PLANETARY RESOURCES: Billionaire-backed space venture Planetary Resources to be unveiled April 24

On April 24, Planetary Resources officials will announce details of their space exploration plans in a press conference at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Wash., according to the alert. The announcement will be held in the museum's Charles Simonyi Space Gallery, which is named after billionaire software developer Charles Simonyi, a Planetary Resources investor. "This innovative start-up will create a new industry and a new definition of 'natural resources,'" company officials said in the statement.

Billionaire-backed space venture Planetary Resources to be unveiled April 24
www.foxnews.com...

The company named "Titanic" filmmaker James Cameron and Google's Larry Page and Eric Schmidt among its groupof investors and advisors. Others on board include Simonyi, Google board of directors founding member K. Ram Shriram and Ross Perot, Jr., who is chairman of Hillwood and the Perot Group. Former NASA astronaut Tom Jones, a planetary scientist, will serve as an advisor for Planetary Resources. Former NASA Mars mission manager Chris Lewicki, who worked on the successful Phoenix lander, serves as the company's president and chief engineer.

I guess we'll just have to wait to see what they mean by "a new definition of 'natural resources'."

This appears to have some real financial backing, that will allow for this venture to be prosperous. I find it interesting that the article quotes someone(not sure who it gives credit) as saying "to help ensure humanity's prosperity". What does it mean?!?! LOL!

Is it possible that this will eventually become an effort to mining other planets and/or moons? Does anybody have any information about this? Please bring more information to the table about this project if you have it. Maybe not, we might all just have to wait until the 24th.

Either way you slice it, this is some awesome news!

And to think... people were all up in arms in regards to NASA and their budget cuts and the end of the space shuttle program.

Wahoo for private industry, boo hoo for stealing innovation and intellectual property for the public sector!

This was posted in alt news too.

It makes me sad that people forget who stole America's money.

Cheer for these people if you want.

Part of their journey is funded by your stolen 401k

reply to post by MESSAGEFROMTHESTARS


I'm of the hope that this might have something to do with beginning development for means to exploit the wealth of resources present in the asteroid belt.

Stage 1: set up a private orbital platform in orbit to serve as shipyard and waypoint.
Stage 2: build ships in orbit
Stage 3: send crewed ships out to tow big rocks back into LEO where they can either be dropped into atmosphere in a controlled fashion or mined in orbit, possibly even serving as added support infrastructure for further orbital platform expansion.
Stage 4: repeat, bringing in gold, diamonds, iron, iridium, water ice, as well as anything and everything that the belt has to offer by means of resources.

Originally posted by Druscilla
reply to post by MESSAGEFROMTHESTARS

 

I'm of the hope that this might have something to do with beginning development for means to exploit the wealth of resources present in the asteroid belt.

Stage 1: set up a private orbital platform in orbit to serve as shipyard and waypoint.
Stage 2: build ships in orbit
Stage 3: send crewed ships out to tow big rocks back into LEO where they can either be dropped into atmosphere in a controlled fashion or mined in orbit, possibly even serving as added support infrastructure for further orbital platform expansion.
Stage 4: repeat, bringing in gold, diamonds, iron, iridium, water ice, as well as anything and everything that the belt has to offer by means of resources.

I'm glad you brought some light to this. If, indeed, that's the thrust of this whole venture. This used to be the realm of science fiction; I read many sci-fi novels and stories in the '50s/'60s/'70s where this was ordinary, everyday stuff. I always wondered when we'd get there....

reply to post by MESSAGEFROMTHESTARS


Hi mes

This may help explain some of the debacle.
Add to it NASA let Stewart Nozette have access to all the technology.
NASA's goose is cooked. A shame for the honest workers. A shame for America and the world.
Actually it is most likely some collusion scam. Like it has been all along.
The best would be not having to pay taxes for it.
Watch out for strong arm stock salesmen with dark suits and sunglasses.
Oh yeah the movie angle, LOL not one ounce of resource with out it. lol.
This explains a lot. A good read ljb


International Policy Council


The Collapse of NASA?
by Taylor Dinerman
June 9, 2010 at 5:00 am

www.gatestoneinstitute.org...


www.gatestoneinstitute.org...cheers ljb

Originally posted by zroth

This was posted in alt news too.

