This is an old article (January 2013) and is very interesting, but substantially out of date regarding a story that has developed a lot. The concept, as indica

This is an old article (January 2013) and is very interesting, but substantially out of date regarding a story that has developed a lot. The concept, as indicated in the article, was developed by a KISS (Keck Institute) study group, which is a fancy way of saying about 30 scientists/technologists who gathered in a room at Caltech to think up some new mission concepts. The concept caught some tailwind -- from the manned side of NASA -- and HQ started talking about it as a possible mission concept that would be a step on the manned roadmap. Such fast uptake of a mission concept is incredibly rare. Then the larger asteroid science community took interest, and was somewhat disgruntled because the concept had not been vetted by the community at large. Controversy ensued throughout 2013 -- partly centered on selection of an asteroid -- here is a good summary: http://news.sciencemag.org/space/2013/07/nasa-warned-go-slow-asteroid-capture-project http://news.sciencemag.org/space/2013/07/nasa-warned-go-slow... The concept is now called the "asteroid initiative" and I think it is also associated with enhancing NEO detection. The web site is here: http://www.nasa.gov/asteroidforum/#.U151pF7fPRo http://www.nasa.gov/asteroidforum/#.U151pF7fPRo