Interviews: Doug Plata and Lunar COTS + Joel Achenbach and asteroid capture

Moonandback has posted two parts of an interview with Dr. Doug Plata, who is an advocate of a Lunar COTS program. With Lunar COTS, NASA would encourage faster, less expensive lunar development by buying commercial hardware and services in a manner similar to the successful COTS (Commercial Orbital Transportation System) program for cargo delivery to the International Space Station:

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In this PBS NewsHour interview, Washington Post science reporter Joel Achenbach talks about NASA’s proposed project to capture a small asteroid and about the budget and policy problems the agency is having: Facing Budget Battles, NASA Still Aims High With Asteroid Capture Mission – PBS NewsHour -Aug. 19, 2013

He is writing a series about the agency’s problems, e.g. on Sunday he had this long front page article:

Watch Still Aims High in Asteroid Capture Mission Despite Budget on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.