Since the beginning of the Space Age, space programs have been adjuncts of national policy rather than self-sustaining ventures in their own right. Nader Elhefnawy discusses how a shift to space resource exploitation could alter that formula, depending on national and international politics.
Future space explorers might bring back more than just pictures from their excursions -- they could mine the planets for profit.
One of the biggest challenges of the 21st century will be to promote prosperity and stability throughout the developing world. Gregory Anderson describes how the potentially vast resources of the solar system can accomplish this while furthering free enterprise.
A former American astronaut argues that NASA should shift its focus to asteroids, both to defend against impacts and also a stepping stone to space expansion.
The U.S. state department rejected a property rights claim to a near earth asteroid by a U.S. based space development company according to this press release.
Space Experts at a recent roundtable at the Colorado School of Mines argued that a "miner" breakthrough is needed to develop and utilize the resources of space, be they from asteroids, the Moon or Mars. The solar system is a heaven-sent treasure trove -- a bounty, ready and waiting, of metals and materials that can fortify humankind's outward reach into the cosmos.
A handful of entrepreneurs have set their sights on some heavenly dividends, whether by strip mining the moon for energy, extracting platinum from asteroid mountains or distilling water from dormant comets. In the past those hoping to transform the final frontier into cosmic cash have drawn mostly snickers. But in recent years such mavericks have elicited something else -- respect and funding from major industries and governments in the usually exclusive club of space exploration.
Harvesting asteroids -- for everything from platinum to oxygen to water -- has long been the stuff of science fiction. Jo?l Glenn Brenner investigates the efforts to make it a profitable fact.
While the "pickings" might be good for mining the Moon or crushing up asteroids, creating markets and making money on the space frontier currently is more prophet than profit.