Help Wanted: "Asteroid Miners for Ice, Precious Metals & Minerals"

 

          


Planetary Resources, the new space venture backed by Google and Microsoft founders that's planning to mine near-Earth asteroids, has begun advertising for 'asteroid miners'. The new company revealed details of its first exploratory missions to mine ice deposits as well as precious metals and minerals. The ice water could support life, or be split into oxygen and liquid hydrogen to make breathable air and rocket propellant, the firm says.

Planetary Resources cofounder Eric Anderson - the founder of the civilian spaceflight firm Space Adventures - said In a 24 April press conference in Seattle, that the first objective is to launch an unspecified number of cheap  "Leo" satellite space telescopes into low Earth orbit to identify potentially resource-rich near-Earth asteroids. Anderson said he also expects to rent out viewing time on the telescopes to astronomers.

There are over 1,500 asteroids that are as easy to get to as the surface of the Moon. They are also in Earth-like orbits with small gravity fields, making them easier to approach and depart. Asteroid resources have some unique characteristics that make them especially attractive. Unlike Earth, where heavier metals are close to the core, metals in asteroids are distributed throughout their body, making them easier to extract.

We have been discovering thousands of asteroids that do not belong to the Main Belt --collected by Jupiter’s gravity into a belt between it and Mars-- but instead pass near Earth’s orbit – nearly 9,000 to date, with almost a thousand more discovered every year.

 

          

The Daily Galaxy via Planetary Resources Inc

View Today's Hot Tech News Video from IDG -Publishers of PC World, MacWorld, and Computerworld--Top Right of Page  

To launch the video click on the Start Arrow. Our thanks for your support! It allows us to bring you the news daily about the discoveries, people and events changing our planet and our knowledge of the Universe.

 

Comments

[DwarfGalaxy]

How long before a terrorist group sends one of these asteroids hurtling towards Earth?

[Noochy]

if the "terroists" miss the trajectory by even the slightest margin they could send it into their own backyard. as long as James Cameron doesn't convert to terrorism i think we are good. more likely Planetary resources will screw something up and send one down to Earth.

[Greg]

hrmmm dont remember seeing that posting on the job bank!

[adrian migraso]

i want to be a miner!

[WiaanT]

Dont care about the pay, dont care about the danger pay! Send me away, send me to the rock and I will do it for free!
Pick me James, Pick me!

[Redhorizons]

Sometimes I think it would be worth it to live on an asteroid just to get away from ignorant people like Dwarfgalaxy. WTF, why is that the first thought that pops into your brain when reading about a something that has the potential begin us down the path of becoming a great space faring civilization?
Your type of barbaric thinking is what keeps us all apart.

[DwarfGalaxy]

I don't have a barbaric thinking, Humans have a barbaric thinking in general. Better to throw this idea out now so that people won't be caught by surprise one day. You are the one with the head in the sand, get real. There will always be people who want to harm us whatever the motive, sometimes with no motive at all. I am a very peaceful person by nature.

[DwarfGalaxy]

I also hope we become a great space faring civilization with noble aspirations and noble deeds throughout the cosmos. But seeing what is happening on Earth you cannot afford to be naive.

[GalaxyDwarf]

Actually I agree with Redhorizons. I think DwarfGalaxy is a terrorist also.

[DwarfGalaxy]

Maybe you should be afraid then, hehehehe...

[DwarfGalaxy]

Wow, so many rocks out here...I think I'll just fling this big one into the inner solar system! Hahahaha!...

[Steroids]

weight building body rate bodybuilder build training bodybuilding muscle rest competition form physique late contest sport early protein increase hyper.

[DwarfGalaxy]

But seriously now, that is something people should begin to worry about. In the future this planet will need a strong shield of some sort, to protect from all kinds of possible impacts.

[Devon91]

Space miners ftw!

[DwarfGalaxy]

Altough you cannot avoid thinking that probably, in some remote corner of the multiverse, this has already happened, an infinite number of times!

[johnny five]

This will certainly prove weather or not space aliens came to earth gave us primates artificial dna so we would be smart enough to mine gold for them. I the space aliens already got the asteroid gold then it may be true.