Asteroids come in several flavours, and the two we're interested in here are the ice ones and the nickel iron ones. The icy rocks, with a few solar panels and that very bright 24/7 sunshine up there, can provide water. That's the first thing we need in abundance if we're going to get any number of people up off the planet for any appreciable amount of time. And we'd really rather not be sending the stuff up out of the Earth's gravity well for them.
It's also true that those nickel iron asteroids are likely to be rich in platinum-group metals (PGMs). They too can be refined with a bit of electricity, and they're sufficiently valuable (say, for platinum, $60m a tonne, just as a number to use among friends) that we might be able to finance everything we're trying to do by doing so.
All terribly exciting, all very space cadet, enough to bring tears to the eyes of anyone who ever learnt how to use a slide rule and, as the man said, once you're in orbit you're not halfway to the Moon, you're halfway to anywhere.
Except I'm not sure that the numbers quite stack up here. I'm sure that the engineering is possible, I'm certain that it's all worth doing and most certainly believe that we want to get up there and start playing around with other parts of the cosmos over and above Gaia. But, but…
SpaceX founder Elon Musk has caused quite the commotion in recent days with his proposal to create a human colony on Mars, first unveiled in some detail during a November 16 talk at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London, UK.
But after news reports of the talk quoted Musk as saying he’d like to send 80,000 people to the Red Planet in the not-too-distant future, Musk himself upped the ante: Taking to Twitter on Tuesday, the charismatic multi-industry entrepreneur (Musk also founded Tesla Motors and Solar City, and before that co-founded PayPal) clarified that he actually planned to send 80,000 people to Mars every year once the colonization process begins, for a total of millions of human settlers on Mars.
“Millions of people needed for Mars colony, so 80k+ would just be the number moving to Mars per year,” Musk tweeted on Tuesday afternoon, linking to a Yahoo News re-post of an earlier Space.com article that quoted the SpaceX founder.
“And, yes, I do in fact know that this sounds crazy,” Musk tweeted, immediately following. “That is not lost on me. Nor I do think SpaceX will do this alone.”
“But if humanity wishes to become a multi-planet species, then we must figure out how to move millions of people to Mars,” Musk continued.
Planning is underway for press conference next Wednesday in Las Vegas where Lori Garver and Bob Bigelow will announce an agreement to work toward putting inflatable modules on the ISS. NASA signed a contract with Bigelow Aerospace in December 2012 focusing on the Bigelow Expanded Aerospace Module (BEAM). I have asked NASA PAO if there will be dial-in media availability for the media event. Awaiting a reply.
WASHINGTON -- NASA has awarded a $17.8 million contract to Bigelow Aerospace to provide a new addition to the International Space Station. The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module will demonstrate the benefits of this space habitat technology for future exploration and commercial space endeavors.
"The International Space Station is a unique laboratory that enables important discoveries that benefit humanity and vastly increase understanding of how humans can live and work in space for long periods," NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said. "This partnership agreement for the use of expandable habitats represents a step forward in cutting-edge technology that can allow humans to thrive in space safely and affordably, and heralds important progress in U.S. commercial space innovation."
Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, has requested a March 1 launch date from the Eastern Range, which operates the Cape Canaveral, Fla., spaceport from where the company’s Falcon rockets fly.
Like the company’s two previous flights, the rocket will carry a Dragon cargo capsule loaded with food, supplies and science experiments for the International Space Station, a permanently staffed research laboratory that flies about 250 miles above Earth.
SpaceX has completed an investigation into why one of the Falcon rocket’s nine engines shut down early during the last launch on Oct. 7, 2012. The primary mission — a cargo run to the station — was not impacted, as the rocket’s other motors compensated for the power loss. Nevertheless, the issue needs to be understood and any corrective actions taken before the next mission is cleared to launch.
“We’ve gotten to root cause and we’ve briefed that to our customer (NASA),” said Garrett Reisman, SpaceX’s Commercial Crew project manager.
“Right now we’re just making sure that all of our i’s are dotted and our t’s are crossed. We do intend to make that information more widely disseminated very, very soon,” he said.
^ There is no rocket system in the world that can deliver such a thing.
Bigelow Aerospace, the private spacefaring company that NASA is paying to develop and launch an inflatable space module to the International Space Station in 2015, already has plans on how it will separately commercialize the balloon-like craft for its own space operations.
