Montjuic Communications Tower, Barcelona Spain

Calatrava's beautiful and original communications tower was built for Telefónica in the heart of the 1992 Olympic site, to carry coverage of the Games. Aside from its distinctive structural form, the tower is innovative in enclosing the circular platform of microwave dishes, replacing the normal clutter with a serene white arc. As a result the 130 meter structure becomes a welcome feature in the Olympic park.

Imagery abounds. The overall form of the tower is based on a Calatrava sketch of a kneeling figure making an offering. The base on which the figure 'kneels' is covered in broken glazed tiles in recognition of Gaudi (though with more restrained colors). The orientation of the tower means that the shadow of the central needle on the circular platform acts as a (rather impractical) sundial.

The twirly tower meets the ground very delicately at  

a pin-point, seeming to float in the air like a twisted paper clip. The base is covered with broken shards with Gaudí's technique of mosaic. Majestic fountains stand before the stair procession to the tower.

Construction Details:

Architects: Santiago Calatrava / Study Architecture: Santiago Calatrava Tower Construction: - Use: Torre Telefonica telecommunications company.

Technical Data:

Overall height: 136 m. built: 1992 Mounting: It was built as symbolic piece with the rest of the Olympic ring, in Montjuïc. Beside the Collserola communications tower of Norman Foster, make the communications system of the city of Barcelona and its metropolitan area.

Tower Design: 

Barcelone experienced an explosion of architecture and urban renewal on the occasion of the Olympic Games in 1992, and one such example is the telecommunications tower built Santiago Calatrava, Olympic ring in full for the event. This tower was commissioned by the national telecommunications company by then, Telefonica SA of Spain to give everyone coverage of the Olympic Games in Barcelona. Montjuïc tower - original-name popularly known as Torre Calatrava, presents an innovative and striking design with traditional telecommunication towers. Telefónica broke its traditional model, often a smaller replica of the famous Lollipop height of the capital Madrid to participate in the need that Spain had in 1992, to show everyone a modern and innovative country. Madrid (European cultural capital), Sevilla (Expo 92) and Barcelona (92 Olympics) were the perfect showcase to present to the world a country that had been able to leave a dictatorship into a democracy and capacity to modernize in a short period of time. A country able to meet the challenges of the future, able to organize two major international events at the same time and be attractive to tourists and investors. Regarding originality, apart from its distinctive structural form, the tower is innovative in including the circular platform dishes of data transmission (transmitters), replacing the traditional body of antennas by an arc with a striking layout. This set of elements make the structure of 130 meters to become more than a tower .. a nice sculpture in the Olympic ring. The shape of the tower is based on a Calatrava sketch of a figure of an athlete of ancient Greece, to kneel on when you pick up the medal, as the winner of an Olympic event. The base of the tower is covered in broken glazed tiles in recognition of Gaudi and his famous technique of "Trencadís". The orientation of the tower gets to become a giant sundial, marking the hours on the square in Europe.

Details of Structure:

It was not the only telecom tower in town for the 1992 Collserola Tower British Norman Foster was also raised in the other mountain city, Tibidabo. This second tower has a larger television, and radio coverage of telecommunications signals to the entire city of Barcelona and its metropolitan region function consists of more than 4.5 million inhabitants. coverage of 92 Olympics: Images of the Barcelona Olympics that saw much of the world's inhabitants were made ​​possible by the intense audiovisual coverage of the event, which provided Telefónica modern means of transmission. ISDN was the basic telecommunications infrastructure used in 1992. The investment made ​​by the company, only to meet the needs of the Games, was 92,000 million pesetas in four years. During the Games originated in Barcelona two million phone calls. At the end of the competition, Barcelona had built a telecommunications infrastructure up to the most advanced in Europe.

General Information

Structural Type: Vertical cantilever structure 

Function / usage: Communications tower 

Built: 1989 - 1992

Status: in use

Geographic Information & Related Structures

Location: Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, Europe

Near Sant Jordi Sports Palace (1990)

Technical Information:

Height: 136 mts

Material: Steel.  

