Tag: Planetary Resources
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Everything must boldly go! Defunct asteroid mining company’s hardware put up for auction
Rich Reynolds, an employee of James G. Murphy Auctioneers, keeps an eye on the thermal vacuum chamber in the machine shop at Planetary Resources’ former HQ in Redmond, Wash. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle) REDMOND, Wash. — Wanna buy a used thermal vacuum chamber? If you have a sudden yen to replicate outer-space conditions, it…
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After buying Planetary Resources, ConsenSys sets its space ideas free — but will sell off the hardware
An Asteroids arcade game from Planetary Resources’ breakroom is among the items to be auctioned off next month. (James G. Murphy Co. Photo) It’s been a year and a half since the assets of Planetary Resources, the asteroid mining venture headquartered in Redmond, Wash., were acquired by a blockchain venture called ConsenSys. Now we’re finding…
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First Mode celebrates first steps in space exploration – and looks ahead to the moon
First Mode’s president and chief engineer, Chris Voorhees, shows off the employee-owned company’s digs near Seattle’s Pike Place Market. (GeekWire Photo / Alan Boyle) One year after engineers from the Planetary Resources asteroid mining company peeled off to form their own employee-owned startup, known as First Mode, they can point to the profitable work they’ve…
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Planetary Resources’ veteran engineers launch First Mode to target wider frontiers
A wide-angle view provides an unusual perspective of First Mode’s new lab space on Western Avenue in Seattle. Click on the image for a 360-degree view. (First Mode Photo) Planetary Resources was assimilated into the ConsenSys blockchain venture months ago, but a troop of engineers who used to work for the asteroid mining company is…
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How satellites and blockchain go together
A Chinese Long March 4B rocket lifts off from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in October 2018. One of the payloads was a nanosatellite equipped with a SpaceChain blockchain node. (CCTV via SciNews / YouTube) It’s been three months since Planetary Resources, the asteroid mining venture headquartered in Redmond, Wash., was acquired by the ConsenSys blockchain…
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Why in the universe is a blockchain company buying the assets of a formerly high-flying asteroid miner?
Planetary Resources President and CEO Chris Lewicki talks about the company’s satellite ambitions at the 2014 GeekWire Summit. (GeekWire Photo) After months of financial uncertainty, the Planetary Resources asteroid-mining venture says its assets have been purchased by the Brooklyn-based ConsenSys blockchain venture. In a news release, Planetary Resources said its CEO and president, Chris Lewicki,…
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Planetary Resources auction put on hold
News Brief: This month’s scheduled sale of hundreds of items from Planetary Resources’ headquarters in Redmond, Wash., has been postponed, according to a website notice by the auctioneer, James G. Murphy & Co. The financially strapped asteroid mining company had planned to sell off laptops, machine tools and other pieces of equipment that were deemed…
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Financially strapped Planetary Resources gets set to auction off equipment at HQ
Planetary Resources is selling off equipment from its headquarters in Redmond, Wash. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota) In a fresh sign of the financial straits facing Planetary Resources, the asteroid mining company will be auctioning off hundreds of items from its headquarters in Redmond, Wash., ranging from industrial-strength CNC machine tools and 3-D printers to…
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Here’s why space engineers come to Seattle … and why some of them leave
Engineers work on New Shepard’s crew capsule at Blue Origin’s Kent factory. (Credit: Blue Origin) A new employment study indicates that roughly 3,000 people are directly employed by Washington state’s space industry, and roughly half of them are at Blue Origin, Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos’ space venture. Most of Blue Origin’s 1,500 employees work at…
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Amid departures, Planetary Resources is holding out hope for an asteroid mining comeback
An artist’s conception shows the Arkyd-301 spacecraft, which was destined to start blazing a trail for asteroid prospecting in 2020. (Planetary Resources Illustration) It’s been months since Planetary Resources had to scale back its asteroid aspirations because a fundraising campaign came up short — and the quest for cash is continuing as space industry leaders converge…