A former space agency scientist said on Friday that NASA may need to perform a dry-run by sending astronauts on a shorter voyage to orbit a near-Earth asteroid. Dr. Wes Huntress, a former NASA associate administrator for science, said that a practice landing on a near-Earth asteroid would enable NASA to check out and fine tune the launch systems and crew vehicles, as well as set procedures. He also noted that it would be a six month to year long mission, but that it is quick compared the the much longer Mars mission. To sum things up he said, "In the end it would give NASA confidence to go to another planet."
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