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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

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Well yeah, it makes sense when you work it out; every fact makes sense once you work it out. And there's a certain pleasing symmetry in that control over information, and the business model of attaching advertising to that information, has made the Google execs rich enough to invest in mining asteroids. I was just reflecting on how big a change it was.

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

#132

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

If you're going to bombard something for military purposes, the most effective technique involves using a very large number of nuclear weapons, which is well within the capabilities of anyone who would try to bombard the earth from space.

Back during the Space Race, the idea that the Russians could put something into orbit wasn't just a wound to the national pride, it was a technical demonstration of the fact that they could build ICBM's. If you have the rocket power necessary to lift something into orbit, you have the rocket power necessary to put a warhead on a ballistic trajectory to any point on the earth's surface. So if you can go into space and redirect asteroids, you can obviously launch an ICBM. And at this juncture, it's probably easier to develop the technology for nuclear weapons than the technology to capture asteroids and bombard the earth with them. The only way you could do more damage more cost-effectively with asteroids is if you had an extinction-level asteroid, but there's obviously no strategic value to that.

Bear in mind, I'm only talking about how scary it is, which isn't quite the same as discussing how militarily effective it is. By which I mean--obviously orbital bombardment can be worthwhile, but it would cause no more damage than nuclear weapons, and any magnitude of orbital bombardment that wouldn't trigger a MAD reaction would have to cause strictly less damage.

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

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Larry Page doesn't really strike me as someone that needs to do a lot of PR stunts.

Time will tell, my money is on PR stunt.

The calibre of the backers leaves me certain that this is not a PR stunt. Does the founder of one of the world's best known companies need any additional PR? How about the director of one of the all-time top grossing movies?

Seriously, the chances of this being just a PR stunt are practically nil. If they did want to get some individual PR, there would be cheaper ways to do it - e.g. buying a popular TV network and broadcasting PageNews 24/7, while paying people to watch it.

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

#135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This leads to scary thoughts on using this for military purposes

If you're going to bombard something for military purposes, the most effective technique involves using a very large number of nuclear weapons, which is well within the capabilities of anyone who would try to bombard the earth from space. Back during the Space Race, the idea that the Russians could put something into orbit wasn't just a wound to the national pride, it was a technical demonstration of the fact that th…

If nobody noticed it being set up then it could be assumed to be a natural event.

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

#136
Who do asteroids belong to? Can they just claim them and sell the material they extract?

Don't get me wrong, I would love to have my own asteroid mining company. Just need a couple billion dollars first. But what happens once there are two or more competing corporations? Who has the power to say which part of space belongs to whom? Will there be space battles?

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

#137
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.

"'The company is cash flow positive, already,' Mr. Anderson said." How is this possible?

Because they haven't hired the engineers yet.

A couple founders raising money and taking pre-orders can be cash flow positive. Then they will build out the team, it likely will be cashflow negative for a while (or else they wouldn't have raised money), and then hopefully it will be cashflow positive again.

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

#139
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"'The company is cash flow positive, already,' Mr. Anderson said." How is this possible?

Technology development contracts.

The article specifically mentions laser communications development contracts.
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