SPACE MINING

Hank summarizes the exciting news about Planetary Resources, a company with plans to mine near-earth asteroids for precious metals and water, and what these plans might mean for humanity's future in space.

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For more information on this topic:
Planetary Resources website
http://www.planetaryresources.com/
Brief on the company from Technology Review
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/...
Asteroid Retrieval Feasibility Study
http://kiss.caltech.edu/study/asteroi...

tags: planetary resources, asteroid mining, space mining, entrepreneur, space, space exploration, NASA, science, scishow, solar system, exploration, james cameron, google, humanity, near-earth asteroid, platinum, palladium, metal, carbonaceous chondrites, earth, robots, robotic craft, jet propulsion laboratory, JPL, technology, asteroid, profit, company, natural resources, curiosity, space travel, water, news

• Category

  News & Politics

[TheDemon2882]

adding money as an incentive will more than likely create another space race

i'm ready NASA and every other space agency

take me to Mars.

[Atheistcat2004]

Anyone else find James Cameron investing in space mining funny? Is it just me?

[Atheistcat2004]

That's what they want you to think. >.>

[Atheistcat2004]

So many comments saying "so many dead space comments :)"

:P

[DementedCircle106]

But I thought he was busy raising the bar?

[DROW42]

I just thought of something, shouldn't we push these asteroids into a decaying earth orbit. guide them down to hit some unpopulated part of the Canadian Parries. That way we can mine them normally for a tiny fraction of the cost,and claim legit property rights. Heck maybe this is the answer to reclaiming our space junk. Just claim a 15 mile circle of land ground zero for asteroid collision.

[spamerman]

Oops, this was actually the link I meant to send you the other day /watch?v=Eqg_6p-smTY . It's almost the same Michio Kaku video though.

[Clint945]

Yeah, having robotics do the actual mining is the most viable option, however having a serious working von-neumann setup is a long way away scientifically.

As for collecting the ore, the most popular suggestions are to use water on asteroids to make fuel (as mentioned in the video) then use this to refuel cargo ships that can pick up ore and haul it back to Earth.

Other suggestions involve capturing asteroids whole and tugging them back to Earth to be mined.

Both have many pros and cons.

[QuadratAugenFresse]

1:41

[spamerman]

Well I have seen this Michio Kaku video on Nanobots /watch?v=BN-FU8VPoOc . This seems very promising to me. Basicly like the Replicators from Stargate SG-1. Just have them set up millions of mining colonies throughout the asteroid belt, replicate themselves billions of times over with materials on hand. Then somehow convey a steady stream of all sorts of valuables back to earth (or where ever else the human race is residing at the time). Why not eh?

[Clint945]

There's probably a lot more than millions of tonnes, but it's irregularly placed and there's not really "solid gold" asteroids.

However, asteroids do contain a lot of materials that would be very useful, especially a lot of rare-earth materials that have become so useful in modern technology.

The only real issue is cost effectiveness, Right now it will take billions of dollars to retrieve just several thousand dollars worth of ores.

But, it just need development.

[MrKnowledgeCenter]

Yes, there are a lot of metals that are worth a LOT of money. There is a large asteroid that is worth $6/$7 trillion in metal, granted after prices drop from the influx of new metal in to the economy that price would drop a lot, but still that would be worth a ton of money.