Asteroid miners announce their plans to create a trillion dollar industry

Planetary Resources released its preliminary plans to mine near-Earth asteroids for raw materials today.

To take the first step the company says it has developed a deep-space prospecting spacecraft, the Arkyd-100 Series space telescope. It will be used in low-Earth orbit to help identify targets for follow-up exploration.

The company’s broadly stated goal is to create a trillion-dollar industry based around asteroid mining. It intends to do this by applying commercial innovation to space exploration.

A modern-day gold rush? (Planetary Resources)

Its first task is to identify the most valuable asteroids, then it intends to develop those resources and finally to deliver them to low-Earth orbit or wherever they’re needed.

Arkyd Series 100, the Space Telescope Leo, a commercial space telescope. (Planetary Resources)

This is a bold vision for opening up space not through government funding, but by providing incentives for commercial participation in space. The idea is that the private sector can develop spaceflight technologies more efficiently than government, and will do so if there are financial payoffs.

“Planetary Resources is poised to initiate prospecting missions at a quick pace, compared to government-sponsored missions that have taken place to date. We are not constrained by federal budget cycles or the ever-changing political landscape,” the company says.

There remain huge questions: How much will it cost? How quickly can it be done? How will it be done?

The company hasn’t stated much about how it will actually go about mining asteroids, but it has released the following information about its line of spacecraft:

Initial space resource development will focus on water-rich asteroids. Water is the essence of life and exists in plentiful supply on asteroids. Access to water and other life-supporting volatiles in space provides hydration, breathable air, radiation shielding and even manufacturing capabilities. Water’s elements, hydrogen and oxygen, can also be used to formulate rocket fuel. Using the resources of space – to explore space – will enable the large-scale exploration of the Solar System.

Recovery and processing of materials in a microgravity environment will occur through significant research and development. Planetary Resources will lead the creation of critical in-situ extraction and processing technologies to provide access to both asteroidal water and metals. When combined with our low-cost deep space explorers, this represents an enabling capability for the sustainable development of space.

There’s also the question of how long investors will have to wait for a payoff. Peter Diamandis, the company’s co-founder and co-chairman, said private oil companies are willing to invest 10s of billions in deep-water oil platforms. He believes private investors in his company will do likewise. We shall see.

It’s a grand experiment in space and commercialization. It will be fascinating to follow.

Eric Berger