Aggressive exploration
The business plan is to approach brand or investors that have a vested interest in exploring the potential gains to be achieved by deep space mining, with the firm confident that its concept will stand up to rigorous examination. NASA has already documented up to 9,000 near-earth asteroids, many of which are believed to be abundant in materials such as platinum and gold, but with some studies showing that it would cost $2.5 billion to harvest just one 500-ton rock, the question of finance is once again at the top of the agenda.
Potential gains
It may not yet be the trendiest occupation in the sphere of engineering research, but it appears that asteroid mining is going to be a part of the commercial space industry for some time. Less than 12 months after Planetary Resources announced its intention to search for mineral resources on the suce of cosmic rubble, a second firm has decided that off-world prospecting could be the waygoogle satellite Asteroid mining; the new black in terms of engineering tools forward.
The answer, it appears, is somewhat.
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According to the Christian Science Monitor, Deep Space Industries (DSI) will now be looking to extract metals and water from the thousands of asteroids that roam thorough the solar system on a daily basis. After Planetary Resources threw its engineering research and development hat into the ring last year, there were some questions about how feasible it would be to use established mining and manucturing techniques on materials that were not of this world.
DSI has already set out an aggressive program of asteroid exploration and potential sampling, with scientists and engineers at the California-based company confident that it can launch mining missions by the beginning of 2015, Satellite View satellite view although these are expected to be no more than the space equivalent of sitting by a river with a metal pan in your hand. However, once these prospecting missions have established the process required, the company expects to undertake a sample-return mission, which could see as much as 150 pounds of material brought back to Earth for further research and study.
One potential fly in the ointment comes in the funding of the project. According to Time magazine, DSI is still somewhat of an unknown entity, as opposed to Planetary Resources who have the support of backers such as the founding members of Google and the billionaire Ross Perot. DSI does not appear to have such deep pockets, and there is some concern as to whether asteroid mining on the cheap will be a viable economic prospect.
A solar-system-wide economy could kickstart research and development of the technologies that will allow us to engage in interstellar flight, said Richard Obousy, president of Icarus Interstellar, a nonprofit group devoted to pursuing interstellar space flight,Benefits Of Employ A Professional Translator. in an interview with Space.com. If we can become a civilization that has vast resources at its disposal - orders of magnitude more than we have today, as a product of space exploration, space mining and the solar-system-wide economy - then we may reach a stage where an interstellar mission doesnt actually cost us that much in the bigger scheme of the gross domestic product of the solar system.
DSI has already compared its vision of space mining and discovery as the 21st century version of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which saw a flow of settlers and shopkeepers heading into this latest frontier, a claim that has drawn interested glances from others involved in the industry. The company will be utilizing tiny spacecraft, nicknamed FireFlies, that will be built from miniature satellite components and will weigh up to 55 pounds. If everything goes to plan, the next step will be the bulkier DragonFlies, larger craft that will bring back actual asteroid samples.
