NASA recently released photos of the prototype robot arm for its Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), which is planned to launch in 2021. This robotic probe is designed to collect samples from a near-Earth asteroid, as well as test out the ‘enhanced gravity tractor’ method of changing the asteroid’s path.

Asteroids periodically collide with Earth, causing greater or less damage. NASA intends to have a plan in place to protect us from potentially harmful impacts in the future. ARM will go to a nearby asteroid and collect a large boulder from its surface. Two gripping robot arms will hold on to the multi-ton rock as the probe flies alongside the asteroid, using its enhanced gravity field to gradually change the asteroid’s orbit. ARM will then return and place the asteroid boulder in stable orbit around the moon.

Scientist and engineers at the Robotic Operation’s Center in NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, tested the prototype with a variety of simulations, which allowed them to fine-tune its operations systems. Students from West Virginia University helped build a mock boulder to put the prototype though its paces.

Read more about it in Space.com’s article “Check Out NASA’s Asteroid-Catching Robot Arms” by Christine Lunsford.