It makes me sad that people forget who stole America's money.

Cheer for these people if you want.

Part of their journey is funded by your stolen 401k

Who stole "America's" money... Americans?

Just because you don't see how the information and experiments gathered from NASA initiatives has benefited the people of America, doesn't mean that they aren't there.

NASA, alone, took on the responsibility of research and development that will undoubtedly shape our future. I hope you see this... Private industry, most likely, would have never found it worth the investment to take on the tasks that NASA undertook. That is the only reason I don't hate on them...

But now, lets think about it... The private industry is fully ready and willing to invest into the exploration of space. Private industry can finally see themselves making a profit, and finally have the information available to get them off the ground(pun intended)

STOLEN MY 401K?!

OH NO!!!! Thank GOD, I'm smart enough not to rely on such a thing!

think about it.

Originally posted by MESSAGEFROMTHESTARS
I guess we'll just have to wait to see what they mean by "a new definition of 'natural resources'."

Yeah I've been wondering about this for the past week. I really can't figure out what they intend to do. Lunar or Asteroid mining just seems way to expensive at this point. So there would be no profit in it. It would be cool though.

I guess we'll have to wait and see what they got up there sleeve.

Wahoo for private industry, boo hoo for stealing innovation and intellectual property for the public sector!

Huh?

reply to post by Ex_CT2


The belt makes sense from an engineering and fuel perspective. The gentler the slope of gravity wells you have to deal with, the the more options you have for a space ship.
Even mining the moon would be expensive in gravity costs at least until a mag rail or catapult launch type system was set up. The belt, though much much much farther out, provides a lesser slope.
Really cheap micro probes could be sent out for basic composition analysis of interesting rocks where then promising ones are targeted for a tow back home.

Distances though, that would be the rub, at least for manned missions. If it's a manned venture, the moon would be the obvious choice.
The distances and times involved with going to the belt might be too high a risk at our current level of tech to venture manned flight out and back. Robot craft like the semi-secret military Orbital Test Vehicle, but designed by civilian interests for civilian interests to perform a task like towing a rock back to earth, could be viable and cheap enough to attempt.

I've always wondered with as many billionaires as there are on the planet, why several never got together, even on just a wild eyed hair brained bet against some of their other billionaire buddies to make a private moon shot, or some other stunt.
Setting up a business? I'm excited to hear what they've got to say.

Hello all, I wanted to add in to this conversation. I heard a few months back that China was looking to start mining the moon for Helium 3. It apparently would be cleaner and more powerful than nuclear fuels we use now. O and the stuff is worth $4M per Kilo. Google Helium 3, this is once again and so obviously the rich trying to get richer! If they are the only ones who can afford to go harvest/mine this mineral, I can only imagine the mark up on a $4M Kilo of moon rock....$4B maybe? Mankind has little to benefit from this, other than the handful of greedy uber rich who are embarking on this "business".. Just my 2 cents...

No need to go to the belt to get started as there are usually several asteroids in temporary orbit around the earth itself

This is what has been suggested by researcher Mikael Granvik of the University of Helsinki in Finland. He and his colleagues have created computer simulations of asteroids believed to be occupying the inner solar system, and what the chances are that any number of them could be captured into Earth orbit at any given time.

The team’s results, posted Dec. 20 [2011] in the science journal Icarus, claim it’s very likely that small asteroids would be temporarily captured into orbit (becoming TCOs, or temporarily captured objects) on a regular basis, each spending about nine months in up to three revolutions around Earth before heading off again. Some objects, though, might hang around even longer… in the team’s simulations one TCO remained in orbit for 900 years.

source

Not to mention those we are more familiar with that just pass on by. I'm not sure how safe I would feel if industry starts parking large asteroids in LEO. Since there is money to be had it is likely to be done though. fun times

reply to post by Justinarng

Hi jus
You never know your two cents may save us all that four BILLION!
lol Don't buy that stock.lol
ljb

reply to post by Justinarng


I disagree about little benefit if not in the motive. Eventually we will all stand to benefit from learning to deal with and being able to handle asteroids. Life itself would stand to benefit by having us, even if only out of greed, enlarge the biosphere from that of only Earth.

