Asteroid Mining Company Reveals Space Venture For Precious Metals, Water

Asteroid Mining Company Reveals Plans

Planetary Resources, Inc., a new company backed by filmmaker/explorer James Cameron, Google CEO Larry Page and a team of billionaires and luminaries, announced earlier today its plans to mine Near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) for resources such as precious metals and water.

"Through the development of cost-effective exploration technologies, the company is poised to initiate prospecting missions targeting resource-rich asteroids that are easily accessible." Planetary Resources said.

The company detailed about how a single 500-meter asteroid filled with platinum contains the equivalent of all the platinum group metals that have been mined on Earth in history.

"Many of the scarce metals and minerals on Earth are in near-infinite quantities in space. As access to these materials increases, not only will the cost of everything from microelectronics to energy storage be reduced, but new applications for these abundant elements will result in important and novel applications," the company said.

It added NEAs rich in water will serve as “stepping stones” for deep space exploration, providing space-sourced fuel and water to orbiting depots. 

The company continued that out of approximately 9,000 known NEAs, over 1,500 are as easy to reach as the Moon.

"Our mission is not only to expand the world’s resource base, but we want to increase people’s access to, and understanding of, our planet and solar system by developing capable and cost-efficient systems,” said Chris Lewicki, President and Chief Engineer of Planetary Resources, Inc.