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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

#61

Post by guynamedloren »

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…

Well apparently I was very wrong! Thanks for clearing this up. Amazing.

So, for $1BN you could have: Instagram, SpaceX, or small asteroid. Ha!

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

#62

Post by mburns »

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…

More hubble telescopes have a limited use. We can learn mysteries of the universe, sure, but they aren't great for finding readily-mineable asteroids.

Even with the James Webb telescope discovering habitable planets, we're centuries away from doing anything particularly useful at scale.

We need to focus on the the inner-solar system, the asteroid belt and a few outer moons. There are trillions of dollars in immediately-useful research to be done locally. None of which needs a deep space telescope to succeed.

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

#63

Post by njharman »

Roboprog wrote: post #24

I love the first picture of the drum about to "eat" the rock. Reminds me of the furnaces in the book "Higher Education" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher_Education_(novel)

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/File:Planet_killer,_remaster...

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

#64

Post by kfk »

Are they considering also sources of energy (gases for example) to mine? I mean, metals are good, but we will need more energy too. Also, what metals can they mine? Can they mine lithium (maybe we can ship 'batteries' to charge on the moon or asteroids?)?

Cool stuff anyway.

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

#65

Post by redthrowaway »

ericd wrote: post #14

I'm surprised at how invigorated this news is making me feel, like a weight has been lifted. SpaceX is great, but until now they've mostly been talking about missions that would have to be paid for by the government and subject to the agonizing budget-cutting that seems to happen every time an exciting mission is planned. If these guys succeed, it will emancipate the future of space exploration from congressional bud…

The interesting thing is, we have those budget cuts to thank for this. In the 50 years since we landed on the moon, we've put a massively expensive and questionably valuable series of tubes a few hundred kilometres from the Earth's surface, and sent a couple robots to Mars. These are both notable accomplishments, but they're hardly enough to give humanity any permanent presence in space. Space exploration has languished under the management of the federal government, and it has only been since the cancellation of the Shuttle that we've seen private enterprise truly step in with any sort of sustainable mission.

I have long argued that the cuts to NASA are short-sighted and a net loss for humanity; perhaps it's time to re-evaluate that notion. They may well have been short-sighted, but the hole left by the fading government monopoly is opening up some incredibly interesting opportunities.

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

#66

Post by reneherse »

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…

No doubt with SpaceX leading the way to lower launch costs we'll see more private ventures and public/private partnerships.

However, more than likely there will need to be new designs purpose built: The manufacture of new telescopes and probes from old designs is not really practical. These craft were mostly "one offs"; their supply chains, tooling, and work groups are not waiting and ready to go. Their optical, structural, guidance, and computational technology is no longer state of the art, so you'd have to kludge together new systems based on old design docs and specifications. Not the kind of efficiency a privately funded venture would aspire to.

Far better to start anew, using the cumulative data of previous missions as a stepping stone, and employing lean design-build techniques such as SpaceX, Scaled Composites, and others have done.

I'm aware of one new generation of lean-manufactured, government-contracted observational satellites that are designed to be cheaper and replicable, but they're tactical in mission: they point towards targets on earth.

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

#67

Post by yohui »

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?

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

#68

Post by Sivart13 »

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…

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

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

#69

Post by maaku »

cloudwalking wrote: post #51
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.

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

Technology development contracts.

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

#70

Post by [deleted] »

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…

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