Natural Resources from Outer Space

4/19/2013

Topic courtesy of Addison Millard

http://www.planetaryresources.com/mission/

This company, Planetary Resources, believes that "harnessing valuable minerals from a practically infinite source will provide stability on Earth, increase humanity’s prosperity, and help establish and maintain human presence in space." Explore their website to read more. After reading, tell us what you think. Is asteroid mining feasible? Will you see this happen in your lifetime? Are there other companies like Planetary Resources working on this concept?

27 Comments

Stephen Bowles

4/19/2013 06:36:49 am

Asteroid mining is certainly feasible. We have already sent probes far deeper than the asteroid belt. The difficulty is in the time required for the journey. In order to make the journey worthwhile, it will have to bring back large amounts at a time, but the more that it brings back, the more expensive the operation. The other difficulty is in the robotics. Due to distance there will be a few minutes delay in signal, making manual operation an impossibility. It would require extremely sophisticated software to recognize potential points to dig and recognize where useful minerals are deposited. If these difficulties can be overcome, then this would certainly be a useful endeavor.

Addison Millard

4/21/2013 11:18:15 pm

The plans laid out by Planetary Resources (PR) have me convinced that asteroid mining is totally feasable. I'd love to see this happen within my lifetime and I believe it is likely it will; However, there are a few problems facing PR. There are international laws prohibiting any one country from claiming any part of our solar system, and there are those who think this law should prevent privatizing as well. Honestly, I think space, like the land on earth, is there for the taking. "The Final Frontier", as it were. There are not currently any other organizations with the ambitions of mining asteroids, but there are companys, such as Virgin Galactic, who are beginning to commercialize space travel (Heck yeah!). Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Galactic is among the many contributers to PR. So, as I said, I'm excited to see where Planetary Resources takes us in the near future.

Miguel Arjona

4/21/2013 11:18:28 pm

Asteroid mining is feasible. I think that mining on asteroids is a good idea because the earth has to run out of natural resources at some point and we need to find a back up plan for where we can receive more.

Lane Merrill

4/21/2013 11:52:05 pm

I think that asteroid mining is definately feasible. I think that it is a far better alternative to mining our own planets natural resources and destroying our planets ecosystem. Although asteroid mining is a radical idea i think that with proper scientific research it can be done relatively inexpensively and depending on the quantity of resources that are received, the whole operation could pay for itself.
I am excitied for the new possibilities that lie in the future not only out in space but also here on earth. i certainly thinik that this is a step in the right direction in concerving earths natural ecosystem but more needs to be done to improve the damage that has already been done. ex. (cleaner energy) every year thousands of tons of carbon dioxide as well as carbon monoxinde are relaesed into the air due to fuel consumption from vehicles, power plants and factories. Over the years the air quality has decreased exponentialy causing natural cycles to be disrupted such as acid rain. acid rain is a product of air polution being absorbed by water in the atmosphere causing the rain waters ph balance to drop anywhere between 5.5 and 6.5 whereas pure water in a nuetral 7. Not only is this acid rain bad for the plants but it also affects the animals which we eat.

Brad Hall

4/21/2013 11:57:07 pm

I think it woudl be great if we could do that and it would efinately bring in more resourcs and we souldnt have to worry about depleeting our own resources and from reading on the site it seems that nasa is alos looking into astroid mineing. Also the way and the rate that all techknolegey is advanceing at right now and their are new things almost each and everyday i do think that it is possible for something like this to happen in our life time.

Nick

4/22/2013 11:10:23 pm

Dat's a good idea. For one, we could discover new resources, and what's even gooder, is that space goes on forever. Well as far as we know. Just imagine the awesome things we could find out just by digging into asteroids.

Tyler Davis

4/22/2013 11:27:09 pm

I don't think that it would be possible to do asteroid mining. Why would anybody want to walk on an asteroid anyway? I mean, it just seems pointless to go up in space to walk on an asteroid. If we are able to walk on them, why don't we walk on another planet or do something else useful? Personally, I think it will get done in my lifetime and i'm glad about that. I don't want to be watching a television show and then be interupted by the president saying we landed on an huge, randomly floating rock.

Kayla Kalmink

4/23/2013 04:43:27 am

I think it is feasible because we could use there with the resources that are already on this planet. This way we won’t be depleting our resources, we can use asteroid mining to do this. They can use the new technology to make new thing that are better. They could use the other parts of the asteroid to make other thing too. So yes it would be feasible to use asteroid mining.

Caleb Engle

4/23/2013 11:13:02 pm

Asteroid mining is a very good idea. Our earth will run out of resources at some point so it is very important that we have a backup plan. Asteroid mining could be a great industry that could even boost our economy

Jillian Bailey

4/23/2013 11:21:43 pm

I think asteroid mining is feasible because the resources that are discovered can be used to replace some of are fast going ones. From what they discover they might be able to find ways to make things we already use on a daily bases esier or more efficient. So yes I think astroid mining is feasible.