“We have motivations as a company to see the BEAM project be successful outside of the NASA mission,” said Robert T. Bigelow, creator of his namesake commercial space company, which he started from his fortune accumulated as the owner of the Budget chain of hotels, in a phone interview on Thursday.
NASA’s plans call for the inflatable test module, known as the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), to remain connected to the station for two years — with astronauts entering and leaving as deemed fit — then detached and destroyed, burned up in Earth’s atmosphere.
But Bigelow, the company and the man, intend to produce another BEAM habitat that could be attached to a planned Bigelow-owned and built private space station, for use by space tourists and non-spacefaring governments. The first component of that station, a larger inflatable module known as the BA 330, could launch as early as 2016.
The goal is to then use the smaller attached balloon-like BEAM to function as the world’s most spacious airlock, allowing for up to three space tourists to simultaneously spacewalk outside the station simultaneously.
Pretty interesting stuff! It's amazing that we are now in an age in which private entities can launch such objects into space.
StealthBlue, I was wondering if there are any serious private space companies in the world besides US ones: does Russia or Europe (or Japan) have them (I'm sure they do) or is it simply that the biggest and most newsworthy steps are being taken primarily by US companies?
Planetary Resources video tour of where they are building the telescope that will locate and pinpoint potential Asteroids to be mined.
In the accompanying video, you can see one of our full scale Arkyd-100 mechanical prototypes. The Arkyd-100 is our space telescope and technology demonstrator for our Arkyd Series prospecting missions.
One of the earliest decisions we made was to design and build as much as possible in-house, right here at PRI. This is much the same way that Elon Musk and SpaceX have vertically integrated to drive innovation, control reliability, and keep costs down. This mindset and capability will allow us to mass produce our spacecraft at extremely low cost.
The first thing I’d like you to notice is that our Arkyd-100 is daringly small, and this cuts the cost of deep space missions below anything we’ve become accustomed to. Our engineering team is packing tremendous capability into this small package, and this will give us more launch opportunities to get our spacecraft where they need to go in the Solar System. We’ve put an incredible amount into 11 kg, from our deployable solar arrays, to the integrated avionics bay, and our instrument and sensor package at the back of the comparatively large optical assembly, that dominates the volume of the spacecraft – and of course you can’t see the innovations we’re developing in the flight software, but our software team will assure that they exist!
On Tuesday, a new American spacefaring company, Deep Space Industries, Inc., publicly unveiled its plans to mine near-earth asteroids, develop a “microgravity foundry” to produce metal parts from ground up asteroid ore, and eventually, and construct entire outer space refineries to produce fuel for spacecraft from the other volatiles contained in asteroids.
“Our overall plan is to get into this field [asteroid mining] as it begins and it is beginning today,” said Rick N. Tumlinson, chairman of the board of Deep Space Industries, during a press conference held at the Santa Monica Museum of Flying in California on Tuesday.
But in announcing its entry into the nascent asteroid mining industry, Deep Space Industries, Inc., is following on the heels of another company, Planetary Resources, that first disclosed its plans to prospect and mine asteroids back in April 2012.
For one thing, Deep Space plans to start its operations as early as 2015 by launching several tiny unmanned spacecraft called FireFlies on one-way missions to near-earth asteroids, to sample the mineralogical makeup of promising mining candidates and send data back to Earth. These spacecraft, which have a target weight of 55 pounds, will be based on the low-cost “cubesats,” or tiny satellite technology currently being used by space agencies and institutes around the world, but with additional propulsion and controls. Check out a concept image below via Deep Space Industries:
Following the first successful FireFly trips, Deep Space says that as early as 2016 it will launch larger, 77-pound, unmanned spacecraft called DragonFlies, capable of returning actual asteroid samples to Earth for up-close analysis. Check out a concept image of those spacecraft below, via Deep Space Industries:
The next stage of the company’s ambitious proposal is “full-scale commercial operations,” which could come as early as 2020. They would be conducted using a much larger unmanned spacecraft known as the Harvestor, which should be capable of transporting thousand of tons of asteroid minerals per year back to Earth or Earth orbit, where they can be processed. Here is a concept image of a Harvestor from Deep Space Industries:
By 2020, “we’ll start producing products for customers,” said Deep Space CEO David Gump in Tuesday’s press conference. Initially, that won’t be refined metals such as platinum, but rather “volatiles, water, things that can be turned into propellant,” Gump explained. Deep Space Industries aims to sell the propellant to communications satellite companies, which currently must pay premium to get fuel for their satellites into space.
