[Divvy]

MIT's Technology Review has just gotten news of a mysterious new project that claims it will "create a new industry and a new definition of 'natural resources.'" Space exploration company Planetary Resources will be unveiled in a conference call on Tuesday, April 24th. Besides the audacious announcement, which promises to "overlay two critical sectors — space exploration and natural resources — to add trillions of dollars to the global GDP," what makes this unique is its high-profile support group. The venture is backed by Google executives Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, director James Cameron, and politician Ross Perot's son, among others. We're left to ponder, however, what Planetary Resources will actually do. Technology Review speculates that the project is an asteroid mining operation, reasoning that the other natural resources we need — an Earth-like habitat and supply of fossil fuels — aren't going to be found in space any time soon. Looking at the evidence, asteroid mining seems pretty likely at this point, especially since X Prize founder and perpetual optimist Peter Diamandis is at the head of the operation. In 2005, Diamandis appeared at TED describing an extraterrestrial environment where "everything we hold of value on this planet — metal and minerals and real estate and energy" are available in "infinite quantities." He specifically singled out asteroid mining, claiming that he could finance mining a "20 trillion dollar" asteroid full of nickel-iron alloy by speculating in the precious metals market. The three other members listed — entrepreneur Eric Anderson, astronaut Tom Jones, and former NASA mission manager Chris Lewicki — will almost certainly affect the project, but it's more difficult to tie their work to a potential goal. Eric Anderson's experience is primarily in space tourism, which could create a new industry but probably wouldn't add up to trillions of dollars, and Jones and Lewicki have stayed mum on any grand plans. Next week, we'll be finding out for certain what's going on, and then Planetary Resources will have to start actually making good on its impressive claims. The event will apparently be streamed, and tickets are being sold on the Museum of Flight's page, although the information there makes no mention of a new company. SOURCE

http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/18/29...cameron-google

[Dead]

Cameron is just looking for a new element so he can dub it unobtainium.

Dat limitless pool of money

[Tawpgun]

Please be legit.

We could use a more concrete incentive for forwarding space exploration. Betterment of human society isn't good enough for most people.

[Vulcano's assistant]

what about vespene gas?

[Corran Horn]

what about vespene gas?

Need more.

[themadcowtipper]

Future Wars will be be started over Asteroids. It is like melange.

[Hootie]

imokwiththis.jpg/gif/exe/png/bmp/etc

[strafer]

Is that his name; Ros Peros son?

[jett]

This is pretty awesome.

Where do I sign up to be a space miner?

[speculawyer]

I get the feeling that this is some elaborate hoax. C'mon . . . space mining? Really? Unless there are big hunks of gold in low earth orbit, I can't see how it could make any sense.

[Clevinger]

I'm all for the effort, but I'll believe it when I see it.

[Kud Dukan]

Very intriguing...looking forward to hearing what this is all about.

[Cyan]

Please be legit. We could use a more concrete incentive for forwarding space exploration. Betterment of human society isn't good enough for most people.

It's a real thing. The question is, will it actually lead anywhere.

I get the feeling that this is some elaborate hoax. C'mon . . . space mining? Really? Unless there are big hunks of gold in low earth orbit, I can't see how it could make any sense.

Not a hokes!

I'm not sure it'll be economically feasible at any point in the near future. Feels like more of a "maybe someday this will have been the precursor to something awesome" project.

[carfo]

That's a hard task

[DiscoJer]

Considering the asteroid "belt" (which isn't particularly dense, not even remotely like you see in the movies) is between Mars and Jupiter, I think that this isn't going to happen any time soon.

Unless there are metallic ones close by, which I don't think so. Maybe they plan on mining Apophis, which is headed our way....

[ElectricBlue187]

I doubt this will happen. It's not feasible without a space elevator or some other extremely low cost per launch system

[AstroNut325]

facepalm to the max.

Why is NASA not leading this charge?

All in all... Good to see private enterprise stepping in where NASA is boldly NOT going.

[ElectricBlue187]

facepalm to the max. Why is NASA not leading this charge? All in all... Good to see private enterprise stepping in where NASA is boldly NOT going.

Probably because it isn't possible and they are too concerned with LEO

[Ragnarok]

I guess this means a space elevator is on the way!

[DeathNote]

I thought about this a lot. I wanna be a Space miner, make a lot of money, have have my decedents be baller Space cowboys when shit goes south instead of being week living on a planet.

[Neuromancer]

Where do I sign up? I want to be a space trucker, I'll haul all the space ore you guys pick up.

[BlueTsunami]

Google turning into Weyland Industries confirmed

[Tawpgun]

facepalm to the max. Why is NASA not leading this charge? All in all... Good to see private enterprise stepping in where NASA is boldly NOT going.

NASA has no incentives in mining. They want research and advancing the frontier. Scientific purposes, not economical.

