroid initiative.

Each session will be webcast on NASA’s UStream channel, and virtual
participation is encouraged. Because of limited capacity, in-person
attendance is limited to invited, registered presenters. Selected sessions
also will be broadcast on NASA Television. Virtual audience members can ask
questions through the UStream chat function and via Twitter with
session-specific hashtags. Complete schedule information, live webcasts,
hashtags, and other details on how to participate virtually can be found at:

*http://go.nasa.gov/1gW1MId

Media interested in attending the workshop in person should contact Rachel
Kraft at rachel.h.kraft@nasa.gov or Sarah Ramsey at sarah.ramsey@nasa.gov


For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit:

*http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For more information on NASA's asteroid initiative, visit:

*http://www.nasa.gov/asteroidinitiative