“The biggest market is communications satellites,” Gump said. “It costs $10,000 per pound to get propellant up for geosynchronous orbit.”
After that, though, Deep Space’s business plan gets even loftier: The company wants to help develop a “permanent communications platform” in outer space that’s “just like the cellular system” back here on Earth, according to Gump. That means outfitting communications satellites with more equipment — transponders, solar cells, spot beam antennae — to allow for more stable, faster and more powerful satellite communications.
“That means the next generation of HDTV can be delivered by satellite,” Gump said. “You can get highspeed Internet anywhere on the planet.”
From there, Deep Space wants to move into building solar-powered satellites directly in orbit, capable of collecting more than enough sunlight to power their own operations and beam the rest back to Earth as clean electricity for the rest of terrestrial civilization.
All these "asteroid mining" ideas jumping out of the ground feel way to optimistic. Its one thing to launch some stuff to a space station but quiet another to actually do deep space mining operations.
On January 23 2013 07:42 {CC}StealthBlue wrote: + Show Spoiler +
Holy crap, best of luck.
On Tuesday, a new American spacefaring company, Deep Space Industries, Inc., publicly unveiled its plans to mine near-earth asteroids, develop a “microgravity foundry” to produce metal parts from ground up asteroid ore, and eventually, and construct entire outer space refineries to produce fuel for spacecraft from the other volatiles contained in asteroids.
“Our overall plan is to get into this field [asteroid mining] as it begins and it is beginning today,” said Rick N. Tumlinson, chairman of the board of Deep Space Industries, during a press conference held at the Santa Monica Museum of Flying in California on Tuesday.
But in announcing its entry into the nascent asteroid mining industry, Deep Space Industries, Inc., is following on the heels of another company, Planetary Resources, that first disclosed its plans to prospect and mine asteroids back in April 2012.
For one thing, Deep Space plans to start its operations as early as 2015 by launching several tiny unmanned spacecraft called FireFlies on one-way missions to near-earth asteroids, to sample the mineralogical makeup of promising mining candidates and send data back to Earth. These spacecraft, which have a target weight of 55 pounds, will be based on the low-cost “cubesats,” or tiny satellite technology currently being used by space agencies and institutes around the world, but with additional propulsion and controls. Check out a concept image below via Deep Space Industries:
Following the first successful FireFly trips, Deep Space says that as early as 2016 it will launch larger, 77-pound, unmanned spacecraft called DragonFlies, capable of returning actual asteroid samples to Earth for up-close analysis. Check out a concept image of those spacecraft below, via Deep Space Industries:
The next stage of the company’s ambitious proposal is “full-scale commercial operations,” which could come as early as 2020. They would be conducted using a much larger unmanned spacecraft known as the Harvestor, which should be capable of transporting thousand of tons of asteroid minerals per year back to Earth or Earth orbit, where they can be processed. Here is a concept image of a Harvestor from Deep Space Industries:
By 2020, “we’ll start producing products for customers,” said Deep Space CEO David Gump in Tuesday’s press conference. Initially, that won’t be refined metals such as platinum, but rather “volatiles, water, things that can be turned into propellant,” Gump explained. Deep Space Industries aims to sell the propellant to communications satellite companies, which currently must pay premium to get fuel for their satellites into space.
“The biggest market is communications satellites,” Gump said. “It costs $10,000 per pound to get propellant up for geosynchronous orbit.”
After that, though, Deep Space’s business plan gets even loftier: The company wants to help develop a “permanent communications platform” in outer space that’s “just like the cellular system” back here on Earth, according to Gump. That means outfitting communications satellites with more equipment — transponders, solar cells, spot beam antennae — to allow for more stable, faster and more powerful satellite communications.
“That means the next generation of HDTV can be delivered by satellite,” Gump said. “You can get highspeed Internet anywhere on the planet.”
From there, Deep Space wants to move into building solar-powered satellites directly in orbit, capable of collecting more than enough sunlight to power their own operations and beam the rest back to Earth as clean electricity for the rest of terrestrial civilization.
