There is a House hearing today on deep space exploration policy:

• Moon versus asteroids on the path to Mars – Space Politics
• Next Steps in Human Exploration to Mars and Beyond – Committee on Science – U.S. House of Representatives

The witnesses include:

• Dr. Louis Friedman, Co-Lead, Keck Institute for Space Studies Asteroid Retrieval Mission Study and Executive Director Emeritus, The Planetary Society
• Dr. Paul Spudis, Senior Staff Scientist, Lunar and Planetary Institute
• Dr. Steven M. Squyres, Goldwin Smith Professor of Astronomy, Cornell University
• Mr. Douglas Cooke, Owner, Cooke Concepts and Solutions

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Robert Zubrin offers his usual calm and considered thoughts on the proposed asteroid retrieval mission: NASA’s Asteroid Absurdity – SpaceNews.com

Here’s the Planetary Society’s view: The Planetary Society Announces Conditional Support of NASA’s Asteroid Mission – The Planetary Society

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A comment from Stewart Money on the Bigelow contract from NASA to study public/commercial partnerships for deep space exploration:  Exploring NASA’s Agreement with Bigelow – Innerspace.net