National Public Radio—Asteroids contain many tons of precious metals and a new company called Planetary Resources, Inc has the financial backing of some big names in high tech, and hopes to launch specially-designed prospecting spacecraft within two years.
Near-Earth asteroids contain valuable resources such as water. Water could be used to make propellants that could be stored in orbiting fuel depots for spacecraft. And some near-Earth asteroids contain platinum group metals in much higher concentrations than the richest Earth mines. In space, a single platinum-rich 500 meter wide asteroid contains about 174 times the yearly world output of platinum, and 1.5 times the known world-reserves of platinum group metals (ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum). This amount is enough to fill a basketball court to four times the height of the rim. By contrast, all of the platinum group metals mined to date in history would not reach waist-high on that same basketball court.
The president of the company is Chris Lewicki, a former NASA engineer who worked on major missions that landed robots on Mars such as the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. And the company has lined up wealthy investors from the high-tech world that include Google CEO Larry Page and Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt, plus, former Microsoft guru Charles Simonyi who flew in space twice.
Advisors include the explorer and filmmaker James Cameron, along with retired University of Arizona Professor John Lewis who wrote an influential book called “Mining the Sky.”
Near-Earth asteroids contain valuable resources such as water. Water could be used to make propellants that could be stored in orbiting fuel depots for spacecraft. And some near-Earth asteroids contain platinum group metals in much higher concentrations than the richest Earth mines. In space, a single platinum-rich 500 meter wide asteroid contains about 174 times the yearly world output of platinum, and 1.5 times the known world-reserves of platinum group metals (ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum). This amount is enough to fill a basketball court to four times the height of the rim. By contrast, all of the platinum group metals mined to date in history would not reach waist-high on that same basketball court.
The president of the company is Chris Lewicki, a former NASA engineer who worked on major missions that landed robots on Mars such as the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. And the company has lined up wealthy investors from the high-tech world that include Google CEO Larry Page and Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt, plus, former Microsoft guru Charles Simonyi who flew in space twice.
Advisors include the explorer and filmmaker James Cameron, along with retired University of Arizona Professor John Lewis who wrote an influential book called “Mining the Sky.”
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