Can you imagine the impact this would have on future space exploration if this actually proves to be really lucrative? There would be a large-scale space race, not simply to show off one's nation's technological achievements, but to claim and own asteroid clusters. Up to now, the only real incentive for space exploration was intellectual curiosity. With the birth of this industry, private companies would venture to go to the far reaches of space out of greed to get more asteroids and in return, we may discover new properties of outer stellar bodies or debunk misconceptions we've held on to. It's really amazing to be alive in this day and age where space resource harvesting is rapidly becoming a reality.
On January 23 2013 08:07 Gorsameth wrote: All these "asteroid mining" ideas jumping out of the ground feel way to optimistic. Its one thing to launch some stuff to a space station but quiet another to actually do deep space mining operations.
its not really "mining" for minerals on a commercial level just yet, its more of obtaining samples for scientific study to see if there is anything valuable in the rock to mine.
On January 23 2013 07:42 {CC}StealthBlue wrote: + Show Spoiler +
Holy crap, best of luck.
On Tuesday, a new American spacefaring company, Deep Space Industries, Inc., publicly unveiled its plans to mine near-earth asteroids, develop a “microgravity foundry” to produce metal parts from ground up asteroid ore, and eventually, and construct entire outer space refineries to produce fuel for spacecraft from the other volatiles contained in asteroids.
“Our overall plan is to get into this field [asteroid mining] as it begins and it is beginning today,” said Rick N. Tumlinson, chairman of the board of Deep Space Industries, during a press conference held at the Santa Monica Museum of Flying in California on Tuesday.
But in announcing its entry into the nascent asteroid mining industry, Deep Space Industries, Inc., is following on the heels of another company, Planetary Resources, that first disclosed its plans to prospect and mine asteroids back in April 2012.
For one thing, Deep Space plans to start its operations as early as 2015 by launching several tiny unmanned spacecraft called FireFlies on one-way missions to near-earth asteroids, to sample the mineralogical makeup of promising mining candidates and send data back to Earth. These spacecraft, which have a target weight of 55 pounds, will be based on the low-cost “cubesats,” or tiny satellite technology currently being used by space agencies and institutes around the world, but with additional propulsion and controls. Check out a concept image below via Deep Space Industries:
Following the first successful FireFly trips, Deep Space says that as early as 2016 it will launch larger, 77-pound, unmanned spacecraft called DragonFlies, capable of returning actual asteroid samples to Earth for up-close analysis. Check out a concept image of those spacecraft below, via Deep Space Industries:
The next stage of the company’s ambitious proposal is “full-scale commercial operations,” which could come as early as 2020. They would be conducted using a much larger unmanned spacecraft known as the Harvestor, which should be capable of transporting thousand of tons of asteroid minerals per year back to Earth or Earth orbit, where they can be processed. Here is a concept image of a Harvestor from Deep Space Industries:
By 2020, “we’ll start producing products for customers,” said Deep Space CEO David Gump in Tuesday’s press conference. Initially, that won’t be refined metals such as platinum, but rather “volatiles, water, things that can be turned into propellant,” Gump explained. Deep Space Industries aims to sell the propellant to communications satellite companies, which currently must pay premium to get fuel for their satellites into space.
“The biggest market is communications satellites,” Gump said. “It costs $10,000 per pound to get propellant up for geosynchronous orbit.”
After that, though, Deep Space’s business plan gets even loftier: The company wants to help develop a “permanent communications platform” in outer space that’s “just like the cellular system” back here on Earth, according to Gump. That means outfitting communications satellites with more equipment — transponders, solar cells, spot beam antennae — to allow for more stable, faster and more powerful satellite communications.
“That means the next generation of HDTV can be delivered by satellite,” Gump said. “You can get highspeed Internet anywhere on the planet.”
From there, Deep Space wants to move into building solar-powered satellites directly in orbit, capable of collecting more than enough sunlight to power their own operations and beam the rest back to Earth as clean electricity for the rest of terrestrial civilization.
Can you imagine the impact this would have on future space exploration if this actually proves to be really lucrative? There would be a large-scale space race, not simply to show off one's nation's technological achievements, but to claim and own asteroid clusters. Up to now, the only real incentive for space exploration was intellectual curiosity. With the birth of this industry, private companies would venture to go to the far reaches of space out of greed to get more asteroids and in return, we may discover new properties of outer stellar bodies or debunk misconceptions we've held on to. It's really amazing to be alive in this day and age where space resource harvesting is rapidly becoming a reality.
eh. it seems like this type of news pops up every 2 or 3 years and then we're back to the same old way we've been doing things.
