Google brass in venture to mine asteroids
Google CEO Larry Page and Chairman Eric Schmidt are among the backers of a venture to mine asteroids for trillions of dollars of precious metals, as Earth’s resources become strained.
Seattle’s Planetary Resources aims to launch a telescopic space surveyor into Earth’s low orbit in less than two years to identify potential metal- and water-rich asteroids and begin prospecting within four years, co-founder Eric Anderson, 37, said in a telephone interview.
The venture, which would be the first effort to mine the solar system commercially, has the backing of billionaire Ross Perot, Google board member Kavitark Ram Shriram and International Software founder Charles Simonyi as well as Page and Schmidt. Within a decade it plans to develop galactic “gas stations” that will use hydrogen and oxygen in asteroid water to refuel spacecraft, including satellites.
“Ripping up the Earth’s crust not only is terribly intrusive from an environmental point of view, but it’s actually really expensive and really hard,” Anderson said. “Why not go to the source? There is ample technology to go to asteroids and begin to use resources that convert them into their constituent elements.”
Robotic mining of asteroids may be cheaper, more efficient and environmentally sustainable than digging on Earth, Anderson says. The company will also identify water-rich asteroids, essential “stepping stones” which could be used for refueling rockets and explorers in future space adventures.
“We’re going to have to use the resources of space in order to explore space,” said Anderson. “Instead of having to build a new telecommunications satellite we can refuel the ones already up there.”
After surveying and identifying preciousmetal deposits, such as platinum, in near-earth asteroids, phase three of the company’s plan is resource extraction, for which it will develop robotic technology.
Platinum is used primarily by the automobile industry to make catalytic converters. Unlike gold and silver, platinum deposits on Earth originated on asteroids that collided with the planet. A single metallic asteroid with a 500-meter diameter likely contains more platinum than all that’s been extracted on Earth, according to Planetary Resources.
“On a 50-year time scale the inclusion of space resources will add literally trillions of dollars to the global GDP,” said Anderson. “We’ll be the first company to do this, but no doubt there will be many others.”