Mystery company backed by James Cameron and Google execs may be asteroid mining project

Asteroid mining no crazier than deep-sea drilling, advocates say

It looks like platinum group metals are a bonus. One of their other goals is to extract water and convert it into fuel in space. They want to create space-based refueling stations. And they make an interesting analogy to the costs and challenges of deep sea drilling like platforms in the Gulf with robotic cities on the ocean floor that do a hell of a lot of remote technical building and repair work.

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A newly unveiled firm's asteroid-mining plans may be ambitious, but they're not any crazier than some extractive operations already under way here on Earth, company officials say.

The billionaire-backed Planetary Resources, Inc. announced Tuesday (April 24) that it hopes to mine near-Earth asteroids for water and precious metals, with the dual aims of making a tidy profit and helping open the final frontier to further exploration and exploitation.

Asteroid mining promises to be a multidecade effort requiring many billions of dollars of investment. But in that respect — and in the technological challenges that must be overcome — it's similar to deep-sea oil drilling, said Planetary Resources co-founder and co-chairman Peter Diamandis.

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Science Fiction is also useful in bringing to the public mind the proper feel of new and imaginative technology. The potential of mass drivers, as an instance of such introduction in the past.

Not a lot of the technology they propose to use is all that unproven. What makes it different is the ability to use it in a remote location, by semi-autonomous robots.

The business plan starts with developing an orientation system, similar in concept to having geo-positioning satellites all through the solar system, but based more on advanced optical capabilities. Then after a comprehensive survey effort, various types of resources could be approached with a variety of techniques.

Boy meets tractor, nay, truck. The glory and poetry of becoming a truck driver. His struggles in the drivers' school. The climax of the plot is when the truck bursts a tire on a forest road and the main character has to change that tire, all the while kicking away the hungry forest wolves attracted to him. NnB, that's the recipe for the worst and most primitive socialist realism, re-garbed as sci-fi.

Science Fiction is also useful in bringing to the public mind the proper feel of new and imaginative technology. The potential of mass drivers, as an instance of such introduction in the past.

Not a lot of the technology they propose to use is all that unproven. What makes it different is the ability to use it in a remote location, by semi-autonomous robots.

The business plan starts with developing an orientation system, similar in concept to having geo-positioning satellites all through the solar system, but based more on advanced optical capabilities. Then after a comprehensive survey effort, various types of resources could be approached with a variety of techniques.

Boy meets tractor, nay, truck. The glory and poetry of becoming a truck driver. His struggles in the drivers' school. The climax of the plot is when the truck bursts a tire on a forest road and the main character has to change that tire, all the while kicking away the hungry forest wolves attracted to him. NnB, that's the recipe for the worst and most primitive socialist realism, re-garbed as sci-fi.

Well, Heinlein, who is undeniably a genuine science fiction writer, (although becoming somewhat less prolific and influential since his demise), once wrote a story, I believe it was in "The Star Beast", detailing how similar driving a truck was to operating a space vessel.

Indeed, if I, or you, should choose to write a story about truck-driving, and a central factor in the story was that the truck had to be operated by remote control, I think it is clear that that would be science fiction.

Or, by the way, if we should write a story about a wolf that had to be operated by remote control. That would be science fiction too.

Science Fiction is also useful in bringing to the public mind the proper feel of new and imaginative technology. The potential of mass drivers, as an instance of such introduction in the past.

Not a lot of the technology they propose to use is all that unproven. What makes it different is the ability to use it in a remote location, by semi-autonomous robots.

The business plan starts with developing an orientation system, similar in concept to having geo-positioning satellites all through the solar system, but based more on advanced optical capabilities. Then after a comprehensive survey effort, various types of resources could be approached with a variety of techniques.

Boy meets tractor, nay, truck. The glory and poetry of becoming a truck driver. His struggles in the drivers' school. The climax of the plot is when the truck bursts a tire on a forest road and the main character has to change that tire, all the while kicking away the hungry forest wolves attracted to him. NnB, that's the recipe for the worst and most primitive socialist realism, re-garbed as sci-fi.

Well, Heinlein, who is undeniably a genuine science fiction writer, (although becoming somewhat less prolific and influential since his demise), once wrote a story, I believe it was in "The Star Beast", detailing how similar driving a truck was to operating a space vessel.

Indeed, if I, or you, should choose to write a story about truck-driving, and a central factor in the story was that the truck had to be operated by remote control, I think it is clear that that would be science fiction.

Or, by the way, if we should write a story about a wolf that had to be operated by remote control. That would be science fiction too.

unless one focuses on, pardon my expression, "eternal, existential, problems of human condition", what one writes will be garbage regardless of its garb- scifi or not. Take your lesson from a fantastic masterpiece "Master and Margarita". The plot setup is fantastic: devil personally appears in a contemporary [for the writer] city. But the topics dealt with are anything but fantastic.

unless one focuses on, pardon my expression, "eternal, existential, problems of human condition", what one writes will be garbage regardless of its garb- scifi or not. Take your lesson from a fantastic masterpiece "Master and Margarita". The plot setup is fantastic: devil personally appears in a contemporary [for the writer] city. But the topics dealt with are anything but fantastic.

I've downloaded that into my computer for reading, but I haven't gotten into it yet. (Also NicMac.)

