Asteroid Mining Mission Revealed by Planetary Resources, Inc.

[pokerfan]

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Published on 24 Apr 2012 by PlanetaryResources

Planetary Resources' mission is mine near-Earth asteroids for raw materials, ranging from water to precious metals. Through the development of cost-effective exploration technologies, the company is poised to initiate prospecting missions targeting resource-rich asteroids that are easily accessible.

Resource extraction from asteroids will deliver multiple benefits to humanity and could be valued at billions of dollars annually. The effort will tap into the high concentration of precious metals found on asteroids and provide a sustainable supply to the ever-growing population on Earth.

The company was founded by space visionary Peter H. Diamandis, M.D. and leading commercial space entrepreneur Eric Anderson, and is supported by an impressive investor and advisor group, including Google's Larry Page & Eric Schmidt, Ph.D.; film maker & explorer James Cameron; Chairman of Intentional Software Corporation and Microsoft's former Chief Software Architect Charles Simonyi, Ph.D.; Founder of Sherpalo and Google Board of Directors founding member K. Ram Shriram; and Chairman of Hillwood and The Perot Group Ross Perot, Jr.

Visit www.planetaryresources.com for more information.

[The Wielding Truth]

1. James Cameron. humph... Avatar mining?

[TheWraith]

2. I have enthusiastic hopes for this. It has really spectacular potential. nt

[rug]

3. This looks like somrthing from WALL-E.

[DaveJ]

4. Does anyone know how they plan on getting the material back to Earth?

I skimmed over the website and didn't see anything. Earlier I was guessing that they would break off pieces and let them fall to Earth in a safe location, but just wondering what the real plan is...?

[LongTomH]

8. You can use the material in space for building solar power satellites and space habitats

Check out the Space Studies Institutes slide show. If you want to get the material down to Earth as refined material, all you need is a heat shield (easily manufactured from asteroid material). To send material up a gravity well, you need to expend energy working against gravity and air drag; to get material down that same gravity well, gravity and air drag work for you.

[DRoseDARs]

9. It'll easily be 20-30 years before we start seeing any of those materials physically ready...

For now, they're going in little steps, starting with small satellites that will track and scan near-Earth asteroids for potential minerals. Probes will be sent out later to collect and return samples to better ascertain likely candidates. Our global launch infrastructure is a long way from being able to handle delivery of mining equipment/robotics and return of ores in meaningful quantities, to say nothing of those devices not actually existing yet that can handle the rigors of space or the difficulties of processing any raw ore in space. Any target asteroids will likely be gravity-towed into orbit around Luna and raw ores will be transported from there to Earth. Almost certainly they'll be stuffed into cargo pods and dropped out of orbit into the Pacific Ocean for collection, much like the Apollo capsules, for processing here. However, starting out, any resources gathered will most likely be water, hydrogen, and oxygen in order to build up enough space-borne stock materials to establish permanent Human presence in space. Robots can only do so much without Human intervention before they hit their limitations.

[DaveJ]

12. I'm guessing there will be a tech surge coming soon

With the work being done to create super fast computer chips, maybe it will enable other areas of technology to accelerate. Especially if there are significant AI advances. It may take 20-30 years just for the bureaucracy alone though.

[jeff47]

11. I'm not so sure the plan is to bring them back to Earth.

The expensive part of doing anything in space is getting the stuff off Earth and into orbit.

I'm thinking the "big money" to start with would be products like water and oxygen that could be sold to the ISS for less than it costs to launch said products. Would also make other off-Earth facilities far less expensive to operate, thus far more possible.

[Posteritatis]

26. One of their plans is to forage for consumables for the ISS and other stations, yeah. (nt)

[freshwest]

5. My first thought seeing this was the movie 'Alien' with Sigourney Weaver.

Film producer James Cameron is a 'key person' for Planetary Resources, Inc., a private corporation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cameron

Maybe they'll name the mining ship Nostromo and sub-contract to Weyland-Yutani.

[LongTomH]

6. I'm excited to see this finally happening!

I remember the old days of The L5 Society when we were arguing over the advantages of lunar vs asteroid resources for building space settlements and solar power satellites. K. Eric Drexler and former astronaut Brian T. O'Leary, among others favored the asteroids, partly because they offered a wider range of materials and partly because the energy needed to reach near-Earth asteroids is actually less than that needed for the lunar surface.

Now that we know some asteroids contain water, the advantage is definitely to the asteroids.

The image below comes from the Space Studies Institute art show:

[pokerfan]

17. Yeah, I remember the O'Neil and the high frontier

Nice collection of space colony art from NASA Ames:

http://settlement.arc.nasa.gov/70sArt/art.html



(hi-res versions at the link.)

[JDPriestly]

7. The music in this video is really cheap.

Private indeed. Sounds like they are trying hoping to profit from research the taxpayers paid for.

I'd check the bona fides on these guys very, very, very carefully and get a second, dispassionate opinion (if not more opinions) on their plans.