[Escape Goat]

I want to be a space miner. Go mine methane on uranus.

[Brawndo Addict]

How would this even possibly work using current or even near-future technology? Or is this more of laying the groundwork to start researching the feasibility and needed tech? Last time I checked asteroids were kind of far away from earth and constantly flying away, and it's not exactly like we have large enough spacecraft or enough fuel supplies to be capable of ferrying materials back and forth from them.

If moon mining or resource extraction is already out of the question, how does shifting your target to an asteroid make it any easier? Even if you could somehow anchor the asteroid in near earth orbit, I feel like the amount of energy and its requisite cost to send ships up and down wouldn't be worth it.

[Tawpgun]

How would this even possibly work using current or even near-future technology? Or is this more of laying the groundwork to start researching the feasibility and needed tech? Last time I checked asteroids were kind of far away from earth and constantly flying away, and it's not exactly like we have large enough spacecraft or enough fuel supplies to be capable of ferrying materials back and forth from them. If moon mining or resource extraction is already out of the question, how does shifting your target to an asteroid make it any easier? Even if you could somehow anchor the asteroid in near earth orbit, I feel like the amount of energy and its requisite cost to send ships up and down wouldn't be worth it.

Robots could do it. It's a matter of building one that can mine and shoot the payload off the asteroid toward earth.

The other option is bringing the asteroids into Earth Orbit, mining them there, and going back for more when one is depleted.

[NaughtyCalibur]

Google turning into Weyland Industries confirmed

Exactly what I was thinking, haha.

[Canuck76]

I'd rather spend money converting the auto/transportation industry to make electric mandatory on stuff.

[Brawndo Addict]

Robots could do it. It's a matter of building one that can mine and shoot the payload off the asteroid toward earth. The other option is bringing the asteroids into Earth Orbit, mining them there, and going back for more when one is depleted.

That's one shot that we better make with 100% accuracy, yikes. Programmers for that trajectory calculation are gonna have a lot of pressure on them.

And both of those scenarios seem to require technology so advanced and with such large energy requirements that if we somehow had access to said level of tech we probably wouldn't need to mine asteroids in the first place. If we have the power to lock on an asteroid in orbit I feel like our desire for precious metals is probably at the low end of the totem pole by that point?

[equap]

facepalm to the max. Why is NASA not leading this charge? All in all... Good to see private enterprise stepping in where NASA is boldly NOT going.

uh...Challenger? 'nuff said.

[ThoseDeafMutes]

That's one shot that we better make with 100% accuracy, yikes. Programmers for that trajectory calculation are gonna have a lot of pressure on them.

The physics calculations are trivial, errors are more likely to occur from some component breaking or what have you. Even then, for things to go wrong they have to go horribly wrong. Ideally you capture asteroids into high Earth orbit, so minor variance either way shouldn't result in an impact.

Either way though, you'll see the creation of some UN led "space guard", because giving civilians access to nuclear-equivalent weaponry (Crashing asteroids into the Earth) isn't going to fly, and if a trajectory fuckup happens, you want an international group ready to take action and deflect it before it causes damage.

This can double as defense against natural asteroid collisions too, which is a good thing.

And both of those scenarios seem to require technology so advanced and with such large energy requirements that if we somehow had access to said level of tech we probably wouldn't need to mine asteroids in the first place. If we have the power to lock on an asteroid in orbit I feel like our desire for precious metals is probably at the low end of the totem pole by that point?

Asteroids routinely swing past Earth, the idea is to send a mission to slightly alter it's course so that it ends up getting captured by Earth's gravity rather than continuing past. If you're talking about distant asteroids that come nowhere near Earth then yeah, that will take a lot of energy.

[mug]

Perot Jr is such a douche, ran the mavs like an idiot prior to Cuban.

[Zona]

That's one shot that we better make with 100% accuracy, yikes. Programmers for that trajectory calculation are gonna have a lot of pressure on them. And both of those scenarios seem to require technology so advanced and with such large energy requirements that if we somehow had access to said level of tech we probably wouldn't need to mine asteroids in the first place. If we have the power to lock on an asteroid in orbit I feel like our desire for precious metals is probably at the low end of the totem pole by that point?

It's not a matter of precious metals its a matter of metals period. We have the tech to do this today, it's just not cost effective. The catch 22 with these projects seems to be they wont be cost effective till someone dose it, and no ones going to do it till it's cost effective.

[Kettch]

This is interesting. There was just a discussion in the Space thread recently about asteroid mining.

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

Some day, the platinum, cobalt and other valuable elements from asteroids may even be returned to Earth for profit. At 1997 prices, a relatively small metallic asteroid with a diameter of 1.6 km (0.99 mi) contains more than 20 trillion US dollars worth of industrial and precious metals.[1][2] In fact, all the gold, cobalt, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhenium, rhodium, ruthenium, and tungsten that we now mine from the Earth's crust, and that are essential for economic and technological progress, came originally from the rain of asteroids that hit the Earth after the crust cooled.

