These days we catch asteroids as easily as butterflies in a net.
We travel by hitching rides on asteroids, they get us there pretty fast.
We opened up small holes in spacetime and the asteroids entered our mineral extraction facilities on Earth.
The asteroid catcher brought many rare minerals to Earth.
Comets and asteroids were all Laxir thought of. He dreamed or riding one through the cosmos by night and studied them by day. He knew that one day these lonely fragments would hold the key to a level of understanding humanity was still only reaching for.
The asteroid was to hit earth. The path had been set for millennia; the time of humanity's final test set by the cosmos. The only chance of avoidance, the only chance for survival, was for the dominant powers on earth to cooperate in ways never seen before. The twenty something kilometre wide rock wasn't going to be persuaded to move by just a few missiles, it would take them all plus some prayers and good luck.
Marlin approached the asteroid, his gloved hand operating the grabber. He couldn't help but grin as the claws closed around it. The lump was undoubtedly an agglomeration of many elements, promising many hours of analysis to determine which they were. There only had to be trace amounts of something Earth needed and a new mission would be underway to retrieve the other fragments from the planet's belt. It wasn't buzz of science or acquiring elements that pleased him, it was that once the cargo area was full of asteroids he was homeward bound and home meant sunlight and fresh air.