Asteroid mining

[ZenGum]

From the BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17827347

Details have been emerging of the plan by billionaire entrepreneurs to mine asteroids for their resources.

The multi-million-dollar plan would use robotic spacecraft to squeeze chemical components of fuel and minerals such as platinum and gold out of the rocks.

The founders include film director and explorer James Cameron as well as Google's chief executive Larry Page and its executive chairman Eric Schmidt.

[edit move paragraph] The company, known as Planetary Resources, is also backed by space tourism pioneer Eric Anderson, X-Prize founder Peter Diamandis, former US presidential candidate Ross Perot and veteran Nasa astronaut Tom Jones.

They even aim to create a fuel depot in space by 2020.

Much more at the link.

Space mining is presently insanely expensive, at least partly because you need to lift your fuel all the way with you. So now the plan is to capture asteroids, extract water, convert this to hydrogen and oxygen, and stock it at an orbiting fuel depot, thereby making space mining viable.

Well, that's the plan.

I approve, although I am quite doubtful that it will ever actually pay for itself, if they can actually make it all work. It's worth a shot, and it might even lead to an awesome interplanetary future.