Diamandis has long talked about creating an ‘exothermic reaction,” — science jargon for a process that releases energy in the form of light or heat, often in the form of an explosion — in space.
Curiosity started the space race. Then fear that the Russians would overtake the United States. Now it’s time for greed to play a role. “That’s the only way it’s going to happen irrevocably, I’m trying to start a gold rush,” Diamandis said.
This is all types of cool. The space gold rush is on, and I really think this is the most logical and best approach we can have towards exploring space. Governments should not have the monopoly on space travel, and should encourage entrepreneurial efforts to get up there. Besides, if a company can make money by going up there and actually ‘produce’ something of value for their efforts, then that is far better than just going up there for the hell of it.
From a security point of view, I am very much enthused. The protection of this earth from asteroids or other types of large and deadly space projectiles, is essential to the survival of the human race. We need to be in space in order to master it and our fate. Having companies that specialize in reaching asteroids to mine them, only helps in the process of being able to destroy one of these things if we ever had to. Theory is one thing, but experience and capability is quite another.
Also, if these guys do land some big scores of Platinum or Palladium, and they bring it down to earth, then those companies will soon be extremely wealthy. These companies will require cyber security and physical security in order to protect their hard fought intellectual property. Or if they find new elements, and those elements lead to some fantastic discoveries in technology, then small armies will be required to protect that. The launch facilities and manufacturing plants will also need the type of security on order with what nuclear plants have, or what NASA had.
The other point I wanted to make, was the use of X Prize or contests in order to invigorate the process of innovation for space exploration. This approach is powerful and creating innovations by leaps and bounds. It is the thrill of profit and bragging rights that fuel these innovations and collaborations within these companies. It is a big game, and competition between all of the players makes this fun and focused. These elements of contest, are exactly why I continue to explore offense industry for warfare. And especially using offense industry to stop piracy (online or ocean), criminal organizations, and terrorists.
This brings up another point. In the commons called space, eventually we will see criminal elements take advantage. Imagine hacking a mining drone and then having that thing being directed to land on earth in a place where the hacker knows the owners cannot reach? Or they could demand ransom for that vessel. Imagine hackers attacking these highly complex space travel computer systems and sabotaging competitors, or stealing intellectual property?
If these companies do in fact bring back trillions of dollars worth of riches, then there will be those who will want to take it. It is what happened during the early days of ocean exploration between governments, pirates, and privateers. It is what happened during the expansion out west in America with the gold rush. It happened and continues to happen in places like Africa, and it will happen in one form or another with space. It is just a matter of time and security will be essential in order to make space mining possible.
Either way, check it out and let me know what you think. This is an awesome and exciting time period, and I will be cheering these guys on. Companies mentioned are Moon Express and Planetary Resources Inc. –Matt
Moon Express lander test vehicle. (Credit: Moon Express)
Planetary Resources Co-Founder Aims To Create Space ‘Gold Rush’
Brian Caulfield
4/20/2012
Earlier this year, entrepreneur and X-Prize impresario Peter Diamandis hinted he was about to unveil something amazing: a startup that will mine asteroids for precious metals.
“Since my childhood I’ve wanted to do one thing, be an asteroid miner,” Diamandis told Forbes. “So stay tuned on that one.”
It looks like Diamandis may be about to push the launch button on the idea.
Backed by a group including Google Chief Executive Larry Page, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, filmmaker James Cameron, former Microsoft Chief Architect Charles Simonyi, and Ross Perot Jr., Planetary Ventures will unveil its plans Tuesday at the Museum of Flight in Seattle.
To be sure, no one has said publicly — yet — that the new venture Diamandis is involved with will mine asteroids, but there are more than a few clues pointing in that direction.
The startup will be led by a team including former NASA Mars mission manager Chris Lewicki; co-founder Eric Anderson, co-founder of the International Space University; and Diamandis, whose X-Prize Foundation kicked off the commercial space tourism industry by awarding a $10 million prize to Paul Allen and Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne effort.