Chris Hopkins

4/24/2013 11:07:22 pm

Asteroid mining is a great idea. The only issue i can see, is that one, Obama cut funding to NASA, and Two, The amount of fuel to launch from earth, to land on the space station, and back with the resources. The lack of oxygen is also a great factor. Until we are able to generate oxygen, then i say have at. Until then i say just keep it science fiction.

Katy Wallace

4/24/2013 11:10:25 pm

I do believe that asteroid mining is feasible. Though I’m not completely sure it will happen in our lifetime. The mining robots you would need would have to be very efficient, and I’m honestly not sure we’d have the advanced technology we’d need even though our generation is advancing fast in technology. I do think that mining the asteroids would be a good idea though. We’d probably save the fossil fuels and natural resources that we use to power and fuel our machines.

Leah Czinder

4/24/2013 11:19:30 pm

I believe that asteroid mining is feasible. With our advances in technology almost anything is possible. Since fossil fuels on earth are quickly being used up, looking to space to provide us with more is a very good idea.

4chin

4/24/2013 11:26:19 pm

Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

Uncle Sam

4/25/2013 11:17:03 pm

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Obama

4/25/2013 11:19:39 pm

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Veronica Klein

4/24/2013 11:48:43 pm

I think asteroid mining is certainly feasible, but it will be very expensive. I'm a little leery of letting individuals and companies privatize space exploration. To me, space belongs to everyone who wants to explore it. By letting companies have their own space telescopes or data-collecting spacecraft, I think the space around Earth will start to be "owned" its self, simply by the spacecraft inside it. While the government may not always have the most efficient way of doing things, it belongs to the people and everyone has a say in what it does. Everyone, even the poorest people can have a sense of pride in what the people can accomplish. It's not just spacecraft for those who are rich enough to own one.

Personally, I'd rather people spend their money on trying to go back to the moon. We've only been there 6 times and there is so much more we could explore, not to mention setting up a moon-base as a way point for further exploration.

Lucas Johnson

4/25/2013 04:55:23 am

When people put their minds to something just about anything is feasible (within reason). People thought we could not go to the moon, but we proved them wrong over and over again. So why not go to an asteroid, seems like the next great step in becoming a civilization that lives in space. The only the way this could possibly help the Earth is that we must stop harming the Earth for its “precious” resources. I do see this possibly happening in my life time, but more people must be involved. I say stop working on cell phones and other ridiculous devices and focus on the reach for space.
________________________________
And here is another company trying to just about the same thing.
http://deepspaceindustries.com/

Tyler Falls

4/25/2013 11:06:38 pm

Asteroid mining is a good idea. But the cost of the operations is expensive. Since Obama cut funding to NASA, we probably do not have the money to do it. To make the operation worth it. We would have to go down farther into the asteroid. But while doing this the cost increases too great numbers. So yes I think this could be a good idea. But costs might overweigh success.

Addison Millard

4/25/2013 11:16:31 pm

NASA would not have anything to do with this operation. Planetary Resources is a PRIVATE company with funding from PRIVATE investers. The government has nothing to do with it.

Steven Wolfe

4/25/2013 11:11:50 pm

I think asteroid mining is feasible, because we will need new resources soon and mining asteroids may give us a better understanding of our universe by new resources for technology.

Amber Snore

4/25/2013 11:22:07 pm

I think asteroid mining is definitely a possibility. Asteroid mining can lead to not only finding valuable resources but also finding things we haven't discovered before. The only problem I could find with this is the amount of money it would take to not only find the asteroids but to mine them, but i definitely see this as an opportunity to seize the resources we are lacking quantity of.

Bo Morgan

4/25/2013 11:25:09 pm

I think astroid mining is a feasible idea. I think that this could take place in my lifetime, but probably not until im like 56 will this actually be a neccessary thing to do. Astroid mining could help us obtain new resources and maintain current ones.

Corey Robins

4/25/2013 11:26:10 pm

I believe that asteriod mining is for sure possible and also a good idea. For one as far as we know there is unlimited astroids which means unlimited resources. I do think that it might be alittle costly for maybe not that great of a find but on the other hand im not paying for it so if they want to spend the money on doing that then im not gunna be the one to stand in their way.

Todd Fox

4/25/2013 11:30:10 pm

Asteroid mining is certainly possible, making it feasible would require much research and development. In the next 70 years, I do expect to see projects such as this to be explored and tested. Other companies are exploring this idea as well. Competition will be fierce.

JON wilcox

4/25/2013 11:34:29 pm

In my opinion, this asteroid mining sounds like it could be a good idea if there are really valuable reasorces on the asteroids. If these guys wanna spend their money harvesting rocks in space then let them. There is no risk for us. I also think this will happen in my lifetime, probably very soon too! So overall, this idea is ok, but I would like to see it happen first.

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Natural Resources from Outer Space

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