Prepping For An Asteroid Mission

NASA recently conducted a 10-day simulated manned exploration of an asteroid in preparation for meeting President Obama's goal of a manned mission to an asteroid by 2025.  The agency is confident it will have the technology required to do the job.

At the moment, the biggest problem is that NASA has yet to find an asteroid that fits its criteria.  NASA wants to fly about a 90-day mission, so it wants to find an asteroid that comes relatively close to Earth, and one that orbits in the same plane as Earth does.  That would require less fuel to be brought along as less maneuvering would be needed to reach the asteroid.