NASA plans to capture a near-Earth asteroid and study it. Yes, really. Watch a video below of the process.

The NASA mission would involve a team of astronauts robotically capturing a 500-ton, 7-10 meter diameter near-Earth asteroid.

And it's not just science fiction- the asteroid project is being funded. President Barack Obama has now added the asteroid initiative to his fiscal year 2014 budget request.

A team of astronauts, who would use an Orion spacecraft, would capture the near-Earth asteroid. After blasting off into space, the astronauts would go on a nine-day journey to find the asteroid. The crew would use a "lunar gravety assist", essentially a slingshot maneuver, to gain speed toward the asteroid.

The asteroid would be robotically captured in a way that is much like throwing a bag or net over something.

The astronauts would dock their spacecraft with the robotic capture vehicle and spacewalk onto it. They would collect rock and soil samples for later analysis, then head back towards Earth.

Sure, the NASA asteroid capture project is still in the planning stages...but it may just happen.

What do you think of the NASA asteroid capture initiative? Sound off in the comments!

See how this would work in the video below.