The venture known as Planetary Resources eventually plans to go asteroid mining — but the first step in the billionaire-backed business plan is to launch an orbital fleet of "personal space telescopes" capable of looking out into the heavens or back down on Earth.
Very interesting. They already employ 20 + engineers ...
Saw this on CNN as well. A very interesting development. I wouldn't have guessed people would be looking to this sort of operation before we put more infrastructure in LEO first.
dmshiplo wrote:Saw this on CNN as well. A very interesting development. I wouldn't have guessed people would be looking to this sort of operation before we put more infrastructure in LEO first.
From what I was reading this morning, getting infrastructure into LEO (or higher) is a near-term part of their long-term plan.
Several well-known billionaires are forming a company with plans to send a robotic spacecraft to mine precious metals from an asteroid and bring them back to Earth. Google executives Larry Page and Eric Schmidt and their business partners say the enterprise will "add trillions to the global GDP."
But to whom do those trillions belong — the company, or everyone? Does a private company have a right to stake claim to an asteroid, or are celestial bodies such as the moon, planets and asteroids the communal property of all Earthlings?
"The law on this is not settled and not clear," said Henry Hertzfeld, professor of space policy and international affairs at George Washington University. "There are lots of opinions on the status here, and nobody is necessarily right because it's complicated."
Interesting to say the least...personally I prefer leaving it as is. They don't need to claim the asteroid as property as long as no one else can. Once They have mined it and brought it back to earth then it is theirs.
Considerations in passing the General Mining Act of 1872 are quoted. This same consideration holds for asteroid mining today, IMO.
Western representatives successfully argued that western miners and prospectors were performing valuable services by promoting commerce and settling new territory. In 1865, Congress passed a law that instructed courts deciding questions of contested mining rights to ignore federal ownership, and defer to the miners in actual possession of the ground.
Or if the owning aliens show up and ask why are we digging in their ancestral burial ground...
Precendent, international and national laws are fairly clear:
It is only yours if you can keep someone else from taking it.
This axiom is especially true in the international (and I would argue extraterrestrial) domain(s).
The development of atomic power, though it could confer unimaginable blessings on mankind, is something that is dreaded by the owners of coal mines and oil wells. (Hazlitt)
What I want to do is to look up C. . . . I call him the Forgotten Man. (Sumner)
It's a shame that Elon Musk (SpaceX) and Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin) are not on board Planetary Resources either as investors or as advisers. Although Musk probably stands to benefit greatly as he would seem to have the best shot at providing their launch vehicles.
One of the things I most like about this venture is that it's IMHO a potential repeat of Saturn V & Apollo's inspirational influence on kids and public in general. It IMNSHO shows really how tremendous the potential is for technology to change the world, if it's applied correctly and magnified by lots of capital.
Now... This venture not only makes outer space industry possible (even if this is just the very first footprint towards industrial activity at cosmic scale) by ISRU, but also could catalyze us past the orbital access Catch-22, and might make really big progress in Earth-impactor safety, but it also gives us some stuff that both scientifically and culturally is on par with e.g. Sagan's Pale Blue Dot. Real cultural-historical landmark stuff, this: http://nextbigfuture.com/2012/04/planet ... ll-be.html
If that article's an accurate assessment.
Netmaker wrote:It's a shame that Elon Musk (SpaceX) and Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin) are not on board Planetary Resources either as investors or as advisers. Although Musk probably stands to benefit greatly as he would seem to have the best shot at providing their launch vehicles.
No doubt Musk, Bezos, and others, all can recognize the value of cultivating this and any other activity that benefits the orbital access industry. I wouldn't bet on Musk & co not being as helpful to Planetary Resources as they can afford to be.
You can do anything you want with laws except make Americans obey them. | What I want to do is to look up S. . . . I call him the Schadenfreudean Man.
There's a huge difference between being as helpful as possible from the outside and being on the inside and being able to coordinate and make long term plans.
Also, given the huge potential for mischief wrt moving asteroids that somebody might just happen to aim at the wrong place or the impact of creating navigation/orbital hazards with the mining waste it would probably be best if the major players set up some type of overall coordinating body/policing authority before it becomes imposed on them.