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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

#111

Post by estel »

padobson wrote: post #109
necubi wrote: post #4

This NY Times article has a lot more information: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/24/science/space/in-pursuit-o... . It's wonderful to see people spending huge amounts of money to expand the reach of humanity instead of our capacity for narcissism. Startups like these give me hope for the future.

From the Times article: this one has the distinct advantage in that it has technical savvy and adequate capitalization to get started. Gotta feel bad for the guys who provided the "inadequate capital" to the earlier companies that never had the "technical savvy" to make it happen. I see the imaginations of the hackers here burning, and it excites me. I only wonder if the human species as a whole isn't too cynical to…

The public might not endorse risk that's Government sponsored, but I doubt we'll ever have a shortage of people willing to take extreme risks in the name of exploration.

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

#112

Post by javajosh »

DennisP wrote: post #106
javajosh wrote: post #49

Finally, extraordinary concentration of capital has an upside.

Apparently, billionaires who made their money by inventing things people want have a tendency to do other cool things that benefit people. Billionaires who got there by, say, making giant bets with the downside backed by the public purse, tend to be absent from these sorts of ventures.

It's too soon to tell - so far it's all pie in the sky. And a pie in the sky upside is not enough to counterbalance the quite obvious, very real downsides to enormous concentration of wealth in the hands of private individuals.

(My suspicion is that I'm happy with wealth concentrated into the hands of people who agree with me.)

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

#113

Post by lukifer »

philwelch wrote: post #100
WalterBright wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fact, a lot of the exploration journeys of the 1800s were financed by advertisers and newspapers looking to sell newspapers.

It's hard to imagine that newspapers were once that rich.

Is it? Being society's primary information nexus is pretty damn profitable; just ask Google.

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

#115

Post by Tichy »

njharman wrote: post #57
richcollins wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think this isn't about narcissism?

By most definitions narcissism is self-love, inwards pointing. Going to space for the betterment of humankind's future doesn't seem to fit.

Don't they go to space to enrich themselves by mining asteroids?

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

#116

Post by rbanffy »

njharman wrote: post #57
richcollins wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think this isn't about narcissism?

By most definitions narcissism is self-love, inwards pointing. Going to space for the betterment of humankind's future doesn't seem to fit.

Well... Someone will get to say "Full impulse power" or play Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride" ;-)

When it finally happens, I'll say it was about time.

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

#117

Post by Tichy »

Sivart13 wrote: post #68
nlh wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

A billion -- whoa, we're talking Instagram money here.

lulz - I think I'll use "one instagram" instead of "one billion" from now on...

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

#118

Post by rbanffy »

tomerico wrote: post #110
sage_joch wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"One possibility the company is considering is to nudge a small asteroid, perhaps one as long as a football field, into an orbit around Earth closer than the moon." I hope they're careful. :-)

This leads to scary thoughts on using this for military purposes

Military applications may divert a couple billions into developing the technologies needed for peaceful applications. Even with traditional government inefficiencies, that's the equivalent of a couple hundred millions in private enterprise. Not entirely bad and consider we here at HN are not the first people to think about it.

Don't forget the Redstone and Atlas rockets that carried the Mercury capsules were (not very) modified ICBMs.

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

#119

Post by alinajaf »

Wow. Second the comments about feeling about ten years old again. I hope beyond all hope that this is actually happening in my lifetime.

Questions for those in the know:

1. Is there any legal precedent on whether or not they're even allowed to mine the asteroids? From what I understand the Moon can't be exploited by any one country or corporation. Does any similar law apply to asteroids?

2. How are they going to get the platinum back to Earth? Re-entry strikes me as needing a really effing big parachutes for the hauls they're going to be bringing back.

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

#120

Post by bajsejohannes »

tomerico wrote: post #110
sage_joch wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"One possibility the company is considering is to nudge a small asteroid, perhaps one as long as a football field, into an orbit around Earth closer than the moon." I hope they're careful. :-)

This leads to scary thoughts on using this for military purposes

Someone has already thought about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_bombardment
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