10 replies to this topic

[Karasuma Akane]

This is what happens when mineral prices get high enough...

Mystery company backed by James Cameron and Google executives may be an asteroid mining project

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.

I guess they heard about the removal of drone alloys and the end of meta 0 loot drops.

[Seelen Jager]

Max skill hulk alt ready to sign up when this gets in ga.... Wait a minute. Cool deal, nice to see more private entities getting into the space game.

[Aluchem]

Belongs in my awesome stuff thread

[Old Toterra]

I guess the great thing about being ridiculously rich is you can waste huge sums of money. Yes an astroid would be a bounty of riches... however the costs are even more massive.

[Alistone Malikite]

I guess the great thing about being ridiculously rich is you can waste huge sums of money.

Yes an astroid would be a bounty of riches... however the costs are even more massive.

But asteriods have a lote of metals for building superstructure & tunnels and a lot of ice for water/oxygen/fuel. It may be possible to essentially autobuild a vessel from the materials on an asteroid. And it probably already has a velocity that could be used to save a LOT of energy for long range missions.

[Othran]

I suspect that govt would grab the project (ie make them an offer they couldn't refuse) as soon as it became obvious it was viable. Well that's what would happen in the USA or UK anyway. Edit - actually that's not true, the UK would probably seize the project and give it to the USA for free - well a flight on Air Force 1 anyway

[Ba'al Hadad]

I wonder how much extra mass the earth can support before it is compromised...

[Malthraz]

I have heard of fly in/fly out jobs, but this is just off the planet. Seriously though, this sounds like a really good way to waste a lot of money.

[Aluchem]

I have heard of fly in/fly out jobs, but this is just off the planet.

Seriously though, this sounds like a really good way to GET SUPERPOWERS.

FYP

[Mujen]

I'm a big fan of stuff you should know and they did a podcast about asteroid mining. Some good info- http://castroller.co...uShould/2400247

[Yamir Ke'Shark]

Asteroid mining for minerals and raw materials is a great idea. However the logistical problems of bringing them back to earth are extensive. It is better to keep them in space and use them for construction work there. Only really feasible method for bringing it back down is for rare materials difficult to find on earth itself, a space elevator would do but again problemstic issues there. Another method for mining would be to just throw the asteroid at the moon and harvest from there Pros and cons of each approach As for bringing material down to earth, eventually you will destabilise the earths rotational speed due to mass increases, thus affection both centripedal and centrifugal forces of the earth, in addional to alterin the level if gravitational pull if you brought down huge amounts of dense materials Best bets are to use close orbiting objects either geostational or not, of to use the lLeGrange points for our solar system for construction.