                               

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Design Flexibility Through The Use Of Concrete In Construction

Without concrete the landscape of Britain would be unrecognizable. Concrete is one of the most important resources in construction today, it is the most widely used construction material in the world because of the unparalleled versatility that allows it to be used in the building of just about anything. With concrete we are able to construct awe inspiring sky scrapers, ground breaking bridges, magnificent dams, humble pavements and everything in between, but what is it that makes ever-sturdy concrete so flexible in the world of construction?

Durability And Longevity

Concrete buildings have the ability to withstand the ravages of nature and time. Concrete is a remarkable substance that is completely flexible when freshly mixed (from cement, water and aggregates), and once it hardens it becomes an incredibly strong and durable material. It is its initial malleability that causes it to be the perfect substance for the building of such an expansive array of structures.

The strength of concrete, which increases over time, is what gives it the fantastic ability to withstand future changes and adaptions to structures. Concrete upper floors are able to support walls, meaning the walls below are saved from being load bearing, so the layout of a building can evolve with changing spatial requirements, creating buildings are both flexible and last for a lifetime. The longevity of concrete cannot be overstated; concrete structures such as the Coliseum in Rome have been standing for thousands of years and are in no danger of disappearing.

Sustainable Construction

Concrete is the most abundantly used material in construction, in the developed world it is estimated that around 60% of the built environment is concrete based, and as we move further towards a greener future every day it has never been more important. Concrete has the ability to be used in the construction of more energy efficient buildings because of its unbeatable thermal mass; this means that less energy is wasted in an attempt to produce heat from unsustainable sources.

The entire construction industry is placing greater focus on the three pillars of sustainability, environmental/economic/social, and the manufacture and use of concrete in building is playing a vital part. The innovators of the industry are developing manufacturing and design strategies that utilize concrete’s thermal prowess, placing a greater emphases on recycling and using industry bi-products in manufacture, and creating buildings that can be easily altered if their needs change to negate the need for them to be demolished.

FOB AT BARAPULLA: COMMONWEALTH GAMES-2010, NEW DELHI

Utter Abundance

The European population spends an estimated 90% of their time within buildings, and these buildings each have their own specific purposes which require an abundance of concrete products. There are countless concrete products including cast in-situ, tilt-up, precast and masonry blocks as well as solid, cavity and composite walls that can aid in the construction of any kind of structure.

Obviously it’s imperative to choose the right concrete for your specific construction job. The abundance of concrete, as well as the constant innovation within the industry, means the importance of concrete will only gain momentum in years to come.

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Concrete Construction Seems To Be Equipped With Innovation

Global demand for cement, the binder in concrete, is forecast to reach 4.7 billion tonnes in 2017, with sales expected to expand by more than +5% a year over the next four years, according to research company Freedonia.

While this represents a slight decline in pace from the 2007 to 2012 period, altogether, Freedonia's figures constitute a fairly robust outlook for this key construction material.

At the same time there is a drive among the concrete construction sector's equipment manufacturers to produce more versatile and efficient equipment, fuelled by the ever-present need for contractors to improve productivity.

New technology is playing a big role in the latest developments. Telematics systems that allow machines to be monitored remotely are spreading to every corner of the construction industry, for instance, often aiming to help to improve efficiency and performance of equipment.

Putzmeister has been focussing on computer-controlled interaction between man and machine for its truck-mounted concrete pumps. It has developed a new radio remote control for its 38-5 truck-mounted concrete pumps, the Ergonic 2.0.

Designed to conserve energy and reduce emissions, the device monitors the interaction between outriggers, boom movements and pump functions. The control unit is larger yet lighter than its predecessor, with a high-resolution colour screen, and boasts new safety features such as guaranteeing the boom can only be moved in a permitted working envelope.

Specific machine settings are transferred via a chip card and the radio remote control can be used for other Putzmeister truck-mounted concrete pumps simply by exchanging the chip.

