Space firm about to make a big announcement. I take a stab at what it is.
I'm overwhelmed with work right now prepping for a half dozen different things, but I had to make some comment on a press release I just got in the mail.
Here's the important bit [emphasis mine]:
Join visionary Peter H. Diamandis, M.D.; leading commercial space entrepreneur Eric Anderson; former NASA Mars mission manager Chris Lewicki; and planetary scientist & veteran NASA astronaut Tom Jones, Ph.D. on Tuesday, April 24 at 10:30 a.m. PDT in Seattle, or via webcast, as they unveil a new space venture with a mission to help ensure humanity's prosperity.Well now, what could that mean? What natural resources are there in space? Solar energy might count, but I have a strong suspicion what they're really talking about is asteroid mining.Supported by an impressive investor and advisor group, including Googleâs Larry Page & Eric Schmidt, Ph.D.; film maker & explorer James Cameron; Chairman of Intentional Software Corporation and Microsoftâs former Chief Software Architect Charles Simonyi, Ph.D.; Founder of Sherpalo and Google Board of Directors founding member K. Ram Shriram; and Chairman of Hillwood and The Perot Group Ross Perot, Jr., the company will overlay two critical sectors â space exploration and natural resources â to add trillions of dollars to the global GDP. This innovative start-up will create a new industry and a new definition of 'natural resources'.”
The engineering behind it would be fearsome. We're a ways out from being able to do this, but if we had a big rocket -- say SpaceX's Falcon Heavy (though I don't see any SpaceX folks listed in the release) -- then getting an operation to a near-Earth asteroid is feasible. Even a rocky asteroid would have metals in it, and we can pick in advance one that has a higher abundance of metals. And like I said in my TED talk, we can move asteroids around if we're patient.
If I were being optimistic, I might say something like this could get off the ground in 20 years or so, depending on several variables, and maybe sooner. Let me be frank: I don't think this is a crazy idea.
This'll take a lot of money... but he seems to have some fairly wealthy people -- billionaires, and more than one -- affiliated with this. So whatever idea he's got, he's being backed very seriously for it.
I have lots of other thoughts on this, but I think I'll hold them back for now due to lack of info. The press release says the group is planning on making the announcement on Tuesday, April 24 at 10:30 a.m. PDT. It'll be webcast, and I'll post more info when I get it.
[UPDATE: Heh. MIT's Technology Review came to the same conclusion.]
Image credit: ESA 2010 MPS for OSIRIS Team. MPS/UPD/LAM/IAA/RSSD/INTA/UPM/DASP/IDA
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