“The company will overlay two critical sectors – space exploration and natural resources – to add trillions of dollars to the global GDP,” according to a press release teasing the announcement. “This innovative start-up will create a new industry and a new definition of ‘natural resources.’”
Diamandis has long talked about creating an ‘exothermic reaction,” — science jargon for a process that releases energy in the form of light or heat, often in the form of an explosion — in space.
Curiosity started the space race. Then fear that the Russians would overtake the United States. Now it’s time for greed to play a role. “That’s he only way it’s going to happen irrevocably, I’m trying to start a gold rush,” Diamandis said.
It’s not as crazy as it may sound to some. Space scientists have long talked about mining asteroids, which could be rich in rare earths essential to the electronics industry.
Many of these rocks get awfully close: last November 8, for example, a 400-meter wide rock dubbed asteroid 2005 YU55 will passed within 201,000 miles of the earth. The average distance to the moon: 240,000 miles.
Depending on their orbit, some asteroids could be mined for a few years, and then abandoned before they zip out of reach. Others might be slowed and eased into near earth orbit.??Just securing gear in the low-gravity environment of an asteroid could be a challenge, however, with scientists weighing options ranging from harpooning asteroids to burrowing in with rotating screws.
Once secure, machinery could scrape the loose rocks on the surface of the asteroid; vaporize asteroids composed of ices and hydrocarbons; or cut and crush through asteroids composed of harder silicates and metal.
Figure out a way to extract those resources could create the world’s first trillionaire. “If I have a near-term shot at becoming a billionaire it probably be through my interest in asteroid mining,” Diamandis says.
But while greed may be the mechanism, it’s probably not Diamandis’ motive, say those who know him.
Robert Zubrin, chairman of the Mars Foundation, compares Peter Diamandis to Delos David Harriman, the protagonist of Robert Heinlein’s “The Man Who Sold The Moon.”
Harriman hyped the idea of riches on the moon to create a gold rush. Like Harriman, Diamandis sees capitalism as the force that will finally coax humanity off the planet.
“He’s not doing what he’s doing for greed,” Zubrin says of Diamandis. “It’s like Columbus selling Ferdinand and Isabella on the spice route to India, I think Columbus just wanted to go sailing; Diamandis is into opening the space frontier because he’s into opening the space frontier.”
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Moon Express Details Plans to Mine the Moon
Moon Express, a Google Lunar X PRIZE contender, announced that it has successfully delivered a mission design package to NASA under its Innovative Lunar Demonstration Data (ILDD) Program, providing NASA continuing data on the development of the company’s commercial lunar missions and plans to mine the Moon for precious planetary resources. The newest task order in the $10M ILDD contract called for Moon Express to provide NASA with data about the company’s progress through a Preliminary Design Checkpoint Technical Package that documents details of mission operations, spacecraft development, payload accommodations and Planetary Protection Plans.
Technology luminaries Naveen Jain and Barney Pell teamed with space visionary Bob Richards in the founding of Moon Express in 2010, announcing a partnership with NASA to develop a new robotic spacecraft capable of going to the Moon and asteroids. Silicon Valley-based Moon Express was one of only three U.S. companies awarded funding under NASA’s ILDD program in that year. Although the ILDD contract is an important substantiation of NASA’s interest in commercial lunar providers, the majority of Moon Express funding is coming from private investment and is supplemented by revenues from payload customers.
“The Moon has never been explored from an entrepreneurial perspective,” said Moon Express co-founder and chairman, Naveen Jain. “Think of the Moon as the Earth’s eighth continent, potentially the largest repository of asteroid resources in the solar system, and we have barely begun to explore it.”
Moon Express has revealed plans to prospect and mine the Moon for precious planetary resources, such as metals and water that are believed to be abundant on the Moon from millions of years of asteroid bombardment.
“The Moon is an asteroid magnet,” said company co-founder and CEO Bob Richards, a longtime advocate of space resources. “In addition to resource abundance, the Moon is right next door and does us the favor of pre-processing and storing the asteroid material so we can access it cost-effectively and safely with known technologies.”
