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Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled

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Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled

#71

Post by InclinedPlane »

WalterBright wrote: post #36

I'm a little surprised that billionaires haven't already done things like launched a couple more Hubble telescopes. The design is already done and debugged, just clone it, and launch it. The same for several other successful interplanetary probes - build a (relatively) cheap fleet of clones of successful designs, and send them out to explore the solar system fully. Heck, you don't even have to come up with all the mo…

It's actually not so easy to operate a space telescope, let alone build one. More so, billionaires that would look to astronomical investments would usually be better served by merely investing in ground based instruments, which they do.

The Keck telescopes are named after the W.M. Keck foundation, and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey is named after the Alfred P. Sloan foundation, for example.

Space based observatories are still an enormously expensive (billion dollar) endeavor and are generally quite risky.

Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled

#72

Post by jholman »

tylee78 wrote: post #35

Now seriously, as a software developer, what would be the best skill set to help these guys... As soon as I can afford it I would knock at their door and work for them for free. What would be most usefull for them (or spaceX)... A lot of C, C++, knowing NASA's open source repos in and out, doing MIT online courses on robotics and astrophysics... ?

Hear hear. I think the same thing every time I read about SpaceX, and yes, now this.

Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled

#73

Post by evoxed »

nlh wrote: post #48
guynamedloren wrote: post #40

Cannot explain how much this excites me... but can somebody familiar with the matter please elaborate on the economics of this? How, exactly, do they intend to make money? I was under the impression (from previous articles) that the raw minerals from the asteroids were worth tens or hundreds of thousands $$, while the process of bringing them to Earth would be orders of magnitude higher (millions or billions). Wouldn…

FTA: "A single platinum-rich space rock 1,650 feet (500 meters) wide contains the equivalent of all the platinum-group metals ever mined throughout human history, company officials said." Quick Wikipedia/Google math: 1 cubic foot of Platinum = 1330 pounds [1] Total platinum mined ever = ~25 cubic feet [1] * 1330 lbs = 33250 lbs = 532,000 oz Current price of platinum = $1,560/oz [2] Total value of platinum in an aster…

I'm not saying I don't believe any of this (I certainly do), but this whole business has HUGE bubble or even scam potential. Think those damn "moon-plots" but on a larger, perhaps government scale. Imagine some of the poor smaller governments trying to invest in the future only to find out that whoops, our data was wrong and you can only make $500k on that giant rock...

Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled

#74

Post by jholman »

peteforde wrote: post #7

I can't help but feel that Asimov would be proud.

Asimov would probably start kvetching about how long it took, but otherwise, probably.

The one who'd really be chortling, though, would be Heinlein, who was (almost) always a terrific proponent of privatized (almost) everything, especially space exploration.

Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled

#76

Post by kamaal »

I think this sort of stuff is natural progression in the time scale of evolution of a species. Its called exploration.

People in the middle ages got equally excited when somebody invented a ship that could sail the seas and a compass that could point where they wanted to go. And then when they actually went there, they found some surprises. They figured that they are not the only ones to exist.

Space exploration will be similar. We have gone from a boat to sail in a small lake, to making ships that can sail and mine resources for surviving a prolonged exploration campaign.

The only thing that can throw spanner in the wheels now is this things going down and projects like these getting dropped. We are on the right track and give the direct and a little more speed. Privatization in this domain is the way forward.I think permanent space colonies very much look to be practical realities in some decades to come.

Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled

#77

Post by dustyreagan »

yohui wrote: post #67
aresant wrote: post #43

And two credible co-founders behind the giant names: - Peter H. Diamandis (Founder of the X PRIZE) - Eric Anderson (Founder of Space Adventures, Rounding out the entire list of backers: - Larry Page (goog) - Eric Schmidt (goog) - James Cameron (goog) - Charles Simonyi (Billionaire via MSFT, oversaw creation of office) - K. Ram Shriram (Billionaire via goog) - Ross Perot, Jr (Perot's son) via http://en.wikipedia.org/w…

> - James Cameron (goog) I don't think Cameron is involved in Google, is he?

No. This is James Cameron the director. Same guy that funded Deepsea Challenger. This guy is doing some pretty cool stuff with his money.

Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled

#78

Post by damncabbage »

lucianof wrote: post #59
hdevalence2 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Replace "," with "and".

This is actually one thing I've always been wondering about as a non-native speaker when reading English headlines. Is there any reason newspapers prefer this style? It sounds weird to me.

It's weird for us native speakers too, don't worry.

My guess is that it puts the information in the title in order from the most eye-grabbing to the least. (The more readable "Google Execs and James Cameron unveil Asteroid Mining Venture" puts the holy shit part of the title at the end.)

Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled

#79

Post by WalterBright »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #71
WalterBright wrote: post #36

I'm a little surprised that billionaires haven't already done things like launched a couple more Hubble telescopes. The design is already done and debugged, just clone it, and launch it. The same for several other successful interplanetary probes - build a (relatively) cheap fleet of clones of successful designs, and send them out to explore the solar system fully. Heck, you don't even have to come up with all the mo…

It's actually not so easy to operate a space telescope, let alone build one. More so, billionaires that would look to astronomical investments would usually be better served by merely investing in ground based instruments, which they do. The Keck telescopes are named after the W.M. Keck foundation, and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey is named after the Alfred P. Sloan foundation, for example. Space based observatories a…

I suspect that the cost could be cut quite a bit, especially since the design is already done.

Also, the Mars landers cost $250M, well within the budget of a billionare investor.

Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled

#80

Post by prawn »

nosignal wrote: post #32
prawn wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure that's it. I don't hear of wrecking crews smashing up a derelict corporate wasteland (arguably far uglier than any natural shape) and feel some peaceful, "all is right" sensation. Maybe something to do with the serenity of the void. But probably more related to this being a step forward? A sense of progression? Could come from growing up reading and imagining anything to do with space exploration. How ma…

I'm supposed to be teaching a class on introductory Python (students are doing their exercises now) and I want to scrap the rest of the day to talk about how phenomenally awesome this news is. I'll settle for a strange, quiet sense of elation.

"strange, quiet sense of elation" - good way of describing it. Pretty similar to how I felt after reading the article.
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