NASA Tractor Beam: From Sci-Fi to Reality?

NASA Studying Tractor Beams

NASA has secured funding to study "the concept for remotely capturing planetary or atmospheric particles and delivering them to a robotic rover or orbiting spacecraft for analysis". In other words, NASA wants to build a tractor beam.

The NASA article describes tractor beams as "a mainstay in science fiction, and Star Trek in particular", but I always think Star Wars.  Star Trek was more about transporters, right?

Also, does this mean that NASA wants to build a Death Star on which to place its tractor beam? Hey, it's a fair question.

By the time NASA perfects its tractor beam, Ewan-MacGregor Ben Kenobi will hae aged into Sir-Alec-Guinness Ben Kenobi, and he'll shut down the tractor beam with relative ease. He's stealthy.

(found via Boing Boing)

... and this is totally what's going to happen: