Space mining: Good for a laugh: This newsletter was sent me by
SuperStockPick. It scares me that companies think we investors are
stupid enough to believe their fantasies. But then there was that group in Calif. waiting for Hale-Bopp to take them away.
Link to even crazier claims:
superstockpick.com
Anyway, here it is:
February 1998 Profile SpaceDev, Inc. (OTC: BB 'SPDV')
Entrepreneur making plans to parlay science into a space age gold rush
By David L. Chandler, Globe Staff, 06/08/98
ALBUQUERQUE - He's convinced there's gold in them thar hills - and
platinum and a host of other precious metals as well. Never mind that
the "hills" are mountains of rock and metal hurtling through space.
James Benson, a successful entrepreneur from Colorado, is determined to
stake his claim.
Benson intends to be the first person to claim ownership of a celestial
object, in this case an asteroid, and eventually to mine whatever kind
of precious nuggets it holds.
He says any asteroid a mile or more in diameter - and there are hundreds
of them - "contains natural resources that, if found on Earth, would
have a value of more than a trillion dollars."
But that's a big "if." Right now nobody has the faintest idea how to go
about mining an asteroid or bringing the minerals to Earth in an
economically feasible way. Benson looked into it seriously, hoping to do
just that, but decided that would have to wait for later. For now, he's
got a different plan.
Benson, who was trained as a geologist but ended up making a small
fortune in the computer business, has studied the possibility of mining
asteroids, the moon, or Mars, or of establishing other businesses (such
as lunar tourist hotels) far from Earth. He concluded that while all of
these ideas will someday be feasible, none is yet within reach of a
start-up business. Instead, he decided to focus first on gathering and
selling scientific data - a market he says is worth $1 billion a year -
and staking his claim to an asteroid that he could mine when the time is
right.
So how does the world of science react to all this? With curiosity,
excitement, disbelief, and occasionally anger, as evidenced by an
unusually heated panel discussion during a recent space conference,
"Space '98," in Albuquerque. Some can't wait to sign up. Others are
aghast at the audacity of his high-flying claim jumping.
"My visceral reaction was 'heavens forbid, not on your life'," said
Eleanor Helin, a NASA astronomer who has discovered literally hundreds
of asteroids - including one that Benson is considering as a target.
Helin, who in the Albuquerque discussion bristled at Benson's plans to
declare ownership of an asteroid, said "there would be some hesitation
if somebody was not only going out and landing on your asteroid body,
but exploiting it - bringing it around [closer to Earth] or munching it
up on the spot."
There is no law that says Benson can't stake a claim to a potential gold
mine in space. Under an international treaty, nations forego the right
to lay claim to any celestial body, but the treaty says nothing about
individuals or corporations - probably because at the time the treaty
was drafted, in the 1970s, private space ventures weren't considered a
serious possibility.
So far, it looks like he may be right about the potential for cost
savings in privately financed science missions. Seven scientists have
already notified NASA of their interest in placing their experiments
on-board the spacecraft SpaceDev plans to launch late in 2000.
"We're flying a bus, selling rides to scientists," Benson said in a
recent interview.
He says he will charge scientists $15 million for the privilege of using
space on the craft - "one third of what the government is charging" for
similar missions. The mission, called the Near-Earth Asteroid
Prospector, would go into orbit around an asteroid and also send four
small penetrating probes to gather data from on, near, or even inside
it.
But this week, his company is asking a panel of scientists, led by
former Mars Pathfinder project manager Tony Spear, to evaluate an
alternative candidate: Nereus, an asteroid discovered by Helin, that is
about a half-mile across. It is thought to be made mostly of
carbon-containing compounds and water.
While much attention has focused on precious metals, Benson says, plain
old water may turn out to be the most valuable material for space
miners. Anything sent into orbit from Earth costs at least $5,000 a
pound, and water could be a crucial resource for future space ventures,
not only to supply the needs of astronauts and space tourists, but also
to split into hydrogen and oxygen to make rocket fuel.
Only three asteroids have ever been photographed from close range in
space, and those pictures were made during quick flyby missions. So
scientists are eager to get their hands on the kind of data that
Benson's mission would provide.
Only one other current mission is targeted to spend time close to an
asteroid, collecting pictures and data over a long period: NASA's NEAR
mission (for Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous) will meet up with the large
asteroid Eros next Jan. 10. But because asteroids are so varied - some
made of pure metal, some of rock, and some mixed - scientists would like to sample several.
If and when Benson's mission flies, "I want to send a camera along,"
said Peter Smith, an astronomer at the University of Arizona who
designed the camera for last year's Mars Pathfinder mission. "What's
gotten me excited is that 50 years from now, there will be a tremendous
commercialization of space - tourism, trips to other planets, and so on.
But here's a group that wants to start now."
Smith is one of the scientists who have notified NASA that they intend
to propose experiments for Benson's NEAP mission. Under rules passed
last year by Congress, the agency is required to make use of commercial
opportunities in space transportation whenever they are available, as
long as it can be done for less cost than a government-financed mission.
As Benson sees it, it's a potential win-win situation: NASA gets data
for the scientists it supports, for far less money than if it ran the
mission itself. And Benson gets to turn a profit and launch his new
business. |
