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Planetary Resources took the wrapper off the new company that plans to mine asteroids, and the company has half a road map on how to get precious metals out of the sky.
Like any mining junior, the first step for Planetary Resources is resource evaluation. The first step will be launching low-Earth orbiting satellites, Arkyd-100 Series, that will scan for likely targets. Planetary Resources is borne out of a satellite manufacturer, Arkyd Astronautics.
Data will help prioritize near-earth asteroids as targets for the company’s follow-on Arkyd-300 Series swarm expeditions. The company plans to build redundancy into its missions by sending multiple spacecraft on the same mission so if one breaks, the mission can continue. The satellites will also be cheaper.
Asteroids, notes the company, are not very far away.
“Actually, some near-Earth objects are the most accessible destinations in the Solar System. These are energetically closer to us then even the surface of the Moon and that’s because they have Earth-like orbits and they also have small gravity fields. So, we can reach them with very little propulsion,” writes the company.
Getting the ore from asteroid to the earth’s surface is still a ways off, and the company is leveraging unnamed future technologies.
“The microgravity environment presents unique challenges for materials acquisition and processing that require a different way of thinking about the problem. Problems associated material transport and handling must be solved with a new set of tools.”
The company will be based in Bellevue, Washington.
While asteroids are rich in nickel, iron ore and PGM, the company is also keen on finding water.
“Water is perhaps the most valuable resource in space. Accessing a water-rich asteroid will greatly enable the large-scale exploration of the solar system. In addition to supporting life, water will also be separated into oxygen and hydrogen for breathable air and rocket propellant,” said Eric Anderson, Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, Planetary Resources, Inc.
Full news release from Planetary Resources is below.
Expanding the resource base of humanity to include the solar system
Seattle, Wash. – April 24, 2012 — Planetary Resources, Inc. announced today its plan to mine Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) for raw materials, ranging from water to precious metals. Through the development of cost-effective exploration technologies, the company is poised to initiate prospecting missions targeting resource-rich asteroids that are easily accessible.
Resource extraction from asteroids will deliver multiple benefits to humanity and grow to be valued at tens of billions of dollars annually. The effort will tap into the high concentration of precious metals found on asteroids and provide a sustainable supply to the ever-growing population on Earth.
A single 500-meter platinum-rich asteroid contains the equivalent of all the Platinum Group Metals mined in history. “Many of the scarce metals and minerals on Earth are in near-infinite quantities in space. As access to these materials increases, not only will the cost of everything from microelectronics to energy storage be reduced, but new applications for these abundant elements will result in important and novel applications,” said Peter H. Diamandis, M.D., Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, Planetary Resources, Inc.
Additionally, water-rich NEAs will serve as “stepping stones” for deep space exploration, providing space-sourced fuel and water to orbiting depots. Accessing water resources in space will revolutionize exploration and make space travel dramatically more economical.
“Water is perhaps the most valuable resource in space. Accessing a water-rich asteroid will greatly enable the large-scale exploration of the solar system. In addition to supporting life, water will also be separated into oxygen and hydrogen for breathable air and rocket propellant,” said Eric Anderson, Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, Planetary Resources, Inc.
Of the approximately 9,000 known NEAs, there are more than 1,500 that are energetically as easy to reach as the Moon. The capability to characterize NEAs is on the critical path for Planetary Resources. To that end, the company has developed the first line in its family of deep-space prospecting spacecraft, the Arkyd-100 Series. The spacecraft will be used in low-Earth orbit and ultimately help prioritize the first several NEA targets for the company’s follow-on Arkyd-300 Series NEA swarm expeditions. Chris Lewicki, President and Chief Engineer, said “Our mission is not only to expand the world’s resource base, but we want to increase people’s access to, and understanding of, our planet and solar system by developing capable and cost-efficient systems.”
“The promise of Planetary Resources is to apply commercial innovation to space exploration. They are developing cost-effective, production-line spacecraft that will visit near-Earth asteroids in rapid succession, increasing our scientific knowledge of these bodies and enabling the economic development of the resources they contain,” said Tom Jones, Ph.D., veteran NASA astronaut, planetary scientist and Planetary Resources, Inc. advisor.
Planetary Resources, Inc. is financed by industry-launching visionaries, including Google CEO Larry Page and Ross Perot, Jr., Chairman of Hillwood and The Perot Group, who are committed to expanding the world’s resource base so that humanity can continue to grow and prosper:
- Eric E. Schmidt, Ph.D., Executive Chairman of Google, Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Planetary Resources, Inc. investor: “The pursuit of resources drove the discovery of America and opened the West. The same drivers still hold true for opening the space frontier. Expanding the resource base for humanity is important for our future.”
