NASA is looking for help to harness an asteroid and bring it into orbit around the moon, where American astronauts could visit it in the future.
The space agency has announced a May 5 deadline for proposals detailing the mission, Space.com reported.
The initiative is in part to save money, and NASA is interested in collaborating with private organizations that have such technology and work in commercial aerospace.
The goal is to bring either a small asteroid or a chunk of larger space rock into the moon's gravitational pull, where it will stay in a fixed orbit. NASA plans to use a robotic spacecraft to complete the mission.
The field is wide open right now since the asteroid mission is in very early stages.
"We're in this sort of pre-formulation phase, studying and gathering input, leading to a mission concept review that we'll have in early 2015, where we'll try and focus down to a specific concept, and then go develop and implement," said Greg Williams, deputy associate administrator for policy and plans in NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate, as quoted by Space.com.
NASA officials plan to select up to 25 submissions, giving out around $6 million, and the winning proposals will be named on July 1.
The agency needs detailed plans in five categories: asteroid capture systems; rendezvous sensor systems; secondary payloads; adapting commercial spacecraft buses; and international and commercial partnership opportunities, according to Space.com.
Once the asteroid is in a fixed orbit around the moon, astronauts could visit it. NASA hopes to launch the first trip to the asteroid by 2025.
The project will have an important role in bringing people to other planets and parts of the solar system.
"We see this as an important stepping stone in our advance of human exploration beyond LEO [low-Earth orbit]," said Williams, as reported by Space.com.
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