It's Full of Stars

The Billionaires’ Mystery Space Venture and the Finer Points of Asteroid Mining

Looks like there’s going to be a new player in the space game pretty soon. On Tuesday, during a press conference at the Charles Simonyi Space Gallery at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Planetary Resources will come into existence.

Behind the mystery venture are Larry Page and Eric Schmidt of Google, director James Cameron, Chief Software Architect of Microsoft Charles Simonyl, Google Board of Directors member K. Ram Shiram, and Chairman of the Perot Group Ross Perot, Jr.

The cryptic press release didn’t give any details save a name and vague description of the company’s goals. It will “overlay two critical sector – space exploration and natural resources – to add trillions of dollars to the global GDP.” It goes on the say that the innovative startup will “create a new industry and a new definition of natural resources.”

It may be convoluted, but it’s enough information to give some scientists a pretty clear idea of what Planetary Resources might do. It’s likely an asteroid mining company. That’s really the only thing in space that we need on Earth and could redefine natural resources.

Keep reading.