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It echoes the plot of Hollywood blockbuster Armageddon, where Bruce Willis blasted to the surface of an asteroid.

Nasa today revealed two of its astronaut's have started training for an ambitious real life mission to land on an asteroid as a stepping stone to Mars.

Today, it revealed preparations for the mission were underwater in a giant water tank used to simulate weightlessness.

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The Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at Nasa¿s Johnson Space Center, a 40-feet-deep swimming pool that helps provide the lack of gravity needed for astronauts to practice for spacewalks - and were training to land on an asteroid has begun

Bruce Willis in the 1988 film Armageddon, which saw astronauts landing on an asteroid to save Earth.

The space agency plans to land astronauts on an asteroid in the 2020s.

Wearing modified versions of the orange space shuttle launch and entry suits, two astronauts took to the water in the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center, a 40-feet-deep swimming pool that helps provide the lack of gravity needed for astronauts to practice for spacewalks.

'Stan Love and Steve Bowen have between them spent more than 62 hours in the vacuum of space on nine shuttle mission spacewalks, and they're putting that experience to use here on Earth by helping engineers determine what astronauts will need on NASA's next step toward Deep Space,' Nasa said.

The pool contains a mockup of the Orion spacecraft that will carry astronauts to the asteroid, docked to a mockup of the robotic spacecraft that will be used to capture an asteroid and bring it into a stable orbit near the moon.

'We're working on the techniques and tools we might use someday to explore a small asteroid that was captured from an orbit around the sun and brought back by a robotic spacecraft to orbit around the moon,' Love said.

'When it's there, we can send people there to take samples and take a look at it up close.

'That's our main task; we're looking at tools we'd use for that, how we'd take those samples.'

The astronauts are testing suits and equipment for the mission

For instance, one of the primary goals of visiting an asteroid will be to obtain a core sample that shows its layers, intact – such a sample could provide information on the age of the solar system and how it was formed.

But the tools geologist use to collect core samples or even chips of rocks aren't a good idea in space – swinging a hammer in front of your face isn't safe when the sheet of glass between you and it is necessary to keep you alive.

Instead Love and Bowen tried out a pneumatic hammer to give them a feel for whether a battery-powered version might be useful.

And while they did so, they also evaluated a version of the spacesuit that  could be worn on an asteroid.

HOW NASA PLANS TO USE AN ASTEROID AS A STEPPING STONE TO MARS

NASA would find an asteroid which is between seven and 10m wide.

They would then tow or push it towards Earth so that it ends up in a stable orbit near the moon.

In 2021 astronauts would then use an Orion capsule - a manned spacecraft - to land on the asteroid and bring back soil and rock samples for analysis.

This asteroid would also, probably in the 2030s, be used as a stop-off point for astronauts on their way to Mars.

Exact details on how Nasa plans to pluck an asteroid out of its trajectory are not yet known, but the most recent rendering rendering shows it is captured and held inside what looks like a giant plastic bag.

Animation reveals NASA's proposed Asteroid Redirect Mission

The mission involves astronauts making the journey to their captive space rock by hitching a ride on the next-generation Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle.

After the Orion and the asteroid are attached, the astronauts take a spacewalk to the captured object.

Once the Orion docks with the remote-operated asteroid capture device, the crew performs a spacewalk that sees them climb almost the length of the conjoined vehicles to an exposed section of the asteroid they take photos of and scoop samples from, the video shows.

After the mission is complete, Orion returns to Earth on the same path it journeyed out on, loops around the moon included, and splashes down in an ocean – likely the Pacific – 10 days later, as seen in the video.

'We need some significant modifications to make it easy to translate,' Bowen said.

'I can't stretch my arms out quite as far as in the [space station space suit].

'The work envelop is very small. So as we get through, we look at these tasks.

'These tasks are outstanding to help us develop what needs to be modified in the suit, as well."

NASA is already working to identify an asteroid that could be reached by a robotic mission to capture it and bring it into a stable orbit around the moon.

In a recent video Nasa revealed the missions, technologies and developments that will make a manned mission to Mars possible.

The footage shows how current technology such as the International Space Station (ISS), in tandem with future endeavours - including visiting an asteroid - will see humans take the first steps on the fourth planet from the sun.

In a new video Nasa has outlined the path it intends to take in order to land humans on Mars. Proposals to send people to the red planet have been floating about for a while, but now the space agency has revealed how such an endeavour will be attempted

In the video Nasa highlights the development of the heavy-lift rocket known as the Space Launch System (SLS) as being integral to a Mars mission.

This rocket, when complete, will be the most powerful ever built - dwarfing even the Saturn V that took humans to the Moon.

The huge lifting power of the SLS - up to 130 ton -  will enable it to take the components and fuel needed for a nine-month trip to Mars.

