Google execs, director Cameron in space venture

Google execs, director Cameron in space venture

ca.news.yahoo.com

Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt and billionaire co-founder Larry Page have teamed up with “Avatar” director James Cameron and other investors to back an ambitious space exploration and natural resources venture, details of which will be unveiled next week.

...the press release disclosed tantalizingly few details, saying only that the company will combine the sectors of "space exploration and natural resources" in a venture that could add "trillions of dollars to the global GDP."

(visit the link for the full news article)

Interesting collection of tropes with high ATS appeal. Google, space exploration, natural resources, James Cameron...life imimitates Avatar?

There is less information on this story than we might like, but perhaps the ATS brain-trust can speculate. A lot of big money behind this. It's not enough for Google to dominate cyberspace, it seems...now they are branching out into, well, outerspace. Meanwhile Cameron is involved, a man we already know has big visions involving space and rare minerals. Are they going to mine the moon or asteroids? What will these restless, creative minds backed with big bucks bring us? Any ideas?

ca.news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Okay, I am intrigued. After his dive to the depths of the Mariana Trench, I won't laugh when this guy suggests something literally out of this world. Frankly. this is what I've been hoping and really praying would happen sooner than later. I want to SEE some of this in my lifetime, thank you all very much.

If Cameron with his intelligence, creative drive and ability can match up with the mind numbing dollars Google can bring to anything it feels like.....NASA could become little more than a sidelined regulatory agency to the private sector space trade. Oh..what I'd give to see this start developing.

All they have to do is find a resource of sufficient size and concentration that is worth bringing back to Earth.....and then a way to retrieve it that is economic to profit after the price tag is stuck on whatever it makes. That's it... Nothing more. When that happens to establish the regular route....just once...the next ones will just run like the Gold Rush.

Then we can say Humans are a space traveling species. Right now, we just runs endless circles in orbit.. err..

Go Cameron!

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Good thoughts. So, I think they'll start with the moon. Being this is pretty much unprecedented for the private sector and they will, I'm sure, treat this as a business, fact finding mission at first, they will start small.

So, what resources do the moon have that could be worth something down here?

Do Google and Cameron have more money than NASA to be able to find and retrieve said minerals that NASA can't?

Remember too the satellite angle. Right now our satellites are in orbit. They're moving. Would it be beneficial or practical for Google to put some sort of "stationary" man-made satellite on the moon to help with internet transmissions somehow? I do know that in the 40's the moon was used as a satellite until we started making them ourselves.

Remember, I'm not Bill Bye the science guy, or Phage, or some NASA brainiac. I'm just an average guy who thinks it's interesting that certain people in the private sector want to do this. I personally think they can do us more good than a federally funded program.

I read that other contributors include Ross Perot Jr. and also Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook. Talk about some big money going into this project.

There's speculation it could be an Asteroid Mining project, which would be quite the undertaking requiring that kind of funding. But then again, it is just speculation.

reply to post by silent thunder


Looks like the hidden NASA is coming out to play. Its about time.
sheeeesh

Most exciting news. I bet they will mine moons surface too...

reply to post by Taupin Desciple


Well.. I think NASA could, if they were set up for that kind of thing. They just have nothing in them from top to bottom that works for a commercial, profit based venture. So..I'm thinking it's not so much that Google and Cameron could do what NASA can't...as much as NASA spends a million dollars for a thousand dollar job and feels good about the deal they get. lol...

Hmm.. I'm no science guy either, but I knew one once who was all about lunar things and what was up there. The resource, if the moon is the goal, is Helium-3 in my opinion. It's rare on Earth but thought to be plentiful up there and a clean, high yield source of energy. The guy I'd known would go on and on about the possibilities if it could somehow be brought back down here without costing many times more than the value it'd hold. Of course.. Google could also set up a way to mine, refine and use it right there as an energy source to go further without having to launch the fuel from Earth... That would solve problems.

All would require a private industry effort I think....NASA wouldn't know the concept of profit/loss if their whole agency depended on it.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Good point about NASA. You're right about that now that I think about it.

Helium-3 makes sense because Google has been in the news recently about their wanting to find and utilize alternative energy. I just have to wonder where Cameron comes into all this unless he just wants to spend some his money to play.