Manufacturers in the falsework and formwork sector have also been working to develop equipment and techniques to improve efficiency and flexibility for contractors. Doka, for instance, has a range of modular formwork that can be tailored to the complex demands of the energy sector, where fast construction progress is important.

Doka offers specific systems for building tanks, silos and cooling towers as well as specific systems for dam construction. Its SK175 cooling-tower formwork, for example, is a fully mechanised, self-climbing system for pouring 1.5 m high sections that is said to produce precise forming within short cycling times.

Peri also tailored its working platforms to the needs of the energy sector with a contract to support construction of the 1,600 MW coal-fired Eemshaven power plant in Groningen, the Netherlands. Its Peri Up Rosett Flex modular scaffolding system provided safe access for welding and insulation work on the plant's two 35 m high, 64 m long filters for flue gas desulphurisation. Assembly of the modular scaffolding for the 35 m high working platform was carried out using a guardrail in advance, making rope protection unnecessary. In addition, the Peri scaffolding worked around the existing steel structure as well as those walkways already mounted.

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Innovations in Chemicals for Building and Construction (Technical Insights)

Chemical Technologies that help in Achieving Sustainability in Building and Construction

This research service analyzes the innovations in chemicals for building and construction by covering five different segmentation; concrete admixtures, adhesives, water proofing chemicals and membranes, repair and rehabilitation chemicals as well as flooring chemicals. This is a study covering the current state as well as the future potential of emerging technologies that help in achieving sustainability in building and construction industries.

Executive Summary—Research Scope

This research service, "Innovations in Chemicals for Building and Construction" brings out the strategic and technology developments in the construction chemicals space on a global scale. This research service captures the global developments for chemicals used in the construction industry as building and construction have gained prominence throughout the world with increasing importance for infrastructure development.

The construction chemicals domain is highly cost-competitive and the current influence of several environmental or green regulations has created an opportunity for the manufacturers to develop multifunctional materials at lower lifecycle cost by efficient utilization of waste recycle and waste reduction techniques.

In brief, this research service provides:

• Snapshot of the construction chemical technologies

• Key drivers and challenges that influence use of chemicals in building and construction.

• Highlights of some key innovations in the field of construction chemicals and the level of technology adoption

• Emerging opportunities for construction chemicals

• Technology deployment and application roadmap

• Roadmap for construction chemical technologies

• Technology Management Strategies

• Key Patents in construction chemical industry

Research Methodology

Primary Research

• Engineers

• CTOs/ CEOs/ CIOs

• Technical Architects

• Research Heads

• Strategic Decision Makers

• Technology Policy Heads

Secondary Research

• Technology Journals

• Periodicals

• Market Research research services

• Technology policy information sites

• Internal databases

• Thought Leader Briefings

Executive Summary- Priorities for Construction Industry

Energy Efficiency

Improving energy efficiency of buildings

Sustainability

Weather resistance, longevity, and low maintenance

Increasing Wellness

Improving indoor and outdoor air quality

The future trends in construction industry is the creation of buildings, which consume less energy to build and operate. This can be achieved in several ways such as by effectively utilizing technology developments, considering process designs, and by studying human behavior patterns and adhering to regulatory frameworks. Examples of technology utilization are installation of thermal insulation materials. Sustainability priorities can be divided into two categories: economic sustainability and environmental sustainability. Economic sustainability is defined as increasing profitability by making more efficient use of resources including chemicals or materials and utilities and labor whereas environmental sustainability can be described as utilization of natural resources for protecting the environment from the impact of emissions, effluent, and waste. New and innovative solutions that meet the demands that are associated with the global challenges are being increasingly considered by stakeholders. Increasing health and wellness is one of the main priorities because it promotes better working conditions for contractors and developers along with providing ambient living conditions.

CEO's Perspective

1. The building and construction market has witnessed the consolidation of several small- and medium-sized participants into larger entities from the last five years, leading to more competition in terms of expertise as opposed to price.

2. Construction chemical companies need to focus on designing and providing sustainable solutions for their product as well as aggressively approach niche markets in each segment through product development or technology innovation and obtain a premium price for their brand.

