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2014: Planetary Resources To Launch Their First Satellites
symbolset writes "Planetary Resources wants to mine asteroids for their sweet, sweet minerals and make a business of it. The sparky little company has been writ up here on Slashdot numerous times. With the backing of such billionaires as Eric Schmidt, Larry Page, James Cameron, and many others, and such luminaries as major NASA project managers, engineers and scientists, you have to think they might have a good shot at it. Recently they picked up a huge engineering, procurement and construction partner: Bechtel. Their operations are already cash-flow positive by selling tech invented to pursue their goals, so they're a legitimate business running lean and intending to make good. Yesterday they announced the plan to launch their first space missions — the Arkyd Series 100 LEO Space Telescopes — as soon as next year. Beginning in 2014 their satellites will be scanning the skies from Low Earth Orbit for lucrative rocks that happen to be heading our way, and incidentally doing for-pay work to keep the lights on. For a reasonable fee they'll sell you the right to retask one of these telescopes to take a picture of anything you want that it can see, for a fair price. The plan is to follow up with harvester craft to go get these asteroids, mulch them, and sell their bits for profit. Some talk has been made of selling what are uncommon terrestrial minerals like gold and platinum, refined on orbit and deorbited at great expense as a business plan, but frankly that's absurd. 'Extraterrestrial Asteroid Bits' ought to go for a higher price on the collector market than gold or platinum ever would, and the temporal preeminence should draw a premium price. 'This 69 mg specimen (769 of 10,000) was one of the first commercially harvested bits of asteroid returned to Earth. Lucite embedded for permanent display, with case. Certificate of authenticity included.'"
platinum and gold have practical uses. it would freak out the goldbugs though if it became financially feasible to get them from space and to land them.
so yeah asteroid bits maybe for one de-orbit test batch.. after that the collectible value would crash.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
I have a small piece in a plastic case, with a certificate.
It looks like concrete rubble from, oh, anywhere.
Fortunately I got it at a discount.
Unless they announce when and on what vehicle they are going to launch, I'm not sure you can say "they announced the plan to launch their first space missions."
It's not a plan to launch if they don't have a plan to launch.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
platinum and gold have practical uses. it would freak out the goldbugs though if it became financially feasible to get them from space and to land them.
Gold?? Who's suggesting getting gold from asteroids?
On Earth, gold veins are produced by aqueous processes. You wouldn't expect that on asteroids.
Platinum, and platinum-group metals, on the other hand-- these are siderophiles, and hence depleted in the Earth's crust. Good elements to look for in asteroids-- in fact, iridium is the very signature of an asteroid impact.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
The first sale of extraterrestrial asteroid bits will go for a lot. But the market for those is smaller than for gold or platinum and will quickly be saturated. Even the twentieth bit probably won't go for more than gold.
Furthermore, many space enthusiasts would want such a sample for what it symbolizes. So a collectible sample that is a gimmick rather than the start of a sustained exercise in space exploration that produces things other than just collectible samples may not sell for as much.
There is not really a lot of profit in bringing raw materials back down to Earth, considering the costs.
What I think you guys are missing is how awesome it would be to smelt metals in space and then 3d print them into spacecraft that is already in orbit. Its far more efficient than launching that full weight. The cost of those spacecraft (already launched) would be worth their weight in gold.
Whatever components you could not build in space could be sent up in cargo rockets, with much less weight than the whole thing together. The power to melt the metal could be generated from atomic batteries and solar panels. The material would be more brittle than our current metal, but satellites can be more brittle if they are already in space than if they have to survive the acceleration of a rocket launch. Reduced weight also means fuel savings for long distance travels.
Oh Bechtel! Yeah, they did SO well in Iraq, why not let them loose in space? What could possibly go wrong?
Development is programmable; Discovery is not programmable. (Fuller)
I certificate of authenticity, signed by Dr. Nick Riviera.
Solving Unix problems since 1989...
Some talk has been made of selling what are uncommon terrestrial minerals like gold and platinum, refined on orbit and deorbited at great expense as a business plan, but frankly that's absurd.
