WASHINGTON (AP) — A group of high-tech tycoons wants to mine nearby asteroids, hoping to turn science
fiction into real profits.
The
mega-million dollar plan is to use commercially built robotic ships to
squeeze rocket fuel and valuable minerals like platinum and gold out of
the lifeless rocks that routinely whiz by Earth. One of the company
founders predicts they could have their version of a space-based gas
station up and running by 2020.
The inaugural step, to be achieved
in the next 18 to 24 months, would be launching the first in a series
of private telescopes that would search for rich asteroid targets.
Several
scientists not involved in the project said they were simultaneously
thrilled and skeptical, calling the plan daring, difficult — and highly
expensive. They struggle to see how it could be cost-effective, even
with platinum and gold worth nearly $1,600 an ounce. An upcoming NASA
mission to return just 2 ounces (60 grams) of an asteroid to Earth will
cost about $1 billion.
But the entrepreneurs announcing the
project Tuesday in Seattle have a track record of making big money off
ventures into space. Company founders Eric Anderson and Peter Diamandis
pioneered the idea of selling rides into space to tourists and,
Diamandis’ company offers "weightless" airplane flights.
Investors
and advisers to the new company, Planetary Resources Inc. of Seattle,
include Google CEO Larry Page and Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and
explorer and filmmaker James Cameron.
The mining, fuel processing and later refueling would all be done without humans, Anderson said.
"It
is the stuff of science fiction, but like in so many other areas of
science fiction, it’s possible to begin the process of making them
reality," said former astronaut Thomas Jones, an adviser to the company.
The
target-hunting telescopes would be tubes only a couple of feet long,
weighing only a few dozen pounds and small enough to be held in your
hand. They should cost less than $10 million, company officials said.
The
idea that asteroids could be mined for resources has been around for
years. Asteroids are the leftovers of a failed attempt to form a planet
billions of years ago. Most of the remnants became the asteroid belt
between Mars and Jupiter, but some pieces were pushed out to roam the
solar system.
Asteroids are made mostly of rock and metal and
range from a couple of dozen feet wide to nearly 10 miles long. The new
venture targets the free-flying asteroids, seeking to extract from them
the rare Earth platinum metals that are used in batteries, electronics
and medical devices, Diamandis said.
Water can be broken down in
space to liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen for rocket fuel. Water is
very expensive to get off the ground so the plan is to take it from an
asteroid to a spot in space where it can be converted into fuel. From
there, it can easily and cheaply be shipped to Earth orbit for refueling
commercial satellites or spaceships from NASA and other countries.
In
the past couple of years, NASA and other space agencies have shifted
their attention from the moon and other planets toward asteroids.
Because asteroids don’t have any substantial gravity, targeting them
costs less fuel and money than going to the moon, Anderson said in a
phone interview.
There are probably 1,500 asteroids that pass near
Earth that would be good initial targets. They are at least 160 feet
(50 meters) wide, and Anderson figures 10 percent of them have water and
other valuable minerals.
"A depot within a decade seems
incredible. I hope there will be someone to use it," said Andrew Cheng
at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Lab, who was the chief
scientist for a NASA mission to an asteroid a decade ago. "And I have
high hopes that commercial uses of space will become profitable beyond
Earth orbit. Maybe the time has come."
Space experts said such a
bold project has huge startup costs. Diamandis and Anderson would not
disclose how much the project will cost overall. Diamandis said by
building and launching quickly, the company will operate much cheaper
than NASA.
But still the costs are just too high, said Purdue
University planetary geologist Jay Melosh, who called space exploration
"a sport that only wealthy nations, and those wishing to demonstrate
their technical prowess, can afford to indulge."
Anderson, who co-founded the space tourism business, said he’s used to skeptics.
"Before
we started launching people into space as private citizens, people
thought that was a pie-in-the-sky idea," Anderson said. "We’re in this
for decades. But it’s not a charity. And we’ll make money from the
beginning."
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Online:
Planetary Resources Inc.: http://www.planetaryresources.com/
NASA’s 2016 asteroid sampling mission: http://osiris-rex.lpl.arizona.edu/
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Seth Borenstein be can followed at http://twitter.com/borenbears
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.