Moon Express co-founder, vice-chairman and CTO Dr. Barney Pell, a former NASA technology manager, is confident of the value proposition of lunar water combined with precious metals. “There could be more platinum group metals on the surface of the Moon than in all the reserves of Earth,” he said. “And the lunar water we now know to be present is the key to liberating lunar resources economically.”
In an in-depth article about Moon Express in April 2011, Resource Word magazine has called Moon Express plans “the biggest mining story in history. It could benefit the lives of millions of Earthlings.” The mining industry journal stated, “The Moon may also have large quantities of platinum group metals (platinum, rhodium, iridium, osmium, and ruthenium) that have potential economic value on Earth. Platinum, for example, is the primary metal needed to make fuel cells. Evidence suggests there could be a trillion dollars’ worth of platinum group metals in an average asteroid. We know asteroids contain platinum, and we know the level of asteroid bombardment experienced by the Moon. By deductive reasoning, we can conclude that the levels of platinum on the Moon are high.”
Dr. Alan Stern, Moon Express Chief Scientist and former NASA Associate Administrator in charge of all the Agency’s science, agrees that mounting new data about the Moon and its resources make it the natural next step for scientific research and commercial space development. “Thanks to Apollo and robotic explorations, as well as lunar meteorites, we have widely sampled the Moon and have a good understanding of what’s accumulated there from eons of asteroid and cometary bombardment,” said Dr. Stern. “And recent new data from lunar probes has discovered water at the lunar poles and bound within the lunar soil that could potentially change the economics of lunar exploration.”
While pursuing the $30M Google Lunar X PRIZE announced by Larry Page and Peter Diamandis in 2007, Moon Express plans to send a series of robotic spacecraft to the Moon for ongoing exploration and commercial development. Moon Express also will focus on bringing lunar resources into Earth’s economic sphere to catalyze humanity’s future in space.
About Moon Express?Selected by Forbes as one of the 15 ‘Names You Need to Know’ in 2011, Moon Express (MoonEx) is a privately funded lunar transportation and data services company based at the NASA Research Park in Silicon Valley. The company plans to send a series of robotic spacecraft to the Moon for ongoing exploration and commercial development focused on benefits to Earth and has signed a partnership agreement with NASA for development of a lunar lander system.
Moon Express is also a leading contender in the $30M Google Lunar X PRIZE (GLXP) competition, which challenges privately funded teams to place a robot on the Moon’s surface that transmits high definition video, images and data back to Earth from the landing site and from 500 meters away. The GLXP is available until 2015.
The Moon Express founders, Dr. Robert (Bob) Richards, Naveen Jain, and Dr. Barney Pell, believe in the long term economic potential of the Moon to produce resources essential to humanity’s future on Earth and in space.
For more information, visit: www.moonexpress.com
About the Google Lunar X PRIZE?The $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE is an unprecedented competition to challenge and inspire engineers and entrepreneurs from around the world to develop low-cost methods of robotic space exploration. To win the Google Lunar X PRIZE, a privately-funded team must successfully place a robot on the Moon’s surface that explores at least 500 meters (1/3 of a mile) and transmits high definition video and images back to Earth. The first team to do so will claim a $20 million Grand Prize, while the second team will earn a $5 million Prize. Teams are also eligible to win a $1 million award for stimulating diversity in the field of space exploration and as much as $4 million in bonus prizes for accomplishing additional technical tasks such as moving 10 times as far, surviving the frigid lunar night, or visiting the site of a previous lunar mission. To date, more than 20 teams from a dozen countries around the world have registered to compete for the prize. The Google Lunar X PRIZE is available to be claimed until the end of the year 2015.
Explorer and film director James Cameron endorsed the Google Lunar X PRIZE from the outset of the competition. “With the announcement of the Google Lunar X PRIZE, we’re going back [to the Moon], and not because of a massive government program, but using the ingenuity and cost-effectiveness of private enterprise,” he said in a video address. “As an explorer and an avid supporter of exploration in all its forms, I can’t think of a more exciting way to engage the public’s imagination and go forward, not in some future decade, but now, with an achievable short-term plan, to begin opening up our two-world system.”
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