Planetary Resources

[Vultur]

10 large near-Earth iron-nickel asteroids (i.e. bigger than 100m) is great. And certainly there are a bunch of C-type asteroids as well.

Yeah... focusing only on iron-nickel asteroids seems overly limiting.

[Danderman]

10 large near-Earth iron-nickel asteroids (i.e. bigger than 100m) is great. And certainly there are a bunch of C-type asteroids as well.

Yeah... focusing only on iron-nickel asteroids seems overly limiting.

I would not worry much about the focus of a hypothetical discussion, but rather what this company is focusing on.
 

[JohnFornaro]

Had a good opportunity last week to get a "hot wash" on the Planetary Resources kickstarter from earlier this year. ... That whole "they've got billionaires but they're trying to raise money from Joe-schmoes" argument glosses over the non-obvious costs involved in running a campaign like this.

Not quite sure what you're getting at here. ...

Because they weren't running the campaign to raise money to fund their company.

Sorry about the belated thanks, but thanks.  Apparently, I neglected to hit the "Notify" button and lost track of this thread.

[Danderman]

I realized that the two year anniversary of the announcement of the company launch is coming up, so a discussion about their actual progress would be interesting.

Of course, it would only be interesting if people here don't get into a debate about the best way to mine asteroids (for the 100th time). 
 

[go4mars]

Well, bad news for space mining fans: A new Harvard study, reported on by the BBC, suggests that the number of near-Earth objects with commercially-viable...

Looking beyond near earth, I watched a program about Vesta on OasisHD, where they essentially proved "planetary differentiation".  So it has a metal core, and it has 2% of Earth's gravity, and presumably it would be cold right through.  I would suggest Vesta's glinting core is an alluring target if metals is the game. 

Back to the question: what have they actually done? 
Near as I can determine, they have, at the least, opened discussions to a broader audience. 
A few examples:
The impact of Moore's Law on optical communication at interplanetary distances and optical interferometry.
The strategy for determining mining targets, and a general increase in thoughts on the feasibility and impact of in-space resource utilization, even within credible mining companies.
They've found markets for nearly real-time sat-photo applications.  For example, I have some seismic programs currently happening.  If I could get a good def shot from space as a daily update for a few hundred bucks per day, line clearing progress, ground conditions, etc.  I would do it.  Less frequently for facility construction updates. 
They have broadened a discussion of mass-producing numerous identical satellites and exploration robots.
...

As to actual hardware, public may differ from non-public. Hopefully the launch stuff soon.

[Robert Thompson]

Mention of PRI ~40:00. (A must see, anyway.)

[JasonAW3]

Because "poachers" is definitely not a problem. It'd take more fuel to get there, it'd be harder to place the asteroid there, there are limited slots, the view isn't as good, and you would have to put the asteroid in a graveyard orbit afterward.

Ah, but you miss an opprotunity here!  If there is sufficent mass left at the end of the Asteroid's useful life, then a skystalk teather could be attached to it and the asteroid would be spooled out at about teh same rate as the tether is extended to the ground.  Hook up the tether to a ground station allow the asteroid to go to the end of the line to pull the skystalk taught, and Bob's your uncle! (Maybe not your uncle really, but I digress).

You now have a space elevator and centripedal launcher to pretty much anywhere in the solar system.

[go4mars]

Mention of PRI ~40:00. (A must see, anyway.)

You're right; that was a must see.  I recommend his book too. 

He mentioned in the video that Planetary Resource Corp is backed by a dozen billionaires. A significant statement.

He also mentioned 5 high res orbital imaging constellations.  Two by name.   I'm sure PR is one of the ones "he can't talk about".  Any speculation on who the remaining 2 are?

[IanO]

Steve Jurvetson just revealed Planetary Resources' Arkyd satellite in his photoblog.  Not your typical boxy satellite, the entire thing is based on a 3-D printed torus!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/13457263373/

The torus holds the fuel and provides the structure for the satellite. Since complexity is free when 3D printing, fixtures and cable routing and alignment of the space bus elements are embedded in the design. A sacrificial mold is printed, and the monolithic titanium structure you see here is cast from that.

The telescope is in the center of the hollow toroid fuel tank, with the camera / thermal sensor array facing us.