Originally posted by jra

Originally posted by MESSAGEFROMTHESTARS
I guess we'll just have to wait to see what they mean by "a new definition of 'natural resources'."

Yeah I've been wondering about this for the past week. I really can't figure out what they intend to do. Lunar or Asteroid mining just seems way to expensive at this point. So there would be no profit in it. It would be cool though.

I guess we'll have to wait and see what they got up there sleeve.

Wahoo for private industry, boo hoo for stealing innovation and intellectual property for the public sector!

Huh?

Well... if you think about it... To invest even $1 Billion into pioneering a possible Trillion dollar industry...

Plus... I find it highly likely that many billionaires recognize that they could never spend all their money... some are humanitarians, others just want to say they were a part of something huge.

Money is not to be their legacy, their work is.

What better way to immortalize your name and work, than investing and starting the biggest venture in the history of man.

Originally posted by Druscilla
reply to post by Ex_CT2

 

The belt makes sense from an engineering and fuel perspective. The gentler the slope of gravity wells you have to deal with, the the more options you have for a space ship.
Even mining the moon would be expensive in gravity costs at least until a mag rail or catapult launch type system was set up. The belt, though much much much farther out, provides a lesser slope.
Really cheap micro probes could be sent out for basic composition analysis of interesting rocks where then promising ones are targeted for a tow back home.

Distances though, that would be the rub, at least for manned missions. If it's a manned venture, the moon would be the obvious choice.
The distances and times involved with going to the belt might be too high a risk at our current level of tech to venture manned flight out and back. Robot craft like the semi-secret military Orbital Test Vehicle, but designed by civilian interests for civilian interests to perform a task like towing a rock back to earth, could be viable and cheap enough to attempt.

I've always wondered with as many billionaires as there are on the planet, why several never got together, even on just a wild eyed hair brained bet against some of their other billionaire buddies to make a private moon shot, or some other stunt.
Setting up a business? I'm excited to hear what they've got to say.

I'd like to see the numbers as to how much it costs to go from the moon and back. But that's tricky, because most of the numbers would be based on previous excursions.

It seems to me that the value of any ore would make up for the costs. The initial costs are already taken care of, via Billionaire backing...

This might be an ignorant statement, but I'm sure it holds some weight...
The price for escaping the gravity well of the moon is not that much. Most of the money would be tied up, just on leaving Earth.

If a station was placed on the moon, the moon could be the take off point in which the "On April 22, 2012 there were 1287 potentially hazardous asteroids." could be targeted and towed back. Then sold to researchers, or even possibly sold for what 'ore' they may contain.
I have a strange feeling, this is EXACTLY what this will be about. We'll see though...

This coming week I believe the Dragon will blast off on it's journey to the International Space Station.
It is a joint effort of private industry and NASA.

Who in their right mind ever thought NASA was the be all and end all of space travel.
It is only logical to see that private business has jumped on the chance to go where no man has dared to go.

We can tell our grandchildren to look toward space as a new challange to enrich their lives and bank accounts.

Some one said to me that NASA was dead and so was our space program when Discovery flew it's last voyage.
That was a most ignorant remark.

It was not that long ago that Americans set out on an uncharted journey to the West.

Space is our new West even though the general population does not comprehend this.

We were getting bogged down in war, hunger, economy and politics and many did not see this new era coming.
By this I mean people were not expecting to see great value and magnificent opportunities in space exploration.
I can only imagine what is known that is yet hidden.
The next few years will be very fast and excieting.
I am so ready.

The first commerical flights to see the International Space station begin in 2015.
Want to go? I am.

None of this seems sureal or far out. It's just a matter of natural progression.

I don't know guys I'd love for some space mining operations, but don't really think we are there yet.

