A Los Angeles-based company called TransAstra has proposed an audacious plan to capture a small asteroid using a large bag and bring it back to Earth's vicinity. The company announced Wednesday that an unnamed customer has funded a feasibility study for the 'New Moon' mission, which aims to capture and relocate a house-sized asteroid weighing about 100 metric tons.

TransAstra CEO Joel Sercel envisions the captured asteroid becoming a base for robotic research and development in materials processing and manufacturing. The company identifies as many as 250 potential target asteroids, with diameters up to 20 meters, that could be reached with reusable robotic spacecraft over the next decade. These asteroids could provide water for propellant and minerals for solar panels, radiation shielding, and other space hardware.

The mission would potentially locate its processing facility at the Earth-Sun L2 point, about 1.5 million km from Earth. C-type asteroids could serve as water sources while M-type asteroids would provide metals. TransAstra is collaborating with the University of Central Florida, Purdue, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory/Caltech to complete the feasibility study by May.