On January 23 2013 07:42 {CC}StealthBlue wrote: + Show Spoiler +
Holy crap, best of luck.
On Tuesday, a new American spacefaring company, Deep Space Industries, Inc., publicly unveiled its plans to mine near-earth asteroids, develop a “microgravity foundry” to produce metal parts from ground up asteroid ore, and eventually, and construct entire outer space refineries to produce fuel for spacecraft from the other volatiles contained in asteroids.
“Our overall plan is to get into this field [asteroid mining] as it begins and it is beginning today,” said Rick N. Tumlinson, chairman of the board of Deep Space Industries, during a press conference held at the Santa Monica Museum of Flying in California on Tuesday.
But in announcing its entry into the nascent asteroid mining industry, Deep Space Industries, Inc., is following on the heels of another company, Planetary Resources, that first disclosed its plans to prospect and mine asteroids back in April 2012.
For one thing, Deep Space plans to start its operations as early as 2015 by launching several tiny unmanned spacecraft called FireFlies on one-way missions to near-earth asteroids, to sample the mineralogical makeup of promising mining candidates and send data back to Earth. These spacecraft, which have a target weight of 55 pounds, will be based on the low-cost “cubesats,” or tiny satellite technology currently being used by space agencies and institutes around the world, but with additional propulsion and controls. Check out a concept image below via Deep Space Industries:
Following the first successful FireFly trips, Deep Space says that as early as 2016 it will launch larger, 77-pound, unmanned spacecraft called DragonFlies, capable of returning actual asteroid samples to Earth for up-close analysis. Check out a concept image of those spacecraft below, via Deep Space Industries:
The next stage of the company’s ambitious proposal is “full-scale commercial operations,” which could come as early as 2020. They would be conducted using a much larger unmanned spacecraft known as the Harvestor, which should be capable of transporting thousand of tons of asteroid minerals per year back to Earth or Earth orbit, where they can be processed. Here is a concept image of a Harvestor from Deep Space Industries:
By 2020, “we’ll start producing products for customers,” said Deep Space CEO David Gump in Tuesday’s press conference. Initially, that won’t be refined metals such as platinum, but rather “volatiles, water, things that can be turned into propellant,” Gump explained. Deep Space Industries aims to sell the propellant to communications satellite companies, which currently must pay premium to get fuel for their satellites into space.
“The biggest market is communications satellites,” Gump said. “It costs $10,000 per pound to get propellant up for geosynchronous orbit.”
After that, though, Deep Space’s business plan gets even loftier: The company wants to help develop a “permanent communications platform” in outer space that’s “just like the cellular system” back here on Earth, according to Gump. That means outfitting communications satellites with more equipment — transponders, solar cells, spot beam antennae — to allow for more stable, faster and more powerful satellite communications.
“That means the next generation of HDTV can be delivered by satellite,” Gump said. “You can get highspeed Internet anywhere on the planet.”
From there, Deep Space wants to move into building solar-powered satellites directly in orbit, capable of collecting more than enough sunlight to power their own operations and beam the rest back to Earth as clean electricity for the rest of terrestrial civilization.
Can you imagine the impact this would have on future space exploration if this actually proves to be really lucrative? There would be a large-scale space race, not simply to show off one's nation's technological achievements, but to claim and own asteroid clusters. Up to now, the only real incentive for space exploration was intellectual curiosity. With the birth of this industry, private companies would venture to go to the far reaches of space out of greed to get more asteroids and in return, we may discover new properties of outer stellar bodies or debunk misconceptions we've held on to. It's really amazing to be alive in this day and age where space resource harvesting is rapidly becoming a reality.
eh. it seems like this type of news pops up every 2 or 3 years and then we're back to the same old way we've been doing things.
wouldn't hold your breath on this one.
Commercial enterprises have never been this involved in Space exploration before in this case seeking potential profits by extracting the universes natural resources while contributing to the exploration of space.
On January 23 2013 08:07 Gorsameth wrote: All these "asteroid mining" ideas jumping out of the ground feel way to optimistic. Its one thing to launch some stuff to a space station but quiet another to actually do deep space mining operations.