Are you crazy? Are you aware that this isSlashdot? That is pure unmitigated heresy around here! We don't want facts or lucid, rational arguments! We wan t space opera full of hot female astronauts!
Those sweet, sweet ass minerals! So sweet.
The G
No-one in their right mind is going to mine asteroids in space and bring the materials down to Earth, unless you really do find Unobtainium out there. We'd be mining them in space to use the materials in space, which is why it doesn't make much sense today to anyone other than billionaires with money to burn, but probably will in a few decades.
If we did really, really need asteroid resources on Earth, we'd just crash them in a remote area and mine them on the ground.
Speaking of not being in your right mind... What possible use would raw minerals have in space?
Uh, building stuff.
We are just not a space-faring species.
Yet.
Which is why I said this is currently only of interest to billionaires with money to burn.
Which is why it doesn't have to work. You live the good life for a few years, off of someone else's VC, and then declare that it's not viable. You close up shop and move on to the next opportunity.
Solving Unix problems since 1989...
De-orbiting shit is dumb as hell. Raw material is worth a lot more in space. If it can be "mulched" and refined in space then you can simply use it IN SPACE to make more spacecraft. The cost of getting things out of this gravity well greatly increases the value of any usable materials NOT on Earth. De-orbiting them devalues the material greatly by re-adding the gravity tax.
That said, I can see that since they might not have the infrastructure to process or utilize the first bits of asteroids anywhere but down here on Earth, and that the rarity and collectible nature of the space stuff would offset the gravity tax, so for their initial proof-of-concept trials it sounds like a decent idea. However, mining asteroids for Earth-bound materials is not a wise long term goal. Once you start building things in space you'll be kicking yourself for every ounce of usable material you wasted by throwing it at Earth -- Except if it's stuff that we truly don't have down here in great quantities. Gold?! Pah! We've got whole buildings full of the stuff just sitting around, not even being used, not really valuable, I mean we gold-leaf wooden signs and picture frames and even Ethernet terminals, or just wear the damn stuff like it's cheap decorative jewelery. Diamonds? Don't make me laugh, they're so plentiful that the diamond dealers buy up every last bit and sit on em just to drive the price up. Make a space stream of these goods and the local markets will manipulate the prices to bring your costs just under enough to be profitable -- then raise 'em back up when you're bankrupt.
Eventually the space materials economy will pick-up and you'll lose your edge as the first to market in orbital construction materials. It's a dumb move to waste any temporary advantage therein: The stuff you mined will only go down in value as time drags on...
Hell, work your way up to some big uninteresting iron rocks. Yeah, we have big rocks down here, but they're not up there. Guess how much a mobile orbiting gravity generator would be worth if you needed to use one as a gravity tug or cue-ball to save Earth from a life-threatening asteroid? You would have the "defense" budget of the entire world at your disposal -- Way more valuable than a chunk of space gold.
Going through some old website bookmarks, I found this comment about private groups instead of govt going to Mars from imipak (edited below to show key point) and I have agreement with this. It seems setting up infrastructure to mine asteroids by governments seems logical but others think private industry should lead the way. Maybe there are holes in this comment but it does raise discussion regarding who will send a person to Mars, of if current NASA plans to retrieve an asteroid are squelched by budget cutters. Link of original posting below.
"The added twist in the tale that was missed is that Werner von Braun quit NASA because of the direction it was going. "
"The Russian space shuttle... died from funding starvation due to idiotic arms races."
"This is not the way to run a space program and really does demonstrate that neither side has any real interest in such a program except as it furthers their military objectives. Us British are no better - the rocket program and the HOTOL program were both scrapped by hostile governments."
"I have thought for some time that if there were to be a manned mission to Mars, it would be by a mix of enthusiasts and academia, not by governments or corporations. At this point, I'm more certain than ever that my prognosis is correct."
from http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/mar/13/yuri-gagarin-first-space-korolev#start-of-comments
mfwright@batnet.com