[meteorite-list] Another Company Envisions Mining Asteroid Resources

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2013 09:07:07 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <201301231707.r0NH77op003671_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1301/22dsi/

Another company envisions mining asteroid resources
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
January 22, 2013

Hoping to take the commercialization of space to a higher level, a
second company has jumped into what the founders hope will be a
lucrative emerging market, prospecting for raw materials among
near-Earth asteroids using fleets of low-cost robotic spacecraft, senior
executives said Tuesday.

The long-range goal is to develop an in situ manufacturing capability,
harvesting raw materials and building components in space using
high-tech mini foundries built around sophisticated 3D printers.

"This is about the future. This is about making something happen,"
company chairman Rick Tumlinson told reporters during a news conference
in Santa Monica, Calif. "Deep Space Industries is a space resources
company. We are about prospecting, exploring, harvesting, processing and
manufacturing based on the resources of space.

"Overall, our business plan, our idea, is to get into this field as it
begins. And it is beginning today."

Deep Space Industries plans to begin initial operations in the 2015 by
launching a trio of small satellites that will hitch rides to space as
secondary payloads on missions to launch communications satellites and
other large spacecraft.

The solar powered DSI FireFly spacecraft, equipped with propulsion
systems, solar panels and a suite of compact sensors and cameras, then
will head off on high-speed one-way trips to selected targets to
characterize the makeup of the asteroids in question and their
suitability for mining.

The FireFlies will weigh about 55 pounds and be based on designs
currently used for low-cost Cubesat missions sponsored by universities
and other researchers.

If all goes well, DSI will follow the FireFly deployment with slightly
larger DragonFly spacecraft in the 2017 timeframe. Tipping the scales at
about 70 pounds, the DragonFlies will be launched on missions lasting
two to four years with the goal of retrieving 60 to 150 pounds of
asteroid material.

DSI's long range plans include systems to grind up asteroid materials
and a "MicroGravity Foundry" using a laser-driven 3D printer to build
complex metal components in the absence of gravity.

Company officials did not discuss what it might cost to build and launch
the envisioned spacecraft. But they stressed that no radically new
technology is required to turn the dream into reality.

"You don't see any magic," said John Mankins, DSI's chief technical
officer. "You don't see any space elevators, you don't see anti-gravity,
you don't see warp drive. There is nothing in the business plan that
Deep Space Industries is pursuing that cannot be done with technology
research that has already been accomplished in laboratories across the
planet."

While the technologies may not have been used in space, "the fundamental
technologies are really at hand and it's really a question more of how
to accelerate their application and deployment in a way that makes both
scientific and business sense," Mankins said.

In April 2012, another company, Planetary Resources Inc., announced
plans to identify near-Earth asteroids loaded with ice, precious metals
and other raw materials and then to send robotic landers to selected
targets to carry out mining operations.

Planetary Resources is focused on returning valuable ores to Earth or to
convert ice into rocket fuel to dramatically lower the cost of space
exploration.

Asked if the as-yet untested market could support multiple competitors,
Tumlinson said "we all came up together, all of us in the different
companies have sort of the same heritage."

"We see it as complimentary competition," he said. "And you know what?
One company may be a fluke. Two companies showing up, that's the
beginning of an industry. And so what you're witnessing right now is the
beginning of a real industry that begins beyond low-Earth orbit.

"We look forward to working together with these guys. They've got
slightly different aims than we do, but space is big. There's room for
everybody."
Received on Wed 23 Jan 2013 12:07:07 PM PST