On January 23 2013 07:42 {CC}StealthBlue wrote: + Show Spoiler +
Holy crap, best of luck.
On Tuesday, a new American spacefaring company, Deep Space Industries, Inc., publicly unveiled its plans to mine near-earth asteroids, develop a “microgravity foundry” to produce metal parts from ground up asteroid ore, and eventually, and construct entire outer space refineries to produce fuel for spacecraft from the other volatiles contained in asteroids.
“Our overall plan is to get into this field [asteroid mining] as it begins and it is beginning today,” said Rick N. Tumlinson, chairman of the board of Deep Space Industries, during a press conference held at the Santa Monica Museum of Flying in California on Tuesday.
But in announcing its entry into the nascent asteroid mining industry, Deep Space Industries, Inc., is following on the heels of another company, Planetary Resources, that first disclosed its plans to prospect and mine asteroids back in April 2012.
For one thing, Deep Space plans to start its operations as early as 2015 by launching several tiny unmanned spacecraft called FireFlies on one-way missions to near-earth asteroids, to sample the mineralogical makeup of promising mining candidates and send data back to Earth. These spacecraft, which have a target weight of 55 pounds, will be based on the low-cost “cubesats,” or tiny satellite technology currently being used by space agencies and institutes around the world, but with additional propulsion and controls. Check out a concept image below via Deep Space Industries:
Following the first successful FireFly trips, Deep Space says that as early as 2016 it will launch larger, 77-pound, unmanned spacecraft called DragonFlies, capable of returning actual asteroid samples to Earth for up-close analysis. Check out a concept image of those spacecraft below, via Deep Space Industries:
The next stage of the company’s ambitious proposal is “full-scale commercial operations,” which could come as early as 2020. They would be conducted using a much larger unmanned spacecraft known as the Harvestor, which should be capable of transporting thousand of tons of asteroid minerals per year back to Earth or Earth orbit, where they can be processed. Here is a concept image of a Harvestor from Deep Space Industries:
By 2020, “we’ll start producing products for customers,” said Deep Space CEO David Gump in Tuesday’s press conference. Initially, that won’t be refined metals such as platinum, but rather “volatiles, water, things that can be turned into propellant,” Gump explained. Deep Space Industries aims to sell the propellant to communications satellite companies, which currently must pay premium to get fuel for their satellites into space.
“The biggest market is communications satellites,” Gump said. “It costs $10,000 per pound to get propellant up for geosynchronous orbit.”
After that, though, Deep Space’s business plan gets even loftier: The company wants to help develop a “permanent communications platform” in outer space that’s “just like the cellular system” back here on Earth, according to Gump. That means outfitting communications satellites with more equipment — transponders, solar cells, spot beam antennae — to allow for more stable, faster and more powerful satellite communications.
“That means the next generation of HDTV can be delivered by satellite,” Gump said. “You can get highspeed Internet anywhere on the planet.”
From there, Deep Space wants to move into building solar-powered satellites directly in orbit, capable of collecting more than enough sunlight to power their own operations and beam the rest back to Earth as clean electricity for the rest of terrestrial civilization.
Can you imagine the impact this would have on future space exploration if this actually proves to be really lucrative? There would be a large-scale space race, not simply to show off one's nation's technological achievements, but to claim and own asteroid clusters. Up to now, the only real incentive for space exploration was intellectual curiosity. With the birth of this industry, private companies would venture to go to the far reaches of space out of greed to get more asteroids and in return, we may discover new properties of outer stellar bodies or debunk misconceptions we've held on to. It's really amazing to be alive in this day and age where space resource harvesting is rapidly becoming a reality.
eh. it seems like this type of news pops up every 2 or 3 years and then we're back to the same old way we've been doing things.
wouldn't hold your breath on this one.
I love these baseless cynical comments. Sure it's good to be skeptical if you identify a specific flaw in something, but you guys just seem cynical about these developments without any reason.
And what do you mean every 2 or 3 years? When has space travel ever been privatized in the past? When has there ever been talk about harvesting asteroids?
Starting in 2016, Deep Space will begin launching 70-lb DragonFlies for round-trip visits that bring back samples. The DragonFly expeditions will take two to four years, depending on the target, and will return 60 to 150 lbs. Deep Space believes that combining science, prospecting and sponsorship will be a win/win for everyone, both lowering costs for exploration and enabling the public to join the adventure.