I have a hunch they are going to reveal something we already know about, but shine a different light on it or improve on it in some way.

It would be nice if they were to make public a new way to harness energy though.

An interesting tidbit to add to the conversation...

Some day, the platinum, cobalt and other valuable elements from asteroids may even be returned to Earth for profit. At 1997 prices, a relatively small metallic asteroid with a diameter of 1.6 km (0.99 mi) contains more than 20 trillion US dollars worth of industrial and precious metals.[1][2] In fact, all the gold, cobalt, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhenium, rhodium, ruthenium, and tungsten that we now mine from the Earth's crust, and that are essential for economic and technological progress, came originally from the rain of asteroids that hit the Earth after the crust cooled.

en.wikipedia.org...

20 trillion US dollars in one single asteroid with the diameter of 1.6 km!!!!!
That's based on 1997 prices, just imagine what they are worth now!!!!

But as Hexi Baoyin and his team point out, having an asteroid in orbit would be useful for mining purposes. After all, it is believed these interplanetary interlopers contain bazillions of dollars-worth of resources -- despite the ridiculously large overheads involved in safely excavating precious metals and minerals. Bail your banks out with that world governments! Before we get ahead of ourselves, how would we collect these soon-to-be orbital asteroids so we can plunder them? Actually, according to the study, there may be a condition that will allow us to "simply" pluck one or two asteroids that come close to Earth before they fly past to continue their orbit around the sun.

news.discovery.com...
Capturing Lazy Asteroids to Plunder

Imagine... you invest $1 Billion.... you capture 1 asteroid, and collect more than $1 Trillion!!!
Any investment, if successful, would be worth just about all the money would could possibly imagine it would take to invest in such an initiative.

NASA's average budget was about $17 Billion a year from '87 to '08... and that money was spent on various missions and such... Imagine how much could be done with $10 Billion on 1 project...

Budget of NASA
en.wikipedia.org...

Another thought, though likely highly un-likely, there's Cruithne a quasi satellite sometimes referred to as Earth's 'second moon'. Cruithne It's roughly ~5km in size.

Additionally there's the Trojan points which are speculated to have clusters of all sorts of assorted stuff like the dust bunnies that collect under one's bed.

Just a thought for potential near-Earth targets.

reply to post by MESSAGEFROMTHESTARS


Biggest adventure makes my lmao.
Look what happen to John Kennedy and his big adventure.
Look where his big adventure has wound up.
Hi jacked and trashed. I should reserve judgement on this new bizarre enterprise until they unveil it.
But I did predict the farce of Bush's space program back when it was proposed.
There is one thing they could do and that would be clean up space junk.
Of course that would require a shady deal to get hold of all the old shuttles.
Also it would require international cooperation. That would be tricky.
But I do like that possibility.
Perhaps there is a glimmer out there but it might just be stars ljb

Originally posted by longjohnbritches
reply to post by MESSAGEFROMTHESTARS

 

Biggest adventure makes my lmao.
Look what happen to John Kennedy and his big adventure.
Look where his big adventure has wound up.
Hi jacked and trashed. I should reserve judgement on this new bizarre enterprise until they unveil it.
But I did predict the farce of Bush's space program back when it was proposed.
There is one thing they could do and that would be clean up space junk.
Of course that would require a shady deal to get hold of all the old shuttles.
Also it would require international cooperation. That would be tricky.
But I do like that possibility.
Perhaps there is a glimmer out there but it might just be stars ljb

1. This is not a GOVERNMENT SPONSORED initiative.

2. This is not BUSH's space program

3. Biggest 'venture'/adventure....
If you don't think that undertaking space travel, mining in space, and the possibility of having a private industry in space as being the 'biggest' in history... I don't know what to tell you. I suppose it's subjective.. but not really. It is a stepping stone to getting us off of this rock, and destroying another(lol).

It will not be that tricky, especially if the idea of mining precious metals is involved. The only trick part, is who will get the best deal. Governments and industries will bend over backwards to get their hands on these materials, there is little red tape that will stop the pursuits of these 'Billionaires'.