3. Construction chemical suppliers will have to strengthen their relationships with contractors and architects, and they will have to work together to identify cost-effective options within their portfolio rather than pushing their products unidirectionally into the market.

4. Research and development (R&D) initiatives are significant to the growth of the construction chemicals market. Enormous efforts of R&D activities are needed to differentiate in terms of product offering.

Technology Snapshot

Construction chemicals is one of the niche segments in specialty chemical segments of chemical industry. These chemicals are specialty products that are used in building structures to increase its life, and also to impart additional protection from environmental hazards. Construction chemicals are considered to be the backbone of any type of construction work and are essential for high quality structures . They are usually utilized as additive substances in pre- as well as post-construction stages.

Role of Construction Chemicals

• Minimizing or optimizing utilization of raw materials that are needed to produce sustainable and strong infrastructure

• Promote performance of raw materials that are used in building and construction.

Construction chemicals play a very important role in reducing the total raw material consumption for construction material manufacturers, thus, acting as cost-effective problem solvers espeacilally in the case of ahdesives and rerlated products.

Construction chemicals provide manufacturers a way to differentiate their product. The tailored performance improves the overall market quality., giving consumers a performance-based choice.

Technology Snapshot—Value Chain

Feedstock Source and Creation

Feedstock Providers

• Petroleum Plants

• Chemicals and resin manufacturers

Raw Material Developers

Construction Chemicals Developers

• Developers of materials such as

- Epoxy, Vinyl

- Acrylic

- Silicon

- Bitumen

Product Fabricators

Product Manufacturers

• Concrete admixtures

• Adhesives

• Water proofing chemicals and membranes

• Repair and rehabilitation chemicals

• Flooring chemicals

End Users

Contractors/Project Developers

• Residential

• Non-residential

• Roads

• Bridges

Technology Value Chain Analysis

• All feedstock suppliers such as BASF, Shell, Dow Chemical, Huntsman, and ExxonMobil provide continuous supply and evaluation of feedstock. Feedstock manufacturers will ensure that the quality of incoming raw materials are according to specifications, supplier statements, and certificates.

• Construction chemicals and material suppliers such as Sika, Evonik, BASF, Lafarge, Akzo Nobel, Arkema, and WR Grace provide a wide range of innovative offers in specialty construction chemicals and materials that includes: concrete admixtures and fibers, products for architectural concrete, liquid pigments for colored concrete, cement processing additives, concrete masonry products, and structural waterproofing systems.

• Product developers like Dow Chemical, Akzo Nobel, BASF, DuPont, and Saint Gobain provide the complete process of bringing new products to market whereas product fabricators or manufacturers provide a spectrum of construction chemicals or improved products by incorporating several chemicals: additives, pigments or composite materials for specific application.

• Contractors and project developers serves end users from across industry verticals to use construction chemicals ubiquitously.

Table of Contents

Executive Summary 3 

Technology Overview 7 

Impact Assessment and Analysis 12 

Diffusion of Innovation and Needs Assessment 20 

Opportunity Evaluation and Landscaping 23 

Key Patents 35 

Key Contacts 42 

The Frost and Sullivan Story 45

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India's rice revolution ~ John Vidal

In a village in India's poorest state, Bihar, farmers are growing world record amounts of rice – with no GM, and no herbicide. Is this one solution to world food shortages?

Sumant Kumar was overjoyed when he harvested his rice last year. There had been good rains in his village of Darveshpura in north-east India and he knew he could improve on the four or five tonnes per hectare that he usually managed. But every stalk he cut on his paddy field near the bank of the Sakri river seemed to weigh heavier than usual, every grain of rice was bigger and when his crop was weighed on the old village scales, even Kumar was shocked.

This was not six or even 10 or 20 tonnes. Kumar, a shy young farmer in Nalanda district of India's poorest state Bihar, had – using only farmyard manure and without any herbicides – grown an astonishing 22.4 tonnes of rice on one hectare of land. This was a world record and with rice the staple food of more than half the world's population of seven billion, big news.

