Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled

Tar.Aldarion

http://news.yahoo.com/asteroid-mining-venture-backed-google-execs-james-cameron-011205183.html

A newly unveiled company with some high-profile backers — including filmmaker James Cameron and Google co-founder Larry Page — has announced plans to mine near-Earth asteroids for resources such as precious metals and water.
Planetary Resources, Inc. intends to sell these materials, generating a healthy profit for itself. But it also aims to advance humanity's exploration and exploitation of space, with resource extraction serving as an anchor industry that helps our species spread throughout the solar system.
"If you look at space resources, the logical next step is to go to the near-Earth asteroids," Planetary Resources co-founder and co-chairman Eric Anderson told SPACE.com. "They're just so valuable, and so easy to reach energetically. Near-Earth asteroids really are the low-hanging fruit of the solar system."

"A single platinum-rich space rock 1,650 feet (500 meters) wide contains the equivalent of all the platinum-group metals ever mined throughout human history, company officials said."


Looks like they plan to set up space gas station, a mining operation, sell water to NASA, and get a lot of valuable metals from the platinum group, which are used in a lot/i] of technologies today and are very useful for their unique properties. Also hilarious that James Cameron is involved. Anyway, I think it's great, about time. Looking forward to developments.

I Heart Internet

Interesting. But you would run out of numbers before you reach the number of Titanic sequels that Cameron would have to make to keep up with the rate a company like that would burn cash.

davet82

at the moment it would cost 1 billion us dollars to bring back 2 oz of platnium, thats what nasa works it out as

back to films cameron please

IvySlayer

Are they sending Bruce Willis back up again?

Sea Sharp

Bottle of Space flavour Deep River Rock : $1,000,000,000,000.

MagicSean

Crash the thing into the see bit by bit, Armageddon style. Or was that Deep Impact?

krudler

I love Cameron, he's a lunatic when it comes to this kind of stuff, sure he wanted NASA to let him film some of Avatar in space.

Tar.Aldarion

Sea Sharp wrote: »

Bottle of Space flavour Deep River Rock : $1,000,000,000,000.

Since it cost's ~10000 to send 1lb of something to space, they could sell water to NASA for a lot of money and it would still be cheaper for them to buy it.


I imagine this will be hugely expensive, but they will be gettting SO much platinum etc...and look at the price of it. http://www.platinum.matthey.com/cgi-bin/graphing/jmpreset.pl?imagetype=raw&act=Graph+Display&metal=Pl&timeperiod=ELM

I'd like to see what kind of figures they have that makes it seem doable to them.

the keen edge

davet82 wrote: »

at the moment it would cost 1 billion us dollars to bring back 2 oz of platnium, thats what nasa works it out as

back to films cameron please

I'd sh!t 200 oz of platinum for a $1 billion.

I'm not sure how exactly, but I'd manage it somehow.

FatherLen

what film is this?

JupiterKid

Sea Sharp wrote: »

Bottle of Space flavour Deep River Rock : $1,000,000,000,000.

Which probably would have sold to some idiots during the height of the bubble years.