- K. Ram Shriram, Founder of Sherpalo, Google Board of Directors founding member and Planetary Resources, Inc. investor: “I see the same potential in Planetary Resources as I did in the early days of Google.”
- Charles Simonyi, Ph.D., Chairman of Intentional Software Corporation and Planetary Resources, Inc. investor: “The commercialization of space began with communications satellites and is developing for human spaceflight. The next logical step is to begin the innovative development of resources from space. I’m proud to be part of this effort.”
- Some of the company’s advisors include film maker and explorer James Cameron; General T. Michael Moseley (Ret.); Sara Seager, Ph.D.; Mark Sykes, Ph.D.; and David Vaskevitch.
Founded in 2009 by Eric Anderson and Peter H. Diamandis, M.D., Planetary Resources, Inc. is establishing a new paradigm for resource utilization that will bring the solar system within humanity’s economic sphere of influence by enabling low-cost robotic exploration and eventual commercial development of asteroids. For more information, please visit www.PlanetaryResources.com.
Image from Planetary Resources’ YouTube channel
12 Comments
Apollospace
AaaHH, I love space opera..!! I would advice everyone to put all their money into this project, unless you need it for something else….
A Ramovha
will this mean that whoever mines the asteroids first will own the rights to mining them, or can any company that can buy or create technology capable of this fantasy be allowed to mine at free will.?
Noqu
They don’t have a single geologist, astrologist, mining engineer, or aviation person on their board of directors… seems like a great way to get a bunch of investment money without having a clue how to get returns.
Cherable_20
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MINING.com Editors
Isn’t it ironic that Cameron, the writer and director of anti-mining blockbuster Avatar (2009), is now one of the pioneers of mining extraterrestrial resources?
Mark Harder
It’s so typical, a fantastic technology with genuinely exciting possibilities applied to an irrelevant goal. I applaud the daring and imagination of this project’s principals. Yet, there are what I believe to be more pressing needs and opportunities in the mining industry, for US investors especially. There are large metal deposits in remote locations on this planet that are not being exploited because of a lack of infrastructure. Infrastructure in remote places can be very expensive to build, yet public and multinational private funds are being applied to just such purposes – I think of China as one example. Wouldn’t it be a wiser strategy to risk large pots of capital like these on, say, highways in Peru in exchange for resource rights?
James
yeah, but then they get a new president and they decide they want the roads and the metals
Bob R
Interesting idea? Of course. Unique idea? Not really… in fact, Cameron is already well acquainted with the concept of extraterrestrial mining, as he directed the “Alien” series, original of which involved a mining spaceship returning to Earth with a load of ore when they were diverted to another rock that had devastaing consequences for the crew.
As a geologist with some mineral resource experience, I would advise Plantary Resources to get themselves a reputable geologist or mining engineer before their future press releases, since their first one has violated a number of internationally-accepted resource reporting standards: no reporting of hypothetical property values without proven technology, rights to mineral title, no reporting of gross contained metal values without having in place an integrated mine-concentrating-refining supply chain, no reporting of any resource that hasn’t been extensively sampled by drilling/trenching etc. As a Canadian native, Cameron must be familiar with National Instrument 43-101, a reporting framework developed after the infamous Bre-X gold scandal of early 1990’s. As Mark Twain famously said, “A mine is a hole in the ground with a liar at the top,” a statement that could be modified to asteroids if PR continues to report hyperbolic “news” of their venture, success of which is subject to “unnamed future technologies.”
raymond cain
i ve loved to read this article cause it remember me almost 20 years ago when i was watching discovery chanel they where already talking plans to extracting minerals from asteroids it is merrely fascinating that we may be so close to do it…im myself an underground miner and i wish to see that sooner !
Fantastic but ...
This is definitely the first step to expand human civilization in outer space, forget about expensive and potentially deadly projects like sending astronauts to Mars, let the future robots and other automatized systems build an infrastructure in space, only then will it be really safe to send lots of humans in space…
a question arise, if they bring this huge mass of platinum on earth, won’t that be the mother of all dumpings ? Will that make the price of platinum so cheap that any profits will vanish quickly ? …
barakzai
AWESOME DEVELOPMENT IN MINING INDUSTRY
Suhail
Fascinating…. hope it happens soon.