It beat not just the 19.4 tonnes achieved by the "father of rice", the Chinese agricultural scientist Yuan Longping, but the World Bank-funded scientists at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, and anything achieved by the biggest European and American seed and GM companies. And it was not just Sumant Kumar. Krishna, Nitish, Sanjay and Bijay, his friends and rivals in Darveshpura, all recorded over 17 tonnes, and many others in the villages around claimed to have more than doubled their usual yields.

Rice farming in India: 'Now I produce enough food for my family' – video

The villagers, at the mercy of erratic weather and used to going without food in bad years, celebrated. But the Bihar state agricultural universities didn't believe them at first, while India's leading rice scientists muttered about freak results. The Nalanda farmers were accused of cheating. Only when the state's head of agriculture, a rice farmer himself, came to the village with his own men and personally verified Sumant's crop, was the record confirmed.

The rhythm of Nalanda village life was shattered. Here bullocks still pull ploughs as they have always done, their dung is still dried on the walls of houses and used to cook food. Electricity has still not reached most people. Sumant became a local hero, mentioned in the Indian parliament and asked to attend conferences. The state's chief minister came to Darveshpura to congratulate him, and the village was rewarded with electric power, a bank and a new concrete bridge.

That might have been the end of the story had Sumant's friend Nitish not smashed the world record for growing potatoes six months later. Shortly after Ravindra Kumar, a small farmer from a nearby Bihari village, broke the Indian record for growing wheat. Darveshpura became known as India's "miracle village", Nalanda became famous and teams of scientists, development groups, farmers, civil servants and politicians all descended to discover its secret.

When I meet the young farmers, all in their early 30s, they still seem slightly dazed by their fame. They've become unlikely heroes in a state where nearly half the families live below the Indian poverty line and 93% of the 100 million population depend on growing rice and potatoes. Nitish Kumar speaks quietly of his success and says he is determined to improve on the record. "In previous years, farming has not been very profitable," he says. "Now I realise that it can be. My whole life has changed. I can send my children to school and spend more on health. My income has increased a lot."

What happened in Darveshpura has divided scientists and is exciting governments and development experts. Tests on the soil show it is particularly rich in silicon but the reason for the "super yields" is entirely down to a method of growing crops called System of Rice (or root) Intensification (SRI). It has dramatically increased yields with wheat, potatoes, sugar cane, yams, tomatoes, garlic, aubergine and many other crops and is being hailed as one of the most significant developments of the past 50 years for the world's 500 million small-scale farmers and the two billion people who depend on them.

Instead of planting three-week-old rice seedlings in clumps of three or four in waterlogged fields, as rice farmers around the world traditionally do, the Darveshpura farmers carefully nurture only half as many seeds, and then transplant the young plants into fields, one by one, when much younger. Additionally, they space them at 25cm intervals in a grid pattern, keep the soil much drier and carefully weed around the plants to allow air to their roots. The premise that "less is more" was taught by Rajiv Kumar, a young Bihar state government extension worker who had been trained in turn by Anil Verma of a small Indian NGO called Pran (Preservation and

Proliferation of Rural Resources and Nature), which has introduced the SRI method to hundreds of villages in the past three years.

While the "green revolution" that averted Indian famine in the 1970s relied on improved crop varieties, expensive pesticides and chemical fertilisers, SRI appears to offer a long-term, sustainable future for no extra cost. With more than one in seven of the global population going hungry and demand for rice expected to outstrip supply within 20 years, it appears to offer real hope. Even a 30% increase in the yields of the world's small farmers would go a long way to alleviating poverty.

"Farmers use less seeds, less water and less chemicals but they get more without having to invest more. This is revolutionary," said Dr Surendra Chaurassa from Bihar's agriculture ministry. "I did not believe it to start with, but now I think it can potentially change the way everyone farms. I would want every state to promote it. If we get 30-40% increase in yields, that is more than enough to recommend it."