[simonbp]

Alan Harris has a new paper on mining the NEOWISE data set for metal-rich NEOs:

http://arxiv.org/abs/1403.6346

His argument is based around using thermal inertia, which shows a good correlation to radar albedo (which is the best proxy for metal content). He identifies 12 potentially metal-rich asteroids, with a size range from 300-3000 m. Most of them are potentially-hazardous asteroids, meaning they have a nice low delta v for a spacecraft to reach...

[Robotbeat]

Steve Jurvetson just revealed Planetary Resources' Arkyd satellite in his photoblog.  Not your typical boxy satellite, the entire thing is based on a 3-D printed torus!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/13457263373/

The torus holds the fuel and provides the structure for the satellite. Since complexity is free when 3D printing, fixtures and cable routing and alignment of the space bus elements are embedded in the design. A sacrificial mold is printed, and the monolithic titanium structure you see here is cast from that.

The telescope is in the center of the hollow toroid fuel tank, with the camera / thermal sensor array facing us.

I like it. I'm fairly certain that microsats in the future will use more and more 3d printing technology. You'll even see embedded thrusters and the like.

[Vultur]

Looks very cool.

I am surprised the fuel tank is so big compared to the telescope -- is that all for stationkeeping?

[Lar]

I had assumed it was for traveling! That's a lot of reaction mass, relatively speaking...

[Vultur]

I had assumed it was for traveling! That's a lot of reaction mass, relatively speaking...

Yeah. But I thought the original ones (100 series) were supposed to be just telescopes in LEO, and the one that traveled was a 200 series "Interceptor".

But the pictures in the Arkyd 100 Kickstarter looked like a "regular" (tube) telescope, so maybe this IS a 200.

EDIT: http://www.planetaryresources.com/technology/ <- talks about the Series 100 and 200

[Danderman]

I realized that the two year anniversary of the announcement of the company launch is coming up, so a discussion about their actual progress would be interesting.

Of course, it would only be interesting if people here don't get into a debate about the best way to mine asteroids (for the 100th time). 
 

Wikipedia says that the A3 will be launched on CRS-4.

[Space OurSoul]

Article in WSJ (but behind paywall) (so haven't read it myself)

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303417104579544072639525550?mod=WSJ_hp_EditorsPicks&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303417104579544072639525550.html%3Fmod%3DWSJ_hp_EditorsPicks

[QuantumG]

When you want to read something on the WSJ, you click on the link, copy the title, go to google, paste the title, click go, click on the first link that comes up (it'll typically have the logo next to it), and you get the whole article.

Bird is the word.

[TrevorMonty]

Latest Wall St article had them changing focus to mining asteroids for water to refuel satellites. Not sure how that is going to work, current satellites don't use water for fuel.

[QuantumG]

Latest Wall St article had them changing focus to mining asteroids for water to refuel satellites.

This one says the same thing. I don't see how it's "changing focus", they outlined that plan at the grand announcement way back when.

Not sure how that is going to work, current satellites don't use water for fuel.

If you build it, they will come.

[jongoff]

Latest Wall St article had them changing focus to mining asteroids for water to refuel satellites.

This one says the same thing. I don't see how it's "changing focus", they outlined that plan at the grand announcement way back when.

Not sure how that is going to work, current satellites don't use water for fuel.

If you build it, they will come.

I can see a few technical ways you could use water to help extend the life of existing satellites. You'd need to have either a tug (ala ViviSat) or a "clip-on" thruster pack, which used water as propellant (either splitting it electrolytically and then burning the GH2/GO2 gas, or using the water in some sort of thermal or propellant-agnostic-electric thruster). That type of life extension tug, or "cheap" clip-on thruster packs (which won't be very cheap once you add in all the systems needed for them to operate for a useful duration) might even close from a business standpoint.

But, I'm skeptical if there's really anywhere near enough demand for water from that application to justify asteroid mining (versus just shipping the water from earth), even if you used them to extend the life of every satellite that flies. Launch from LEO is expensive, but satellite stationkeeping just doesn't need that much mass, and the fixed cost of getting the first drop of water from a NEO back to earth orbit is really high.

Now, if we as a species start doing things where we need to send large amounts of mass beyond LEO, then all of the sudden lunar or asteroidal water starts becoming a whole lot more interesting.

Non-trivial chicken and egg problem though.

~Jon