Remember, a new law was passed that states that start-ups don't have to do really honest audits for the first five years.

We had a friend who got scammed with one of these high-tech ideas a few years ago. He tried to get all his friends to buy into it. Of course, nothing came of it.

Caution. I see red flags all over this.

Check out who is behind it and all the details on their gameplan before you hand them any money.

[LongTomH]

10. You can check out the 'bona fides' for all these people online.

Google is your friend.

As for "profiting from the research taxpayers paid for," well yeah, that's what usually happens. Sometime look up the history of the airlines as a prime example. The Douglas DC-3, the world's first commercial airliner was commissioned by American Airlines and TWA. The research that lead to the DC-3 design, the streamlined cowls around the radial engines, the high-lift wings, and the radio navigation system, were the products of the NASA's predecessor: The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. NACA or NASA played a major role in the designs of every generation of airliner since.

The point is, this country has never had a 'flag carrier,' like British Airways or Lufthansa used to be. Our airlines have always been privately owned and competitive; but, government has always played a role, in maintaining the the air traffic control system, the system of radio navigation aids (Which have now been replaced by GPS.), and building airports (With a mix of city, state and federal funds.). Actually, the airline industry would never have gotten started without the subsidy represented by airmail contracts.

The relationship between the government and private industry in space is still being worked out. Of course, government funded the research on rockets, life support, etc. necessary to build spacecraft.

Look, I'm very liberal; but, I'm a fan of the more innovative private companies in the space field, like SpaceX. I was a participant in something called "March Storm," back in the 90s and early post-2000 time frame. This was a 'citizens lobbying' effort to talk to our congresspersons about space, including an expanded role for the private sector.

As you can guess, the March Storm bunch did have a strong conservative / libertarian contingent; but, there were liberals, such as the late Jim Benson, founder of SpaceDev. SpaceDev was originally founded to sponsor a privately funded mission to an asteroid. Jim Benson identified himself as a Democrat twice during the March Storm session I remember him being present at.

I remember Mr. Benson's dialog / debate with then-current NASA Administrator Dan Goldin on whether NASA should purchase space data from private companies.

[JDPriestly]

21. I agree about being a fan of innovative companies, but I also believe in raising taxes

on the rich. This project is just one example of rich people, because they have lots of money, being able to take advantage of knowledge developed at taxpayer expense.

And then, of course, many of these rich people begrudge the fact that a poor person gets to receive food stamps so they can eat and Medicaid so that they can survive illness because, after all, the poor person didn't work for it and is sucking at the teat of the government.

So that is why I said something. I am very skeptical about this project.

[DaveJ]

13. With James Cameron funding it, the music should be better.

I have not seen any requests for money. I think they are seeking help from other scientists and technologists. I checked the WSJ article posted on this and the wingnuts think this is a leftist wacko undertaking, which is probably how they described air travel and electricity at first.

[pokerfan]

19. Nothing a little Celine Dion couldn't fix

[JDPriestly]

22. Almost anything would be better than that commercial background music.

[Larry Ogg]

14. And all of humanity is going to benefit, not just the greedy...

Last edited Tue Apr 24, 2012, 09:32 PM - Edit history (1)

If you believe that, I have some really nice, and affordable floating mountains on Pandora that I can sell you really cheap.

Just PM me with your credit card number and I will send you a deed.

[wxgeek7]

15. Not sure if this is a good idea

Being a private company, and how they're usually most concerned with maximizing profits; will they take all the necessary precautions, like say NASA would? My concern is that near-earth asteroids have a nasty habit of slamming into earth occasionally. Would they care more about mining, than the possibility of accidentally putting an asteroid on a trajectory for earth?

[Katashi_itto]

16. Look at it this way...

You said it yourself, its a profit driven company right?

In the business of selling ore to earth right?

Slamming an asteroid into Earth and destroying the market your trying to sell to, is sort of bad for business...

It will be very safe. Plotting trajectories, mass, gravity,it will actually be pretty pedestrian.

[DaveJ]

18. The intermediary technology would be worth the investment

Not our money, of course.
I'm not sure why people seem to be paranoid THEY are being asked to fund this. Kennedy's moon mission met similar resistance.

Anyway, before this came up, I thought the next big technology might be "construction robots" that will create buildings, railways, etc.

Even if Cameron, Page, etc., do only that, they'll make their money back. But if they are building construction robots, might as well send them to asteroids to pick up more materials. And I think people are not realizing that computer/robotic technology in 10 years will be amazing. Makes perfect sense.

[Posteritatis]

24. They've actually been pretty explicit that they're *not* interested in just maximizing profit

But I suppose one can kneejerk away without looking at the company if that's easier.

Also, there's seventeen corpses on line one who want to talk to you about NASA's precautions.

[Tax Man]

20. no bruce willis?

[coreystone1985]

23. Spam deleted by cyberswede (MIR Team)

[Posteritatis]

25. This is great and I'm looking forward to the first launches in '14 or so. (nt)