Space & Astronomy

Asteroid mining plans emerge

By T.K. Randall
April 25, 2012 ·  14 comments

Image Credit: ESA Famous names involved in the ambitious project include director James Cameron as well as Google's Larry Page and Eric Schmidt. The plan involves building and launching robots that can fly to, land on and extract minerals such as gold and platinum from asteroids and return them to the Earth. The initial step would be to launch a private telescope within the next two years to identify likely targets.

"We have a long view," said space tourism pioneer Eric Anderson who also backs the project. "We're not expecting this company to be an overnight financial home run. This is going to take time." Skeptics have argued however that the difficulties involved in bringing back even small amounts of minerals from an asteroid would make the venture extremely cost-ineffective.[!gad]Famous names involved in the ambitious project include director James Cameron as well as Google's Larry Page and Eric Schmidt. The plan involves building and launching robots that can fly to, land on and extract minerals such as gold and platinum from asteroids and return them to the Earth. The initial step would be to launch a private telescope within the next two years to identify likely targets.

"We have a long view," said space tourism pioneer Eric Anderson who also backs the project. "We're not expecting this company to be an overnight financial home run. This is going to take time." Skeptics have argued however that the difficulties involved in bringing back even small amounts of minerals from an asteroid would make the venture extremely cost-ineffective.

Source: BBC News | Comments (14)

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