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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

#211

Post by InclinedPlane »

gaius wrote: post #122
alinajaf wrote: post #119

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…

Who's going to stop you, the Space Police?

Ultimately the goal here is to increment values in US based bank accounts. Even if "the space police" couldn't stop them the US government could deny them the fruits of their labor, unless they really wanted to go rogue, but that's unlikely.

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

#212

Post by InclinedPlane »

sown wrote: post #29

Neat. So I wonder where this puts us on the hockey stick curve of space exploration? Are we at the point of the spinning jenny or more towards the cotton gin in humanity's space timeline? Probably doesn't matter if you are sufficiently far enough into the future and have to squint backwards.

Still way, way over on the left side. We don't even have off-Earth colonies yet. We're on the cusp of being able to support cities in orbit, colonies on Mars, the Moon, and asteroids, etc. It'll be a fun ride.

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

#213

Post by Nick_C »

vibrunazo wrote: post #178
SudarshanP wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we want to move stuff around in space what matters is the delta v or change in velocity. Fortunately since we are de orbiting a satellite, we can use aerobraking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerobraking . So we just need to slow down the craft and a make fall with a parachute. If we had to lift the mass off the moon or mars we would have to spend a lot of money. Just getting it to the surface of the earth from orb…

But don't you need to spend a lot of money to prepare the material for reentry without losing most of it?

No. You only need to use special technology if you have to limit the g-forces for humans.

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

#214

Post by Nick_C »

raldi wrote: post #34
lmarinho wrote: post #22

I'm curious about how they plan to bring these materials here. I assume changing the trajectory of the asteroid towards Earth wouldn't be a very good idea, considering the potential risk of impact. Maybe small chunks of material brought by numerous cheap reentry capsules are the way to go.

I'd crash them into the moon (no atmosphere, so they wouldn't burn up on entry) for about a decade, then send ore-processing robots to smelt them down, then figure out later how to bring the results back.

Good idea at first look, but it would be tricky to get the trajectory right, though. The Moon's sphere of influence is tiny compared to the Earth's. You would need a guidance package and, perhaps more importantly in terms of cost, onboard rockets to change delta-v (and only one-use because they would be destroyed on impact).

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

#215

Post by sabj »

eru wrote: post #200
sabj wrote: post #147

I am tremendously excited to hear about this project; it's exactly what I want(ed) to do, these billionaires have just gotten the jump on me by a few (dozen) zeroes of net worth. If any of them are reading, or anyone here knows them, I would do anything to get involved in this effort; the development and exploration of space is the most important mission in human history, and I'd love to put to work my business exper…

> [...] I would do anything to get involved in this effort; [...] Have you applied for a job at SpaceX, yet? That's one way to get involved with modern space faring.

It's an interesting proposition, but my intention has always been to find where I can be of greatest leverage. SpaceX is at a place in time / life / hiring that I think I wouldn't really be able to contribute to its mission (and mine) as much as I might by doing something else first. That plus I doubt I'd be of terrible appeal. The following are also true:

a) SpaceX appears more specifically to be looking for rocket engineers, etc, a background I do not have. (Good business / analytics / etc, but, a rocket engineer I am not). This problem likely applies to Planetary Resources as well. However...

b) Planetary Resources is more directly aligned with the mission I find most important - SpaceX is doing great things, and Elon Musk is super cool for insisting on his goal of making humans a multi-planetary species, but that's still a ways out. I don't know that I'd have as much ability to contribute. It's for this reason I've been trying to gain skills that would be of greater value down the line (business ones, in particular) in order to do what's necessary to help run and grow a commercial space venture.

c) I actually asked Elon Musk something on the subject - 'What advice do you have for people interested in getting involved early in these kinds of capital-intensive but world-changing businesses' and his answer was that, of course, it's helpful to have a few $100MMs from something like an internet company first :)

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

#216

Post by brc »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #188
ceejayoz wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you're going to bombard something for military purposes, the most effective technique involves using a very large number of nuclear weapons... Only if you don't intend to occupy that land in the next 500 years, though. I'd imagine a tungsten telephone pole dropped from orbit has better deep-ground penetration than a nuke, too.

Sorry, this is a common misunderstanding. Modern nuclear weapons are generally very fuel efficient, while there are some short lived nucleotides that are brought on by the activation of elements exposed to the gamma ray flux during detonation, unless you actively try to make it 'dirty' (and thus long lived) you can go back to living there in a couple of months. The only cities which were atomically bombed are complet…

Upvoted for the common sense.

I've spent my life listening to people talk about scary scenarios of uninhabitable wastelands full of radioactive waste.

I don't know if the misunderstanding comes from intentional propaganda from the anti-nuclear folk, or a misunderstanding of what 'half life' means.

Either way, I routinely used to ask people : if nuclear bombs make a place uninhabitable, how come Mazdas are still made in Hiroshima?

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

#217

Post by brc »

WalterBright wrote: post #39
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…

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

So was the Tour de France, for that matter.

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

#218

Post by CWuestefeld »

phodo wrote: post #56
javajosh wrote: post #49

Finally, extraordinary concentration of capital has an upside.

I thought I'd echo your comment here and note that this is the third extraordinary concentration of capital I'm familiar with... a) gates foundation b) the give-my-billions-away-pledge c) this There is an underlying theme here, that tech/valley-generated wealth is causing a level of change we are only barely beginning to comprehend as the $ are pooled and focused. Now that is exciting. And that will create a brave ne…

But if today's attitudes give us any indication of future behavior, then I think the outcome is sad.

A century from now, those who had the vision, and the willingness to risk so much for something that would benefit all of mankind so much, will be even more fabulously wealthy (if it goes as planned). Yet the masses will be shouting that it's unfair that those few should have such unimaginable wealth, just because they made a lucky bet a few years back.

I picture "Occupy Cape Canaveral" protesters pillorying those who took the risks and made the future possible -- all while those same protesters are wearing platinum jewelry and using electronics that the iridium, rubidium, etc., made possible.

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

#219

Post by kragen »

philwelch wrote: post #132
tomerico wrote: post #110

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…

An interesting thing is that ballistic missiles that go through space, like the V2 and Scud, are dramatically easier than getting into orbit. Like 10% of the energy cost. Getting your ballistic missile to the other side of the Earth, though, does seem like it would require only epsilon less energy and precision than putting it in orbit. (I haven't done the math, so I could be wrong.)

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

#220

Post by eru »

sabj wrote: post #215
eru wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> [...] I would do anything to get involved in this effort; [...] Have you applied for a job at SpaceX, yet? That's one way to get involved with modern space faring.

It's an interesting proposition, but my intention has always been to find where I can be of greatest leverage. SpaceX is at a place in time / life / hiring that I think I wouldn't really be able to contribute to its mission (and mine) as much as I might by doing something else first. That plus I doubt I'd be of terrible appeal. The following are also true: a) SpaceX appears more specifically to be looking for rocket…

Indeed. I guess I just took the "I'd do everything." a bit too literal.
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