Probability of PR stunt rather than truth - 99%, but if it is true we can definitely say we are in a new era.
Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled
41–50 of 221 posts
Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled
#42This 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.
What makes you think this isn't about narcissism?
[deleted]
Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled
#43And 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)
Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled
#44Now 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... ?
Read up on Armadillo Aerospace…
Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled
#45I wouldn't drink water from a heavy-metal rich asteroid.
Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled
#46ALL HAIL OUR NEW OVERLORDS.
Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled
#47Probability of PR stunt rather than truth - 99%, but if it is true we can definitely say we are in a new era.
Larry Page doesn't really strike me as someone that needs to do a lot of PR stunts.
Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled
#48Cannot 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 $$, while the process of bringing them to Earth would be orders of magnitude higher (millions or billions). Wouldn…
FTA:
"A single platinum-rich space rock 1,650 feet (500 meters) wide contains the equivalent of all the platinum-group metals ever mined throughout human history, company officials said."
Quick Wikipedia/Google math:
1 cubic foot of Platinum = 1330 pounds [1]
Total platinum mined ever = ~25 cubic feet [1] * 1330 lbs = 33250 lbs = 532,000 oz
Current price of platinum = $1,560/oz [2]
Total value of platinum in an asteroid = $829M
And that's just the one metal, which is not the only thing they're mining. Throw the water in there for the space station(s) and it's not impossible to assume that one asteroid can gross well over $1bn -- we're not talking $trillions yet, but I bet they've modeled this out to make it a profitable venture...
[1] - http://www.gold-eagle.com/analysis/platinum.html [2] - http://www.kitco.com/market/
(of course this doesn't account for the fact that if you suddenly double the worldwide supply of platinum overnight, the price likely won't stay at $1560/oz....but still...)
Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled
#49Finally, extraordinary concentration of capital has an upside.
Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled
#50Cannot explain how much this excites me... but can somebody familiar with the matter please elaborate on the economics of this? How, exactly, do they intend to make money? I was under the impression (from previous articles) that the raw minerals from the asteroids were worth tens or hundreds of thousands $$, while the process of bringing them to Earth would be orders of magnitude higher (millions or billions). Wouldn…
The raw materials are potentially worth trillions.
Economic growth in China and India has caused a huge increase the the price of many commodities, and economists have been projecting gloom and doom because he future looks to be resource-constrained.
But they weren't taking into account the one million asteroids in the solar system, many of which contain billions of tons of resources each.
This can really reshape fundamental assumptions about the future. Of course, it will happen slowly over the course of decades, and by the time we see results we'll all feel jaded about it.
But tonight I feel positively thrilled.