Economic analyses generally show that asteroid mining will not attract private investment at current commodity prices and space transportation costs.[12] However, based on known terrestrial reserves and growing consumption in developing countries, there is speculation that key elements needed for modern industry, including antimony, zinc, tin, silver, lead, indium, gold, and copper, could be exhausted on Earth within 50-60 years.

[Smiles and Cries]

they will doom us all

[Brawndo Addict]

Asteroids routinely swing past Earth, the idea is to send a mission to slightly alter it's course so that it ends up getting captured by Earth's gravity rather than continuing past. If you're talking about distant asteroids that come nowhere near Earth then yeah, that will take a lot of energy.

I guess the part I'm confused about is how you alter it's orbit in such a way that it safely transitions to orbiting around earth in more of a moon pattern (in terms of shape and distance). I feel like we'll also need much larger spacecraft in order to make sure we bring down enough raw materials to justify the effort. I imagine a space shuttle sized vessel full of minerals isn't anywhere close to off-setting the fuel expenditure alone, but I may be grossly overestimating the cost of flying into space and underestimating the value of raw metals.

Even in a potential scenario in which the earth is running out of metal resources so cost shouldn't be a factor in the equation, wouldn't we be just as likely to lack the amount of raw fuel to accomplish this feat as well?

[DeathNote]

It would be cool if they were brought into orbit and were big enough to reflect a lot of light. You could look up at think about the mining operation.

[Sub_Level]

James Cameron to use Titanic and Avatar revenue to fund true artificial intelligence, create a cure for bone cancer, and be the first man to land on Mars.

[El Sloth]

Personally hoping for bad ass space elevator proposal before any asteroid mining announcement.

[Suikoguy]

Eh, I don't see the practicality of this unless we build a space elevator.

Now if they are also funding a space elevator...

edit: Sorry El Sloth, did not see your post.

[sans_pants]

Personally hoping for bad ass space elevator proposal before any asteroid mining announcement.

i once read it would only cost like 8 billion, which seems so low to me. imagine how long it would take for the world governments to approve that thing

[Flynn]

These are the dudes that will save us when the big one is about to crash into Earth.

[Chiggs]

In other news, Valve's PowerPlay to introduce broadband-esque gaming performance over 56K connections.

[El Sloth]

Eh, I don't see the practicality of this unless we build a space elevator. Now if they are also funding a space elevator...

You. I like you. You're a good guy.

i once read it would only cost like 8 billion, which seems so low to me. imagine how long it would take for the world governments to approve that thing

You know, I saw the figure 8 billion and also immediately thought, "well, that's not very much..."

I think I've been reading about the U.S. national debt too much (15.6 trillion last I checked).

Speaking seriously, I think if there was a combined effort between interested world governments and the private sector then a 8 billion shared price tag would be pretty manageable if budgeted intelligently and production (and then construction) spread out across a number of years.

Getting the plan approved would probably take much longer.

[orientalNoodle]

You. I like you. You're a good guy. You know, I saw the figure 8 billion and also immediately thought, "well, that's not very much..." I think I've been reading about the U.S. national debt too much (15.6 trillion last I checked). Speaking seriously, I think if there was a combined effort between interested world governments and the private sector then a 8 billion shared price tag would be pretty manageable if budgeted intelligently and production (and then construction) spread out across a number of years. Getting the plan approved would probably take much longer.

8 billion dollars? I guess the cost of research and development of the technology is not included.

[El Sloth]

8 billion dollars? I guess the cost of research and development of the technology is not included.

Maybe he misheard and it was 8 trillion dollars.

[sans_pants]

You. I like you. You're a good guy. You know, I saw the figure 8 billion and also immediately thought, "well, that's not very much..." I think I've been reading about the U.S. national debt too much (15.6 trillion last I checked). Speaking seriously, I think if there was a combined effort between interested world governments and the private sector then a 8 billion shared price tag would be pretty manageable if budgeted intelligently and production (and then construction) spread out across a number of years. Getting the plan approved would probably take much longer.

i live in vegas and the city center complex, which was the largest private construction project in us history, was around 8 billion

i could be way off about the cost of space elevators, though. i think that tag assumes cheaper and more abundant carbon nano tubes, probably in like 10 years or more

[Jarmel]

When they stream this, someone please please create a new thread. I would love to watch this.

[neoanarch]

Maybe he misheard and it was 8 trillion dollars.

The many private space tourist/cargo ventures that we have now don't have massive (relative) budgets. If we were to assume any operations would be robotic based and capable of producing said robotics on site(3d priniting) the budget doesn't have to be that big.

[LOCK]

James Cameron will be a future god.