Can Planetary Resources’ plan to mine asteroids for raw materials succeed? Billionaires and seasoned scientists think so

Wednesday, 09 May 2012 11:01

News & Events - Engineering News

May 9, 2012

A seasoned astronaut is among the experts who have joined a startup whose mission is to mine asteroids for precious metals and other rare substances.

The Washington Post reports that Tom Jones recently signed on as a scientific adviser to Planetary Resources. The company made waves last month when it formally announced that, armed with funding from backers such as moviemaker James Cameron and Google co-founder Larry Page, it planned to mine asteroids in outer space.

The addition of Jones to its formidable arsenal of scientists and business executives is the latest coup for the company, which is already expanding its engineering research and development initiatives. In an interview with the Post, Jones said that Planetary Resources is charting an altogether unconventional course as it works to profit from space, a feat that no company has thus far achieved.

According to Jones, the first challenge Planetary Resources must overcome in its quest is identifying specific asteroids that could potentially house valuable elemental compounds. He said that in an effort to keep costs from ballooning – an essential part of the startup's plan – researchers would use small telescopes to detect nearby asteroids. Using the specially designed engineering tools, scientists will then measure reflected sunlight to ascertain their makeup.

Jones affirmed the company is increasingly confident it will succeed in its mission, as researchers have thus far located more than 8,500 near-Earth asteroids that could potentially be studied. What's more, he noted that Planetary Resources estimates there are approximately one million such space objects that could be exploited for metals and other important compounds.

Additionally, Jones asserted that aside from elemental deposits, many asteroids are also rich in water. He said that the company hopes to pinpoint water-rich space objects and then extract the resource.

"If we can find those asteroid types, simply by concentrating sunlight on the dirt on their surface you can extract distilled water," Jones said. "That could make rocket fuel, breathing oxygen, drinking water. It goes hand in hand with lowering the cost of future space exploration. At the same time, we might find rare, strategic metals that could be returned to Earth. That's a long way off."

The planetary scientist, who flew on the Space Shuttle four times during his career as an astronaut, contended that if Planetary Resources is successful in its mission, it could help transform space travel and research, among other fields. He noted that the technologies the company is currently developing are inexpensive and innovative in a number of ways, and that they could serve as prototypes for other private businesses hoping to break into the sector.

After first distinguishing asteroids that are rich in natural resources, the company's efforts to extract such compounds would "enable exploration and … lower the cost of doing anything in space, which helps everything from tourism to setting up industrial concerns in space," Jones told the Post.

Planetary Resources is not the only company aiming to mine increasingly scarce resources in outer space, according to The Space Review. Established in 2010, Moon Express Inc. is also working to locate and procure a host of compounds outside of Earth. The company has mainly focused its engineering research on the Moon, but it is also eyeing asteroids in its work.