This will be accompanied by other vehicles that will carry unmanned cargo spacecraft.

Some of these could be powered by innovative means such as Solar Electric Propulsion (SEP), an emerging technology that is a form of ion propulsion.

Meanwhile, advanced vehicles such as the Orion spacecraft will handled the manned aspects of the mission.

On 4 December this year, Orion will launch on its first ever mission, completing two orbits of Earth without a crew before returning home.

The mission is important as the capsule will be raised to an altitude of 3,600 miles (5,800 km), over 13 times higher than the orbit of the ISS.

This will give it a very high re-entry speed of about 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometres) per hour - the fastest since the days of the Apollo mission.

The purpose of this will be to test the re-entry capabilities of the spacecraft, as it will need to be able to handle these speeds when returning a crew from a Mars mission.

NASA unveils its plans to head to Mars

Construction of the ISS, a key step on the path to Mars according to Nasa, began at the turn of the century and is now all but complete. Today the station is used to carry out a variety of experiments not possible on Earth in addition to testing capabilities that will be needed for future missions into deep space

On 4 December 2014 Orion will launch on its first ever mission. The capsule will be raised to an altitude of 3,600 miles (5,800 kilometres) to simulate a return from Mars, giving it a very high re-entry speed of about 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometres) per hour - the fastest since the days of the Apollo missions

'Our next step is deep space, where NASA will send a robotic mission to capture and redirect an asteroid to orbit the moon,' Nasa said in the announcement last week.

'Astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft will explore the asteroid in the 2020s, returning to Earth with samples.

'This experience in human spaceflight beyond low-Earth orbit will help Nasa test new systems and capabilities, such as Solar Electric Propulsion, which we'll need to send cargo as part of human missions to Mars.'

A House subcommittee recently approved an authorisation bill that would allow Nasa to redirect an asteroid into the moon's orbit, land astronauts there and use the asteroid as a testing outpost and way station on the way to Mars.

'Beginning in FY 2018, Nasa's powerful Space Launch System rocket will enable these "proving ground" missions to test new capabilities,' Nasa said.

'Human missions to Mars will rely on Orion and an evolved version of SLS that will be the most powerful launch vehicle ever flown.'

Later this decade astronauts will be sent on a mission to visit and study an asteroid using the Orion spacecraft. This will enable them not only to perform key science at the asteroid, including analysing its composition and structure, but it will also prove as a test mission for journeys into deep space

Nasa's 'Path to Mars' graphic sets out the steps needed to send humans to an asteroid and Mars by the 2030s

How it compares: The SLS is larger than the Saturn rockets than launched man to the Moon. It will also be more powerful than any rocket in operation today. Russia's super-rocket design has yet to be unveiled. However construction of the first stage of Russia's super-rocket - capable of lifting 80 tonnes - is already underway

The agency will now have to spell out the cost and details of the mission as part of an exploration 'roadmap' to Mars that Nasa will have to submit to Congress.

Associate Nasa Administrator Bill Gerstenmaier told members of a Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation subcommittee that the agency remains on target to launch an uncrewed mission in 2017 to test the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion multi-purpose crew vehicle that will carry astronauts to Mars.

Avionics testing of solid rocket boosters was completed last week at Kennedy Space Center in preparation for tests of the SLS rocket's components, and acoustic testing is also underway.

'There is real hardware in manufacture for the path to Mars,' Gerstenmaier told senators.

'Our architecture is designed for long-term human exploration of our solar system, including the goal of human missions to Mars.'

The hearing, called 'From Here to Mars,' outlined intermediate space missions being planned as steps toward long-duration space travel. 

'With the technologies and techniques we develop, we will enable expeditions to multiple destinations, ultimately allowing us to pioneer Mars and other destinations as we lay the groundwork for permanent human settlements in the solar system,' Gerstenmaier  said.One planned mission is to a near-Earth asteroid, Gerstenmaier said.

'Nasa will employ SLS and Orion for an early human exploration mission to perform pioneering human operations further from the Earth than ever before, rendezvousing with and returning samples from an asteroid redirected to at stable orbit around the Moon by the robotic segment of the Asteroid Redirect Mission (Arm),' he explained.

'We're going to grab a piece of the solar system, we're going to deflect it around the moon and insert it into a distant retrograde orbit around the moon where our crews can go visit,' he said.

'To think we're moving a piece of the solar system for our use that will allow us to learn skills and techniques that we need to push the human presence into the solar system, that's a pretty awe-inspiring statement.'

However, the ambitious Mars mission could be delayed or derailed if funding from a budget-conscious Congress continues to erode, or if other countries' plans for a lunar mission force the U.S. to change course for security reasons.

NASA's proposed rocket to carry 130 ton cargo to space