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Asteroid mining?

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.Jacob
Posts: 1838 - Karma: 1,160
Some of the comments are more interesting than the actual article, but still, nice to see that some progress is being made when it comes to harnessing something that isn't on our planet.

Could create a whole new industry for the engineers of the future, i'm sensing some very high paying jobs.




http://gizmodo.com/5904081/new-asteroid-mining-company-will-add-trillions-of-dollars-to-worlds-economy


New Asteroid Mining Company Will Add Trillions of Dollars to World’s Economy
The future is really here, people. We already got the doors that open doing swooooosh and now we are getting asteroid miners. For real. A group of billionaires and former NASA scientists will announce the first asteroid mining company in history.
The group of investors and scientists on board this enterprise is impressive:

...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.

According to Planetary Resources, the name of the company, they "add trillions of dollars to the global GDP" and "help ensure humanity's prosperity."

There are no details yet, but if they are going to do it, you can be this is doable. Harnessing the resources of asteroids is not crazy proposition. And you don't have to travel to the asteroid belt to grab them. There are many passing near Earth that may be accessible. In fact, there are already plenty of plans on scientists and engineers' drafting board.

Needless to say, and despite the fact that it will probably take some years to achieve their goals, this is all extremely exciting. If they are successful, this could indeed solve many of our material needs.

We will be covering the press conference live. It will be held in the Museum of Flight in Seattle on Tuesday, April 24 at 10:30am PDT.
Apr 22 2012 11:29AM
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Black.Bird
Posts: 2566 - Karma: 684
This is why I'm studying geology. Geology rocks!
Apr 22 2012 11:31AM
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Caucasian_Asian
Posts: 2447 - Karma: 1,665
Boo.
Apr 22 2012 11:33AM
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I_Am_Mod
Posts: 13214 - Karma: 3,753
qfe, crazy muthafuckin plan, but why not ?!
Apr 22 2012 11:34AM
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Blurst
Posts: 13577 - Karma: 10,169
Dafuq? How do they actually plan on doing this?
Apr 22 2012 11:34AM
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gotti
Posts: 4269 - Karma: 4,550
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Apr 22 2012 11:35AM
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Mr.Turtle
Posts: 3690 - Karma: 96
Watched a show on it, apparently there's a ton of platinum on asteroids and rare earth metals aren't rare on asteroids so there's potentially a lot of money to be made
Apr 22 2012 11:51AM
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I_Am_Mod
Posts: 13214 - Karma: 3,753
^^true, i'm just wondering how they're going to actually mine it ...
are they going to hit asteroids in to a collision course with earth, then mine the fragments or are they going to mine them in outter space, then return it to earth in a more controlled manner, i'm curious :)
Apr 22 2012 11:55AM
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.Jacob
Posts: 1838 - Karma: 1,160
I think there a LOT of people who are itching to have more information on the subject, I'm still at an age where I can completely change my career path to suit whatever the qualifications need to be for a project like this (inb4 OP is 12 {which i'm not} ). Needless to say, pretty stoked.
Apr 22 2012 12:02PM
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notadoctor
Posts: 408 - Karma: 661
I think the rosetta satellite launched by the European space agency in 2004 is supposed to try to touchdown on a comet.
Just reading that off an old ng poster in my room though.

I don't think anyone has ever actually brought back rock samples except from the moon maybe.
The newest mars rover is supposed to be doing some mining though.
Apr 22 2012 12:14PM
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roddy116
Posts: 10635 - Karma: 7,492
how far is the closest asteroid. to be honest it would take like some 100 years im guessing to start up regular exports/imports with the technology that we currently have
Apr 22 2012 12:16PM
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TOAST.
Posts: 7506 - Karma: 36,370
privatized space exploration, i like it.
Apr 22 2012 12:33PM
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Flying~Squirrel
Posts: 6494 - Karma: 192
its bound to happen. the government leads the way into a frontier, proves that there you can profit, and private companies do all the rest. the explorers who 'discovered' america in the 15th century were government sponsored, and then they were followed by the west indies trading company, who do all the real exploration. same thing is likely to happen in space.
Apr 22 2012 12:35PM
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.Jacob
Posts: 1838 - Karma: 1,160
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Apr 22 2012 12:38PM
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shibby
Posts: 7088 - Karma: -19
This is bullshit for the foreseeable future.
Apr 22 2012 12:41PM
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Milksteak
Posts: 9948 - Karma: 833
hahahahahahahahaha
Apr 22 2012 12:47PM
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feihlination
Posts: 8356 - Karma: 1,084
so we will not only use and waste the stuff that is on our planet (which belongs as much to our children and grandchildren than to us) but also that of other planets?

i see your point and i hope that we will expand at some time but hopefully only after we learned how to live without using/wasting non-renewable resources.

Apr 22 2012 3:21PM
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.Jacob
Posts: 1838 - Karma: 1,160
I don't really see your argument, it's not like we are taking Mars and destroying it, we are simply taking useless asteroids, that's not harming anyone as far as i'm concerned.
Apr 22 2012 3:27PM
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JzD.
Posts: 1615 - Karma: 153
Are you by any chance watching Armageddon right now? It's in tv
Apr 22 2012 3:31PM
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feihlination
Posts: 8356 - Karma: 1,084
i am not saying that asteroids are important for something, i am just saying that this notion of something foreign being "useless" or "ours" has resulted in a billions of problems in the history of our planet and i think its hilarious to take those problems elsewhere.

i know that avatar is sciencefiction and that we will not be able to efficiently exploit another planet, yet alone even one with an intelligent form of life within the next few hundred years, but i am pretty sure that the violent and discriminating methods imagined in the movie are pretty non-fictional. i actually am pretty sure that it will be just like that.

obviously, exploiting asteroids is probably not that big of a deal and i am talking more about the general mindset of sustainability and respect of everything in this universe.
Apr 22 2012 3:51PM
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charmander
Posts: 10636 - Karma: 373
oh hey, im also studying geology
Apr 22 2012 4:08PM
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theBearJew
Posts: 10951 - Karma: 15,633
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Apr 22 2012 4:12PM
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scratchproteen
Posts: 5173 - Karma: 286
lol you talk like this is going to be ready to go in 5 years.....20 bucks says nothing like this happens minimum 45 years.
Apr 22 2012 4:15PM
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fujarome
Posts: 8630 - Karma: 1,561
it's already happening. SpaceX is leading the way. They're only making headlines for the whole virgin galatic nonsense, but they are in reality rapidly becoming just as capable (soon to be more) of launching satellites/people as NASA is now.


They're going about it the right way too, working side by side with NASA so there's no real competition that would kill them both.
Apr 22 2012 4:23PM
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