I have so much available to read, that I probably should read, and would be the better person for it, and still I let it sit idly, as if the clock were not ticking. But I have always been that way.

If there is to be a Heaven, it will have to have a very large library.

unless one focuses on, pardon my expression, "eternal, existential, problems of human condition", what one writes will be garbage regardless of its garb- scifi or not. Take your lesson from a fantastic masterpiece "Master and Margarita". The plot setup is fantastic: devil personally appears in a contemporary [for the writer] city. But the topics dealt with are anything but fantastic.

I've downloaded that into my computer for reading, but I haven't gotten into it yet. (Also NicMac.)

I have so much available to read, that I probably should read, and would be the better person for it, and still I let it sit idly, as if the clock were not ticking. But I have always been that way.

If there is to be a Heaven, it will have to have a very large library.

Well, that's what I have been doing in between my job search - reading, and reasonably voraciously. Finally, after much procrastination, re-read Aristotle. "What is, necessarily is, when it is..." [De Interpretatione, 19^a23] - and then I immediately became despondent, as I bethought myself of obamic presidency. 6000 drops.
And as for "Master and Margarita" - read it. It is one of the better books that mankind produced [I do not know how good the translation is, though]. And NicMac as well- both "the prince" and the "discorsi".

GSlob, I think you underestimate the role and influence of science fiction in the US.

For much of it's history it has been the literature of hope for the future, showing how the future can be better than the past and present because of the influence of science (e.g., rationalism). The pessimism found in some of the SF in the last few decades is an aberration and won't endure.

In the US, science fiction led in large part to the popularity of science as a profession in the decades after WWII, and a good percentage of our space scientists came to their profession from an early interest in science fiction.

unless one focuses on, pardon my expression, "eternal, existential, problems of human condition", what one writes will be garbage regardless of its garb- scifi or not. Take your lesson from a fantastic masterpiece "Master and Margarita". The plot setup is fantastic: devil personally appears in a contemporary [for the writer] city. But the topics dealt with are anything but fantastic.

I've downloaded that into my computer for reading, but I haven't gotten into it yet. (Also NicMac.)

I have so much available to read, that I probably should read, and would be the better person for it, and still I let it sit idly, as if the clock were not ticking. But I have always been that way.

If there is to be a Heaven, it will have to have a very large library.

I have downloaded so many books into my computer, OMG, but I just can't sit there at my screen and hit the button and read. If it's not on paper, I have a hell of a time, it just doesn't feel right.

GSlob, I think you underestimate the role and influence of science fiction in the US.

For much of it's history it has been the literature of hope for the future, showing how the future can be better than the past and present because of the influence of science (e.g., rationalism). The pessimism found in some of the SF in the last few decades is an aberration and won't endure.

In the US, science fiction led in large part to the popularity of science as a profession in the decades after WWII, and a good percentage of our space scientists came to their profession from an early interest in science fiction.

Believe it or not, Coyote, but in the 20s and early 30s the "boy meets tractor" socialist realism writings were pretty popular in ussr, too - and for much the same reason as you stated. The peasant country, previously 80+% illiterate, was force-marching to total literacy, to [rather primitive] industrialization, to the creation of wide [if primitive] health care and educational systems, etc. It would be a gross error to ascribe it all to the stalinist terror - that terror was being overlaid on the genuine mass movement propelled by just such "hope in the better future". Hence my deja vu.

GSlob, I think you underestimate the role and influence of science fiction in the US.

For much of it's history it has been the literature of hope for the future, showing how the future can be better than the past and present because of the influence of science (e.g., rationalism). The pessimism found in some of the SF in the last few decades is an aberration and won't endure.

In the US, science fiction led in large part to the popularity of science as a profession in the decades after WWII, and a good percentage of our space scientists came to their profession from an early interest in science fiction.

If it wasn't for science fiction, I never would have become a scientist.

EDIT: but I do believe the pessimism seen in recent science fiction is a reflection of the pessimism overwhelmingly present in our culture today.

GSlob, I think you underestimate the role and influence of science fiction in the US.

For much of it's history it has been the literature of hope for the future, showing how the future can be better than the past and present because of the influence of science (e.g., rationalism). The pessimism found in some of the SF in the last few decades is an aberration and won't endure.

In the US, science fiction led in large part to the popularity of science as a profession in the decades after WWII, and a good percentage of our space scientists came to their profession from an early interest in science fiction.

If it wasn't for science fiction, I never would have become a scientist.

EDIT: but I do believe the pessimism seen in recent science fiction is a reflection of the pessimism overwhelmingly present in our culture today.

Fringe is the only modern sci-fi I can think of that I like, for just that reason... it's not exactly technoutopianist, but the happiness and optimism and boundless creativity of the professor (and Dr. Bell, in those few episodes) are inspiring. That's kind of what I aspire to be.

Fringe is the only modern sci-fi I can think of that I like, for just that reason... it's not exactly technoutopianist, but the happiness and optimism and boundless creativity of the professor (and Dr. Bell, in those few episodes) are inspiring. That's kind of what I aspire to be.

That's why I like the current Dr. Who. The Doctor is, at least outwardly, eternally optimistic in the face of universe ending catastrophe. He is like Kirk in he believes there is never a no-win situation.