Please please PLEASE keep google out of space, I really do not want to see targeted ads every time I look up at the moon and stars

reply to post by Taupin Desciple


Whatever they accomplish, expect him to make a movie out of it lol

In all seriousness, he's probably just playing with money to get his name on something of this undertaking. It's his style. He seems to have been in a lot of headlines recently because of the Titanic's 100th Anniversary and probably likes the publicity for him and his movies as well.

reply to post by speirs


You've got a point there..............ross?........., he does like the publicity. That is part of his job though. Seems it would be less expensive to go on a coc aine bender at the Viper room, bring Johnny Depp and 2 bimbos with him for good measure and give the tabloids something to eat for breakfast. That's what everyone does.

Back on topic though, my money is that it's going to have something to do with communications. I don't really see why a Hollywood mogul and the kings of the internet would be interested in minerals too much. Excuse the pun, but they'd be out of their element.

Google-schmoogle.

At least someone is taking the initiative and going to space!

Yay!

reply to post by speirs

Wait a minute....it just came to me......They're going to shoot a movie up there. I'll bet you my all my ad-sense revenues from last year for what you have in your liquor cabinet.

Either two things will happen if this goes as planned!

1) NASA will misteriously find "life" on the moon after years of research at a lab prior to Cameron new expedition
2) Cameron and his crew will die in a freak accident on their way to the moon or when they retrun back to earth

Just saying!

...Ok...So...
I get that Cameron likes to find his way into extreme environments. I get the appeal, hes an ocean/shipwreck enthusiast with a sci/fi imagination. Thats fantastic, if your a big-budget Hollywood director who's in the business of making films about said subjects. Because that's who James Cameron is. He is not a scientist, or an astronaut, and in my opinion it is a waste to send him into space on some "secret mission" that's going to somehow add billions to our GDP out of thin air. Google and James Cameron solve the debt crisis and save the world! Yippiee!

If somehow there was some way to pull billions out of the abyss's (no pun intended) behind, shouldn't we be sending more qualified people? Like, hmm, say I dunno, all the unemployed astrophysical Nasa laid off that now live 15 minutes away from me in Houston? I could ask them!

The world is getting crazier every day. Google execs, stick to search engines and nifty apps. James Cameron, stick to being a crazy perfectionist, traumatizing actors, and making overrated blockbusters. It's just what your good at.

Originally posted by MarlboroRedCowgirl
The world is getting crazier every day. Google execs, stick to search engines and nifty apps. James Cameron, stick to being a crazy perfectionist, traumatizing actors, and making overrated blockbusters. It's just what your good at.

Unfortunately, I have to disagree with you there.

In the world, and age we live in, the ONLY way for man to get off this rock is on a for-profit venture. Once a corporation is able to make a profit with mining -somewhere else-, we're WELL on our way.

Google/Cameron/Zuckerberg/actors/elite execs all have the money that NASA WISHES it had.

What's so hard to see here? This news is sensational news for the entire race!

Originally posted by speirs
reply to post by Taupin Desciple

 

Whatever they accomplish, expect him to make a movie out of it lol

In all seriousness, he's probably just playing with money to get his name on something of this undertaking. It's his style. He seems to have been in a lot of headlines recently because of the Titanic's 100th Anniversary and probably likes the publicity for him and his movies as well.

he is a billionaire.

some billionaires realize they cannot take their billions with them...

look at steve jobs.he had $9000 million in the bank and he is still dead from cancer at an early age.


we need to to emphasize this to the billionaires....EVERY TIME WE SEE ONE.

many billionaires feel invincible...

did you hear about that arrogant millionaire businessmen who having a garden party with all his men and machines and sycophants and yet was stung a by a lowly bee and was DOA at he hospital?



look at that 80 YEAR OLD rupert murdoch a multibillionire yet he tries to grab with his gnarled hands every last dime when he backed SOPA.


his greed is just disgusting.

just look at his picture.

reply to post by jephers0n


You do have a point to some degree. Yes, the Space Race was about beating the Soviets. That was the main goal. But there was also a feeling of mankind achieving a goal previously only imaginable in fiction. Yes, for-profit ventures get things done that are also innovative. But at what cost? Space is one of the only pieces of our existence that is still mysterious, still within the realm of dreams and the imagination.

The poster above had a good point about looking up at the night sky and seeing ads. This could happen, and it would be a real travesty.

CEOs steal America's money and everyone cheers for their adventures.

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