{"id":17894,"date":"2019-11-04T22:54:16","date_gmt":"2019-11-04T14:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/one-year-after-planetary-resources-faded-into-history-space-mining-retains-its-appeal\/"},"modified":"2019-11-04T22:54:16","modified_gmt":"2019-11-04T14:54:16","slug":"one-year-after-planetary-resources-faded-into-history-space-mining-retains-its-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/one-year-after-planetary-resources-faded-into-history-space-mining-retains-its-appeal\/","title":{"rendered":"One year after Planetary Resources faded into history, space mining retains its appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Asteroid
An artist\u2019s conception shows Planetary Resources\u2019 Arkyd 300 spacecraft prospecting amid a cluster of asteroids. (Planetary Resources Illustration)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s been a year since the Redmond, Wash.-based asteroid mining venture known as Planetary Resources was acquired by ConsenSys and pivoted to blockchain projects in space \u2014 but the idea of mining space resources still resonates among those who backed the venture.<\/p>\n

One big resonance relates to the effort that rose from Planetary Resources\u2019 remains: Last month, ConsenSys Space unveiled its first project, a crowdsourced satellite-tracking campaign called TruSat.<\/p>\n

In a notice posted online, Planetary Resources\u2019 president and CEO, Chris Lewicki, said his former company \u201cfacilitated a huge forward step in progress in technology, business and mindset \u2014 and we\u2019re seeing similar steps forward across the entire space industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now Lewicki is working on TruSat and other blockchain-based collaboration platforms for space applications. \u201cI believe that decentralizing, democratizing and diversifying space endeavors can be a pivotal next forward step,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Lewicki expanded upon the connection between Planetary Resources and ConsenSys Space last week, during a tutorial for TruSat\u2019s first group of \u201ctest pilots.\u201d In response to a question, he said the acquisition came about because of ConsenSys founder Joseph Lubin\u2019s interest in space.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsenSys is developing tools to democratize, diversify and decentralize various aspects of things that we experience in our online life, maybe some of the things in our offline life,\u201d Lewicki said.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=H-J7zngl6xE<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a technology standpoint, it\u2019s interesting to think about the applications that that may have for the development of space, whether it relates to how we can securely control and communicate with robots that we\u2019ve got all over the solar system that are going through light-speed delays, or how we might operate things that are very important or very valuable,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Lewicki said future space exploration and settlement is likely to require the decentralized approach that ConsenSys wants to pioneer. \u201cIt probably is not going to work to have a centralized decision-making authority, central computer, central storage, central bank \u2026 when we have people on the moon and Mars, and in places in between,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Enlisting people who are willing to support, and fund, space ventures is a key part of the process. Planetary Resources came out of the shadows in 2012 with backing from high-profile billionaires and high hopes of creating a trillion-dollar industry, but its financial support dried up over the course of six years.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlanetary Resources had to pause on its ambitions for mining asteroids and developing the resources of space because it\u2019s not a topic that is fundable yet,\u201d Lewicki said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t figured out how to fund large-scale, long-duration, somewhat high-risk projects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lewicki said space entrepreneurs could use ConsenSys\u2019 blockchain-based platforms to \u201ctap into the interest and passion and desire of everyone worldwide.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a fairly autonomous group within the company,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re a small team of seven, and our charter really is to look for opportunities to explore how to get more people involved, how to give people greater personal agency in what they\u2019re contributing to, through transparency. This particular topic, of being able to monitor and support the sustainability of Earth orbit for space operations, is something that affects every space-interested person on Earth \u2014 and even the ones who aren\u2019t interested.\u201d<\/p>\n

Planetary Resources pioneered the crowdsourced approach to space ventures with a high-profile Kickstarter campaign that raised $1.5 million in 2013 but ultimately fizzled out. With TruSat, Lewicki is banking on the wisdom of the crowd rather than their wherewithal.<\/p>\n

He characterized TruSat as a pilot project and a public good. \u201cMaybe in a few years, it\u2019ll lead to innovations and new ideas for how we can get back to bigger projects, like mining asteroids,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

With the focus of NASA\u2019s exploration efforts quickly shifting from asteroids to the moon, the spotlight has shifted just as quickly to making use of lunar resources, starting with the hundreds of millions of tons of water ice thought to be concentrated around the moon\u2019s north and south poles.<\/p>\n

Even Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who\u2019s spending billions of dollars on his Blue Origin space venture, is talking up the prospects of mining lunar resources and building a city on the moon. Blue Origin has already won NASA funding to study techniques for turning lunar ice into the hydrogen and oxygen needed to sustain a permanent settlement and refuel rocket ships.<\/p>\n

Another leading player in the space resource game happens to be the government of Luxembourg, which facilitated a $28 million investment in Planetary Resources during the venture\u2019s heyday in 2016.<\/p>\n

Planetary Resources\u2019 backers in the tiny European nation had to write off their investment as a loss when the venture fizzled.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt failed,\u201d Etienne Schneider, Luxembourg\u2019s deputy prime minister, told GeekWire during last month\u2019s International Astronautical Congress in Washington, D.C. \u201cWe lost our money. But that doesn\u2019t mean that we changed our idea or that we will not invest anymore. So we continue on our path.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Marc Serres, CEO of the Luxembourg Space Agency, and NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine (seated left and right) shake hands after signing an agreement on space cooperation in Washington, D.C. Luxembourg Deputy Prime Minister Etienne Schneider (standing left) and James Randolph Evans, the U.S. ambassador to Luxembourg, look on. (NASA Photo \/ Aubrey Gemignani)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During the IAC, the heads of NASA and Luxembourg\u2019s space agency signed a memorandum of understanding to discuss opportunities for collaboration on the Artemis moon exploration program. Schneider said his country is particularly interested in space resources, which is the focus of a research center that\u2019s due to be established in Luxembourg with support from the European Space Agency.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not going into space exploration,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s too big for us. That\u2019s not the aim of our space agency. The aim is really to help new space companies develop their activities in Luxembourg, and to help them get access to ESA programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schneider said Luxembourg is also planning to launch a venture capital fund with outside partners by the end of the year. \u201cI cannot give you more information about it, because there are American actors involved,\u201d he said, \u201cand American law says that you cannot disclose information three months in advance, so we have to respect it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking of laws, Schneider noted that Luxembourg was the one of the first nations to draw up a legal framework addressing private property rights to space resources (after the United States). He expected follow-up legislation on space activities to be enacted next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything will be put together, so that everybody knows really clearly what they can do and what they cannot do,\u201d Schneider said. \u201cAnd then one of the next steps which we are going to discuss with NASA and all our partners is to try to develop rules on how to behave in space \u2026 because there\u2019s no sense in waiting for the United Nations to develop a new space treaty.\u201d<\/p>\n

And by that time, who knows? Lewicki and ConsenSys Space just might be ready to get back into space mining on the moon and Mars, and in places in between.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An artist\u2019s conception shows Planetary Resources\u2019 Arkyd 300 spacecraft prospecting amid a cluster of asteroids. (Planetary Resources Illustration) It\u2019s been a year since the Redmond, Wash.-based asteroid mining venture known as Planetary Resources was acquired by ConsenSys and pivoted to blockchain projects in space \u2014 but the idea of mining space resources still resonates among […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4365,4927,1519,4817,4818,4832,4617,4928,3041,625],"class_list":["post-17894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-asteroid","tag-asteroid-mining","tag-asteroids","tag-chris-lewicki","tag-consensys","tag-consensys-space","tag-iac","tag-iac2019","tag-luxembourg","tag-moon"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17894"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17894\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}