The world's richest man is worth about ~$70 billion. The world's richest company is worth ~$500 billion. The world's richest economy generates ~$12 trillion each year. The gross domestic product of the entire world is ~$63 trillion. And when newly revealed asteroid-mining company Planetary Resources docks with their first mining target, an asteroid known as Amun 3554, they will effectively be worth $20 trillion. The new gold-rush is space.
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Amun is a goldmine — well, not gold so much. But it does contain a cool $8 trillion worth of platinum, an essential precious metal used in everything from jewelry to fuel cells to computers (and one that’s currently trading at the same rate as gold — $1500 an ounce.) On Earth, only a few hundred tonnes of the stuff are produced every year.
The $8 trillion figure is an estimate based on observations by John S. Lewis, professor of planetary science, author of Mining the Sky: Untold Riches from the Asteroids, Comets, and Planets, and now a consultant to Planetary Resources. He also found Amun 3554 to contain another $8 trillion in iron and nickel, and a mere $6 trillion worth of cobalt. So, the total payout from one unassuming asteroid? $20,000,000,000,000.
That’s what got Planetary Resources co-founder Peter Diamandis so excited. “There are $20 trillion checks up there waiting to be cashed.”
I tossed this article up here because it's freaking awesome and about space, and thus totally nerdcore.
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Originally Posted by OmegaVader
Sounds highly suspect.
It does seem like a science fiction story or an april fool's joke or something--that's what's so awesome about this. It's genuine.
There was always going to be some point when a company came out and started mining asteroids. Well, here we are!
We've been talking about it and how it could be done for a long time. Many refused to believe the Wright Brothers had gotten a plane to actually fly for a long time as well. But, well, they did.
I tossed that first vid up there so you can get a sense of who's involved and the very real credentials they have to pull off something like this.
Here's a more introductory one:
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Originally Posted by Agnost Pope
Is this ME related?
No.
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Originally Posted by Agnost Pope
How is this newsnews? Does this mean I will have to build a spacestation/island? :P
It falls into the category of geek-interest-news-that's-not-strictly-about-gaming-but-so-extremely-cool-that-it-made-it-to-front-page
Thanks Anenome. As he said, it was only a matter of time. Read Heinlein's The Man Who Bought the Moon. It's about the commercialization of space. Great read. And in some aspects, probably revealing in how the US at least will get more involved in space.
Of course, when you dump that much platinum in the market at once, all of the sudden it's not worth $1500 an ounce any more.
How would they know just how much and what elements are there in the first place?
I have heard this argument before, and (of course) it's a legitimate concern. However, much like in other sectors, an abundance in product does not mean a flood into the marketplace. We have fuel, diamond, and gold reserves that are slowly being released into the market.
Also, "space-platinum" will (at least for a few years) hold a more aggressive value (as well as probably be marketed separately for the first 50-100 years).
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The world's richest man is worth about ~$70 billion. The world's richest company is worth ~$500 billion. The world's richest economy generates ~$12 trillion each year. The gross domestic product of the entire world is ~$63 trillion. And when newly revealed asteroid-mining company Planetary Resources docks with their first mining target, an asteroid known as Amun 3554, they will effectively be worth $20 trillion. The new gold-rush is space. The best part: experts estimate there's about 900,000 more asteroids out there, and Amun is one of the smallest >_>
The New Gold Rush: Asteroid Mining
