Why Mining an Asteroid for Water and Precious Metals Isn't as Crazy as it Sounds

Popular Science ^ | 04/24/12 | Clay Dillow

[KevinDavis]

Billionaire-backed space startup Planetary Resources has officially unveiled its business plan to much fanfare and with few surprises. The company’s principals--which include X-Prize Foundation founder Peter Diamandis, Space Adventures co-founder Eric Anderson, and former NASA Flight Director Chris Lewicki--today pledged that Planetary Resources would make the abundant resources of space available here on Earth, and introduced a couple of the company’s own spacecraft that will make such space prospecting possible. The rush for space resources is officially on.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Those guys made their billions milking the system. They are not going to stop now.

[DManA]

I am skeptical of that.

And there has been economic return from space. Billions of dollars worth. Already.

[JRandomFreeper]

Prove it. Diamadis, for example. Give examples where he's made billions milking the system.

/johnny

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Worship your dotcom sluts. I don’t care.

[DManA]

What do you consider a "return"? American tax payers have invested half a trillion in NASA alone? God knows what the military has spent.

Seen in the year-by-year breakdown listed below, the total amounts (in nominal dollars) that NASA has been budgeted from 1958 to 2011 amounts to $526.18 billion dollars—an average of $9.7 billion per year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_NASA

[JRandomFreeper]

AT&T and other telecoms make billions from space. Farmers make and don't lose billions with space technology. DishTV does quite a nice business. As does Hughs network with sat internet service.

A commercial comsat costs billions to put into orbit. You think companies do that for funsies? They do it for ROI.

Some do fail, but not as often as when we first started.

/johnny

[JRandomFreeper]

In other words, you don't have a clue, and no facts to support you.

/johnny

[JRandomFreeper]

NASA should be shut down. Period. I don't consider taxes taken at gunpoint an investment.

However.... commercial launches of commercial payloads have been going on as well. Those, I approve of.

/johnny

[DManA]

I’ve sort of lost track of the argument.

Has our collectivist investment in space been worth the cost?

That is an extremely complex question, one which I am not qualified to answer right now.

What is the proposition on the table?

[JRandomFreeper]

What is the proposition on the table?

Is a private venture into mining asteroids crazy, and if so, why?

/johnny

[DManA]

Unless it’s our money, it’s none of our business.

That being said, I would not invest my money in the project. None of the people who paid for the Channel Tunnel made a dime.

[JRandomFreeper]

That's what happens with government involvement.

I appreciate our conversation tonight. You have raised good points, and were not outright dismissive of a new (old) idea, even if you don't think it's a good investment.

I respect that much more than those that dismiss the new with the smug assurance of the entrenched.

Thank you.

/johnny

[DManA]

Private bonds were issued for the Chunnel. They all were defaulted on.

It’s an interesting question for someone like me who is thoroughly libertarian oriented. Is there a limit to what humans can accomplish if we are restricted to voluntarily means?

It’s worth thinking about.

[DManA]

All the discussion today revolves around how do we help people; what can we do to create jobs; we need to do more to help people.

It is a completely different perspective to come at it from the direction of - what can humans become?”

If you are coerced into feeding half the city that’s one thing. If you are coerced into spreading humanity across the galaxy - ?

[RoosterRedux]

But if your living and working in space you need to have water that was hauled hauled up and out of a very deep gravity well.

Good point. I wasn't thinking of that angle.