Planetary Resources and science fiction visionaries

[Martin L. Shoemaker]

Planetary Resources specifically invokes science fiction visionaries as their inspiration. Live vidcast from 10:30 to 11:40 Pacific Daylight Time.

http://www.spacevidcast.com/live/

[Martin L. Shoemaker]

OK, the livecast is over. Here's their website: http://www.planetaryresources.com/

To summarize: a bunch of billionaire investors and a bunch of aerospace engineers are planning commercial asteroid mining, with Near Earth Asteroid prospecting to begin within 2 years. They plan to target water-bearing asteroids first, because water can be turned into fuel and other resources. Using that, they plan to set up supply depots and to target mineral-rich asteroids.

They plan to use small, cheap robotic craft so that loss of one craft is not a catastrophic loss. They plan to use swarms of craft on each mission, eliminating single point of failure concerns.

They announced their company today, after two years of behind-the-scenes development, because they're trying to hire new engineering talent and that's hard to do in secret.

It is quite possible that the future started today at 10:30 a.m. PDT, and I was watching.

If that doesn't get your writer brain working, you and I must be very different writers.

[E.CaimanSands]

Gosh. Shall check it out shortly.

[morshana]

Me, too! I recall coming across a link (very late last night) pertaining to this topic. Thanks for reminding me to take a look!

[soulmirror]

ALL THESE WORLDS
ARE YOURS EXCEPT
EUROPA
ATTEMPT NO
LANDING THERE
USE THEM TOGETHER
USE THEM IN PEACE
--2010 (movie)
Arthur C. Clarke

[Beez]

This is exciting. Our third real step into space, with many more to come! There goes all productivity for today. And I have a final tomorrow...

[MJNL]

Yeah, saw this in a leaked yahoo article yesterday. I donno, even with all the upfront investing I'm still highly skeptical that this sort of project is currently financially sustainable. But then again my husband (you know, that guy with the PhD in electrical engineering who has obviously got a better grasp on this sort of industry than I do, since he's involved in space-related projects all the time) says I'm just overly pessimistic.

[E.CaimanSands]

ALL THESE WORLDS
ARE YOURS EXCEPT
EUROPA
ATTEMPT NO
LANDING THERE
USE THEM TOGETHER
USE THEM IN PEACE
--2010 (movie)
Arthur C. Clarke

Europa is mine, mine I say! Muaha.

[Alex Kane]

ALL THESE WORLDS
ARE YOURS EXCEPT
EUROPA
ATTEMPT NO
LANDING THERE
USE THEM TOGETHER
USE THEM IN PEACE
--2010 (movie)
Arthur C. Clarke

I love 2010! Great film. Not as good as the original, maybe, but hella-good.

In other news . . . I am stoked beyond words for this venture. Space was always our destination, as far as I'm concerned. Some of my earliest memories involve films like Ridley Scott's Alien and The Empire Strikes Back, so it's safe to say I've been waiting for this kind of development all my life.

[Strycher]

Space was always our destination, as far as I'm concerned. Some of my earliest memories involve films like Ridley Scott's Alien and The Empire Strikes Back, so it's safe to say I've been waiting for this kind of development all my life.

Yeah me to. . . When I was a child, I didn't understand that the International Space Station wasn't going to have things like artificial gravity and force fields. And lasers. (I was also partly confused as to why we only had the one.) Mostly because of those (and other similar) movies. I miss those days of ignorance/wonder.

[Beez]

You know the solution to that, don't you? Build those lasers! Invent those Gravity Plates! Create those Force Fields! Also, write. That always helps. Especially when you can make a nice theory, but can't write it in science paper form or build something like it. Gets those ideas out there.

[Isto]

To summarize: a bunch of billionaire investors and a bunch of aerospace engineers are planning commercial asteroid mining, with Near Earth Asteroid prospecting to begin within 2 years. They plan to target water-bearing asteroids first, because water can be turned into fuel and other resources. Using that, they plan to set up supply depots and to target mineral-rich asteroids.

They plan to use small, cheap robotic craft so that loss of one craft is not a catastrophic loss. They plan to use swarms of craft on each mission, eliminating single point of failure concerns.

They announced their company today, after two years of behind-the-scenes development, because they're trying to hire new engineering talent and that's hard to do in secret.

It is quite possible that the future started today at 10:30 a.m. PDT, and I was watching.

If that doesn't get your writer brain working, you and I must be very different writers.

They were talking about it on NBC's Today Show this morning. Caught the tail end of it. Gone mainstream.

[Fobok1]

This is just awesome. I see no reason why this wouldn't be feasible. For NASA? Sure. But NASA's being cut so deep that it'll be amazing if they get into orbit again (without hiring someone else to take them, anyway).

However, for the deep pockets behind this, I have no doubt seeing this is possible. It'll be a big investment, but they'll make a lot of money out of this.

[Isto]

Isn't Cameron of movie fame one of the billionaires?

[Alex Kane]

Isn't Cameron of movie fame one of the billionaires?

Yep. He's hoping they'll find a large deposit of unobtainium out there in the Belt.