"The public will participate in FireFly and DragonFly missions via live feeds from Mission Control, online courses in asteroid mining sponsored by corporate marketers, and other innovative ways to open the doors wide," said CEO David Gump. His earlier ventures include producing the first TV commercial shot on the International Space Station for RadioShack, co-founding Transformational Space Corp. (t/Space) and Astrobotic Technology Inc. "The Google Lunar X Prize, Unilever, and Red Bull each are spending tens of millions of dollars on space sponsorships, so the opportunity to sponsor a FireFly expedition into deep space will be enticing."
NASA's Flight Opportunities Program has selected 13 cutting-edge space technology payloads for flights on commercial reusable launch vehicles, balloons and a commercial parabolic aircraft in 2013 and 2014. The flights will allow participants to demonstrate their technologies to the edge of space and back, before committing them to the harsh and unforgiving conditions of spaceflight.
The vehicles that will carry these payloads will include Las Vegas-based Zero-G Corporation's parabolic airplane and high altitude balloons from Near Space Corp. in Tillamook, Ore. They also will include reusable launch vehicles from Masten Space Systems in Mojave, Calif.; UP Aerospace in Highlands Ranch, Colo.; and Virgin Galactic in Las Cruces, N.M.
"These payloads represent more real progress in our goal of fostering a viable market for American commercial reusable suborbital platforms -- access to near space that provides the innovation needed for cutting-edge space technology research and development," said Michael Gazarik, director of NASA's Space Technology Program. "American leadership in the commercial suborbital flight market will prove to benefit technology development across NASA, universities, industries and in our new technology economy."
A wide range of innovative payloads are represented in this selection. The Resonant Inductive Near-field Generation System payload from the University of Maryland in College Park will use the parabolic flights to perform preliminary tests on a technology that seeks to hold a cluster of satellites in formation using magnetic fields.
A payload from Astrobotic Technology Inc. of Pittsburgh will be tested on a suborbital reusable launch vehicle that takes off and lands vertically. The demonstration will examine how the company's automated landing system may enable future unmanned missions to land on another planet or the rocky and hazardous terrain of an asteroid.
Nine of the selected payloads will fly on parabolic aircraft flights, which provide brief periods of weightlessness. Four will fly on suborbital reusable launch vehicles. Two will be carried on high-altitude balloons that fly to 100,000 feet. One will fly on a vertical launch and landing suborbital vehicle. One payload will fly on both a suborbital launch vehicle and a high-altitude balloon.
I think all these asteroid mining companies popping up are a really good thing for space development. I mean it's one thing if a single company pioneers it alone but when two multi-million companies come up and say they are going to make a profit it's the genesis of a new industry. Once both DSI and Planetary Resources have actually established themselves on asteroids there will be a whole slough of companies to jump on board to space development due to extremely cheap space resources.
It wouldn't be to far fetched to imagine in space construction of both habitations and space vehicles to begin by 2025 shortly after the first ice mines are established and metal exports begin. Once this happens there will be an enormous boom in space development with Lunar, Martian, and Orbital colonies very feasible.
On January 24 2013 05:50 red_hq wrote: I think all these asteroid mining companies popping up are a really good thing for space development. I mean it's one thing if a single company pioneers it alone but when two multi-million companies come up and say they are going to make a profit it's the genesis of a new industry. Once both DSI and Planetary Resources have actually established themselves on asteroids there will be a whole slough of companies to jump on board to space development due to extremely cheap space resources.
It wouldn't be to far fetched to imagine in space construction of both habitations and space vehicles to begin by 2025 shortly after the first ice mines are established and metal exports begin. Once this happens there will be an enormous boom in space development with Lunar, Martian, and Orbital colonies very feasible.
Gentlemen the future is coming.
However, I fear the day when a bank hires a group of engineers that says they can mine an asteroid for 45% of market rates and inadvertently turns an asteroid on a collision course with the Earth.
EPT![[image loading]](http://msnbcmedia3.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/130116-BigelowPhoto-hmed-0145p_files.grid-7x2.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://msnbcmedia3.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/130116-Bigelow1Photo-hmed-0145p_files.grid-6x2.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/images/deep-space-firefly.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/images/deep-space-dragonfly-s.jpg)
![[image loading]](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/images/deep-space-harvestor-s.jpg)