The results in Bihar have exceeded Chaurassa's hopes. Sudama Mahto, an agriculture officer in Nalanda, says a small investment in training a few hundred people to teach SRI methods has resulted in a 45% increase in the region's yields. Veerapandi Arumugam, the former agriculture minister of Tamil Nadu state, hailed the system as "revolutionising" farming.

SRI's origins go back to the 1980s in Madagascar where Henri de Laulanie, a French Jesuit priest and agronomist, observed how villagers grew rice in the uplands. He developed the method but it was an American, professor Norman Uphoff, director of the International Institute for Food, Agriculture and Development at Cornell University, who was largely responsible for spreading the word about De Laulanie's work.

Given $15m by an anonymous billionaire to research sustainable development, Uphoff went to Madagascar in 1983 and saw the success of SRI for himself: farmers whose previous yields averaged two tonnes per hectare were harvesting eight tonnes. In 1997 he started to actively promote SRI in Asia, where more than 600 million people are malnourished.

"It is a set of ideas, the absolute opposite to the first green revolution [of the 60s] which said that you had to change the genes and the soil nutrients to improve yields. That came at a tremendous ecological cost," says Uphoff. "Agriculture in the 21st century must be practised differently. Land and water resources are becoming scarcer, of poorer quality, or less reliable. Climatic conditions are in many places more adverse. SRI offers millions of disadvantaged households far better opportunities. Nobody is benefiting from this except the farmers; there are no patents, royalties or licensing fees."

For 40 years now, says Uphoff, science has been obsessed with improving seeds and using artificial fertilisers: "It's been genes, genes, genes. There has never been talk of managing crops. Corporations say 'we will breed you a better plant' and breeders work hard to get 5-10% increase in yields. We have tried to make agriculture an industrial enterprise and have forgotten its biological roots."

Not everyone agrees. Some scientists complain there is not enough peer-reviewed evidence around SRI and that it is impossible to get such returns. "SRI is a set of management practices and nothing else, many of which have been known for a long time and are best recommended practice," says Achim Dobermann, deputy director for research at the International Rice Research Institute. "Scientifically speaking I don't believe there is any miracle. When people independently have evaluated SRI principles then the result has usually been quite different from what has been reported on farm evaluations conducted by NGOs and others who are promoting it. Most scientists have had difficulty replicating the observations."

Dominic Glover, a British researcher working with Wageningen University in the Netherlands, has spent years analysing the introduction of GM crops in developing countries. He is now following how SRI is being adopted in India and believes there has been a "turf war".

"There are experts in their fields defending their knowledge," he says. "But in many areas, growers have tried SRI methods and abandoned them. People are unwilling to investigate this. SRI is good for small farmers who rely on their own families for labour, but not necessarily for larger operations. Rather than any magical theory, it is good husbandry, skill and attention which results in the super yields. Clearly in certain circumstances, it is an efficient resource for farmers. But it is labour intensive and nobody has come up with the technology to transplant single seedlings yet."

But some larger farmers in Bihar say it is not labour intensive and can actually reduce time spent in fields. "When a farmer does SRI the first time, yes it is more labour intensive," says Santosh Kumar, who grows 15 hectares of rice and vegetables in Nalanda. "Then it gets easier and new innovations are taking place now."

In its early days, SRI was dismissed or vilified by donors and scientists but in the past few years it has gained credibility. Uphoff estimates there are now 4-5 million farmers using SRI worldwide, with governments in China, India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam promoting it.

Sumant, Nitish and as many as 100,000 other SRI farmers in Bihar are now preparing their next rice crop. It's back-breaking work transplanting the young rice shoots from the nursery beds to the paddy fields but buoyed by recognition and results, their confidence and optimism in the future is sky high.

Last month Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz visited Nalanda district and recognised the potential of this kind of organic farming, telling the villagers they were "better than scientists". "It was amazing to see their success in organic farming," said Stiglitz, who called for more research. "Agriculture scientists from across the world should visit and learn and be inspired by them."

