Company Announces Asteroid Mining Plans

[sinvraal]

There's been muttering and rumor-mongering about this, but as of today it's official- the private company Planetary Resources is setting plans in motion to begin asteroid mining operations.

This sounds a little insane... but it's backed by some impressive names and know-how. From the Bad Astronomy blog:

"The company had a pretty fierce amount of

Comments

[arysani]

Gawd, I hope they're not just teasing us with this. I have such a nerd-on for space exploration and was more than a little bummed to be LIVING IN FLORIDA and not able to see any of the last shuttle launches because of poor weather in my part of the state on the launch days.

Oh please oh please LET IT BE TRUE.

[cherryfission]

This early in the morning, all this makes me think of is Dead Space.

[evilsherbear]

HA that's the first thing I thought of. Then . . . "This won't end well".

[selphish]

Let's just hope that the asteroid isn't hijacked by space terrorists and the fusion torches intended to bring the asteroid into Earth's orbit aren't used to send the rock barreling into Earth, thus ensuring the end of all organic life as we know it.

Seriously, though, I'm remaining hopeful.

[ab_n0rmal]

At this point, I'll take a dystopic cyber-punk future if it's got space exploration in it. :|

ETA: Oop, hit reply instead of Post a new comment!

[czarblackblade]

I'd just be happy for the fusion torches, whatever they're used for.

[lyandar]

"In-situ storage" of volatiles like water, oxygen and nitrogen frankly sounds like a fabulous idea, especially in the hopes that humans could have more of a regular presence in space without having to haul our own water up there. Tapping those, storing them at depots, then mining out the minerals. I love hearing about this stuff, and if it's corporations that get more involved in space exploration, well, as long as they stick to minerals and not xenomorphs, that is okay. ;)

[arielstarshadow]

Neil de Grasse Tyson would probably say there was never any reason to be pessimistic - after all, just because the US government isn't doing much right now in the way of space exploration doesn't mean the rest of the planet has suddenly ceased all space exploration in solidarity. Far from it.