"Learn about our mission and how we plan to revolutionize current space exploration and help ensure humanity's prosperity for generations to come."

http://www.planetaryresources.com/
http://www.spacevidcast.com/live

Of course its a bit early, but a good sign that some are at laest thinking about it.

It's certainly something the human race should be doing in the long run, but is it economically feasible right now, even for billionaires?

According to Wikipedia, the initial cost for the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity was $820 million. So we're talking about nearly a billion just for two exploratory robots for the initial 90 Mars-day mission. What would mining robots cost?

The loss of one mission could bankrupt the whole thing. Would anyone sell them insurance?

But lets go out on a limb, lets say Polywell P-B11 fusion works.


On Earth 1000Mw of electricty from a 35 ft room, 18 ft chamber.

Mars in 38 days Titan in 76.

We can drop Helium fueled Polywells on the Moon, Earth Lunar L-1 etc.

Chase, snag asteroids.

Establish Offplanet industrial infrastructure.

Remember that recent near Earth ASteroid, its mostly carbon, could be used to manufacture a carbon fiber based space elevator. Same for Mars.

Obviously if Polywell or any other type of fusion shows a net energy gain and is economical, then that's a game changer, but lots of theoretical technologies would be game changers.

No government or state agency is going to even draw up serious plans
(i.e., down to the budget allocation stage) for this in the foreseeable future
so it will only be by means of entrepreneurs that this enterprise will get
off the ground (if you'll excuse the pun).

Comparing the highly complex Spirit/Opportunity missions to a dedicated
single-purpose operation (yes, still not "simple&quot is a bit unfair considering
that much of the ground has effectively been broken already by different
missions: launch, interception, sample extraction, analysis, control, ...

Yes it will be expensive but that's why such a person could be the saviour
of this whole dream - and not for purely altruistic reasons either ... yes,
they have the opportunity to be recognised for helping kick-start the next
phase of human survival (a genuine "history book" entry!) but also the
opportunity for them to make a fortune (or another one in his case).

I'm just wondering if it's real or some kind of investment scam.

Could it be that these deposits we are finding on earth today came form asteroids of years past