Bihar, from being India's poorest state, is now at the centre of what is being called a "new green grassroots revolution" with farming villages, research groups and NGOs all beginning to experiment with different crops using SRI. The state will invest $50m in SRI next year but western governments and foundations are holding back, preferring to invest in hi-tech research. The agronomist Anil Verma does not understand why: "The farmers know SRI works, but help is needed to train them. We know it works differently in different soils but the principles are solid," he says. "The biggest problem we have is that people want to do it but we do not have enough trainers.

"If any scientist or a company came up with a technology that almost guaranteed a 50% increase in yields at no extra cost they would get a Nobel prize. But when young Biharian farmers do that they get nothing. I only want to see the poor farmers have enough to eat."

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Nasa Plans To Lasso Asteroid And Land On It

An ambitious mission will allow astronauts to explore a space rock dragged into orbit around the Moon, says a US senator.

A US senator has said Nasa plans to use a robotic spaceship to lasso an asteroid and park it near the Moon for astronauts to explore.

Bill Nelson, chairman of the Senate Science and Space Subcommittee, said the 550-ton space rock could be snatched in 2019.

Local television channel News 13 said that once it had been dragged into a stable orbit, astronauts on board the Orion capsule would mine the rock to learn more about its composition.

It is hoped that four astronauts would nuzzle up next to the rock for spacewalking exploration by 2021, according to a government document.

Donald Yeomans, who leads Nasa's Near Earth Object programme, explained that the asteroid would be captured with the space equivalent of "a baggie with a drawstring".

"You bag it. You attach the solar propulsion module to de-spin it and bring it back to where you want it."

The asteroid would provide scientists with a "unique, meaningful and affordable" destination for the next decade, Senator Nelson was quoted as saying by Florida Today.

Mr Nelson, who represents Florida, told the newspaper that President Barack Obama will put aside $100m (£65m) in planning money for the mission, when the White House unveils its 2014 budget next week.

He said the project would help Nasa defend Earth from a potentially devastating asteroid strike in the future.

It could also help scientists test technologies that could one day be used in a manned mission to Mars.

Last year, the Keck Institute for Space Studies proposed a similar mission for Nasa with a price tag of $2.6bn (£1.7bn). However, the space agency has not yet revealed an estimated cost.

In a separate project, announced in January, US company Deep Space Industries said it planned to send a fleet of spacecraft into the solar system to mine asteroids for metals and minerals.

The first mission could be flown in 2015, with each journey lasting up to six months.

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The robotic ship would capture the 500-ton 25-foot asteroid in 2019. Then using an Orion space capsule, now being developed, a crew of about four astronauts would nuzzle up next to the rock in 2021 for spacewalking exploration, according to a government document obtained by The Associated Press.

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., said the plan would speed up by four years the existing mission to land astronauts on an asteroid by bringing the space rock closer to Earth.

Nelson, who is chairman of the Senate science and space subcommittee, said Friday that President Barack Obama is putting $100 million in planning money for the accelerated asteroid mission in the 2014 budget that comes out next week. The money would be used to find the right small asteroid.

“It really is a clever concept,” Nelson said in a press conference in Orlando. “Go find your ideal candidate for an asteroid. Go get it robotically and bring it back.”

While there are thousands of asteroids that size out there, finding the right one that comes by Earth at just the right time to be captured will not be easy, said Donald Yeomans, who heads NASA’s Near Earth Object program that monitors close-by asteroids. He said once a suitable rock is found it would be captured with the space equivalent of “a baggie with a drawstring. You bag it. You attach the solar propulsion module to de-spin it and bring it back to where you want it.”

Yeomans said a 25-foot asteroid is no threat to Earth because it would burn up should it inadvertently enter Earth’s atmosphere. The mission as Nelson described is perfectly safe, he said.

Nelson said this would help NASA develop the capability to nudge away a dangerous asteroid if one headed to Earth in the future. It also would be training for a future mission to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s, he said.

The government document said the mission, with no price tag at the moment, would inspire because it “will send humans farther than they have ever been before.”

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