They want to drag an asteroid back to earth.

https://www.yahoo.com/tech/nasa-passes-major-milestone-now-121331833.html

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=49262

During the first stage, called the Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission (ARRM), the agency will send a robotic vessel to a near-Earth asteroid where it will survey the surface in a series of close flybys. After identifying a manageable boulder, the vessel will descend on the asteroid, capture the boulder, lift off, and drag the object back to lunar orbit. However, just before the vessel travels to the Moon, it will perform a “planetary defense demonstration,” in which it will use the gravitational attraction between the asteroid and the spacecraft to gently deflect the asteroid’s trajectory. Astronauts will travel to the boulder aboard an Orion spacecraft in the second phase, the Asteroid Redirect Crewed Mission (ARCM). In this mission, the crew will collect asteroid samples and return them to Earth for study, which NASA says will mark the single biggest haul of asteroid material ever returned to Earth by a space mission. They hope the material will provide insight into the origin of life of Earth and the potential value of asteroid resources, including water and organic compounds.

Remarks: Will the technology eventually be used to threaten other countries for political agendas? Ie. You all remember the Star Wars technology debates of the US and other nations wanting special military superiority being able to launch weapons on other nations to get their compliance with political agreements?

Full-spectrum dominance also known as full-spectrum superiority, is a military entity's achievement of control over all dimensions of the battlespace, effectively possessing an overwhelming diversity of resources in such areas as terrestrial, aerial, maritime, subterranean, extraterrestrial, psychological, and bio- or cyber-technological warfare. "Full spectrum dominance includes the physical battlespace; air, surface and sub-surface as well as the electromagnetic spectrum and information space. Control implies that freedom of opposition force assets to exploit the battlespace is wholly constrained." The United States Department of Defense defines "full-spectrum superiority" as: The cumulative effect of dominance in the air, land, maritime, and space domains and information environment, which includes cyberspace, that permits the conduct of joint operations without effective opposition or prohibitive interference.[1] The United States military's doctrine has espoused a strategic intent to be capable of achieving this state in a conflict, either alone or with allies[2] by defeating any adversary and controlling any situation across the range of military operations. The stated intent implies significant investment in a range of capabilities: dominant maneuver, precision engagement, focused logistics, and full-dimensional protection.

Engdahl, F. William Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order Boxborough, MA: 2009 Third Millennium Press. 268 pages.

Mahajan, Rahul "Full Spectrum Dominance, U.S. power in Iraq and beyond". New York: 2003 Seven Stories Press.

[Edited on 8/16/2016 by gina]