Astronaut aims for 'asteroid splashdown'

British astronaut Tim Peake is going on a mission to an asteroid... at the bottom of the ocean.

"Major Tim" is joining Nasa's latest Neemo expedition to an underwater lab located near Key Largo, Florida.

He will spend 12 days in the Aquarius habitat with three crewmates, testing new tools and techniques that could be used on a real mission to a space rock.

Nasa is planning a huge new rocket to send an advanced manned capsule to an asteroid sometime in the 2020s.

Astronauts have long trained in deep pools to simulate the weightlessness of working in orbit, but the Neemo expeditions take that idea to another level, allowing crews to simulate extended periods off Earth but without actually leaving the planet.

"It's an excellent analogue for what we do in space," explained Major Tim, a former British Army Air Corps helicopter pilot.

"We'll even have a 50-second delay in our communications with Capcom [mission control], and friends and family."

The delay simulates the time it would take real signals to travel many millions of kms across space from an asteroid.


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