A couple months ago I stumbled upon the website for a start-up company called Planetary Resources. On their site, they have a well-produced video explaining their goal of mining near-earth asteroids and bringing the resources back to earth. I wasn’t sure whether or not to believe if this was this was a real company. Movie studios are notorious for trying to stir up publicity by creating websites for fake companies and this had just enough of the incredible to be a hoax.
Several Google searches, news article skims, and a Kickstarter browse later, I was assured that Planetary Resources is indeed a real company looking for real investors in their real plan. They have an especially real public relations campaign. While they have a stepwise plan for mining asteroids what they are actually selling is the idea that investors will be able to watch significant advances in space flight during their lifetimes.
Planetary Resources is trying to shift our mental image of space travel being exclusively for governmental organizations like NASA, RKA, or CNSA, to being more suited for small start-up companies. However, start-ups, even the terrestrial kind, rarely succeed. It isn’t even clear that international space law — which states “The exploration and use of outer space shall be carried on for the benefit and in the interests of all mankind.” — would allow for any private enterprise. If we really want to see a profitable company harness extraterrestrial resources, we will probably have to watch several companies try and fail.
As a lover of science fiction, I am highly susceptible to romanticizing space exploration. I love the idea start-ups in space and I hope Planetary Resources does well enough to encourage competition. However, if they fail, we may have to wait several decades before another company is willing try again.
- Peter
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Image credit to planetary resources.