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The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

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Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#4
Sorry if this is remotely tangentially related, but wasn't there a startup many years ago backed by silicon valley bigwigs with the mission to mine asteroids for gold and diamonds? Or did I see that in a movie?

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#5
post #4

Sorry if this is remotely tangentially related, but wasn't there a startup many years ago backed by silicon valley bigwigs with the mission to mine asteroids for gold and diamonds? Or did I see that in a movie?

Yes, Planetary Resources. I remember the announcement.

They folded - asteroid mining is too much of challenge even now.

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#6
post #4

Sorry if this is remotely tangentially related, but wasn't there a startup many years ago backed by silicon valley bigwigs with the mission to mine asteroids for gold and diamonds? Or did I see that in a movie?

Maybe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_Resources ? Several similar companies were founded but really the business model is very far from being realistic. Asteroid are very difficult to reach and automated mining is even harder, plus mineral resources on earth are not even actually that scarce.

This is a very silly article, the interesting investment in space right now is in LEO communication satellites and to a lesser extent in launch services.

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#7
post #4

Sorry if this is remotely tangentially related, but wasn't there a startup many years ago backed by silicon valley bigwigs with the mission to mine asteroids for gold and diamonds? Or did I see that in a movie?

Probably Planetary Resources, this has been talked about for years. Several companies were looking at doing it but the time lines are always like 30 years out or something. Here's and article from 2015 talking about it

https://www.space.com/30213-asteroid-mining-planetary-resour...

The Colorado School of Mines even has a graduate program in it.

https://space.mines.edu/

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#8
post #4

Sorry if this is remotely tangentially related, but wasn't there a startup many years ago backed by silicon valley bigwigs with the mission to mine asteroids for gold and diamonds? Or did I see that in a movie?

Using nuclear options to transform ordinary metals to gold should be less pricier than running a gold mining operation on an asteroid flying by, I think.

Do we have anyone as an expert on any of those options?

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#9
post #5
post #4

Sorry if this is remotely tangentially related, but wasn't there a startup many years ago backed by silicon valley bigwigs with the mission to mine asteroids for gold and diamonds? Or did I see that in a movie?

Yes, Planetary Resources. I remember the announcement. They folded - asteroid mining is too much of challenge even now.

Yes, that's the one - thank you! I could not remember anything until seeing that name.

Re: The New ‘Gold Rush in Space’

#10
post #8
post #4

Sorry if this is remotely tangentially related, but wasn't there a startup many years ago backed by silicon valley bigwigs with the mission to mine asteroids for gold and diamonds? Or did I see that in a movie?

Using nuclear options to transform ordinary metals to gold should be less pricier than running a gold mining operation on an asteroid flying by, I think. Do we have anyone as an expert on any of those options?

Not an expert but here is an article on turning lead into gold. Spoiler it's radioactive.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-l...

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