{"id":18919,"date":"2017-06-15T23:19:44","date_gmt":"2017-06-15T15:19:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/2020-or-bust-planetary-resources-is-getting-more-bullish-about-asteroid-mining\/"},"modified":"2017-06-15T23:19:44","modified_gmt":"2017-06-15T15:19:44","slug":"2020-or-bust-planetary-resources-is-getting-more-bullish-about-asteroid-mining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/2020-or-bust-planetary-resources-is-getting-more-bullish-about-asteroid-mining\/","title":{"rendered":"2020 or bust: Planetary Resources is getting more bullish about asteroid mining"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chris Lewicki, CEO of Planetary Resources (GeekWire photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Planetary Resources CEO Chris Lewicki wants to let Mars-bound rockets carry five times more cargo than what\u2019s possible today \u2014 but he doesn\u2019t plan on simply making bigger rockets.<\/p>\n

The asteroid-mining company believes that rockets can free up some extra space by refueling in space, rather than taking it up all at once from the ground. The key is to use the water extracted from asteroids.<\/p>\n

The hydrogen and oxygen in H2<\/sub>O are \u201cthe same elements that are the most powerful rocket fuel in the physical universe on the periodic table, and we can detect that relatively easily on asteroids,\u201d Lewicki said Wednesday at the Global Cookout, an event presented by the Trade and Development Alliance of Greater Seattle at Olympic Sculpture Park. <\/span><\/p>\n

The next step in Planetary Resources\u2019 quest is to have its Arkyd 6 nanosatellite sent into Earth orbit.<\/p>\n

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The Arkyd 6 spacecraft is scheduled to launch later this year. (Photo courtesy of Planetary Resources)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Arkyd 6A satellite measures 4 by 8 by 12 inches, or roughly the size of a desktop tower computer. It\u2019s due to launch as a secondary payload aboard an Indian PSLV rocket later this year, with Seattle\u2019s Spaceflight Industries providing a logistical assist.<\/p>\n

If all goes well, Arkyd 6B will follow its twin into space for additional tests.<\/p>\n

Lewicki said the Arkyd 6 model, which is equipped with a midwave infrared imager, will serve as a platform to try out different ideas \u2014 particularly ideas that could reduce the cost of asteroid exploration by a factor of 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re testing those out on the Arkyd 6, and the things we learn on that we\u2019re going to move into our next satellites \u2014 ones that by the end of 2020 will find their way to a near-Earth asteroid,\u201d he told GeekWire before his Global Cookout talk.<\/p>\n

A year ago, Planetary Resources raised $21 million in a funding round that was meant to support the development of an Earth-observing satellite constellation called Ceres. But now the Redmond-based company\u2019s focus appears to be swinging away from Ceres and back toward asteroid mining.<\/p>\n

The company certainly has support on its side to pursue asteroid mining. The small European country of Luxembourg is investing $225 million in asteroid mining initiatives, and Planetary Resources now has an office there.<\/p>\n

Lewicki noted that the company has grown from five to 70 employees over the past six years, and he\u2019s looking to grow his team even more, in the U.S. as well as in Luxembourg.<\/p>\n

He also applauded the U.S. government for making space resources and space property rights more of a priority. \u201cThere\u2019s action going on in Congress, in the U.S., on figuring out the best ways to essentially make sure that we\u2019re playing along with all the laws and rules, and there\u2019s progress in that area,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In 2015, Congress passed legislation opening the way for U.S. citizens to own any asteroid resources they extract. Planetary Resources recently recruited space law expert Brian Israel from the State Department\u2019s Office of the Legal Adviser to serve as the company\u2019s general counsel.<\/p>\n

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The Global Cookout is an initiative for worldwide networking and relationships. (Photo by Chelsey Ballarte\/GeekWire)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Lewicki\u2019s talk at the Global Cookout focused on how Earth-based businesses can work together to take advantage of commercial opportunities in space. The dozens of attendees included representatives from academic institutions, government agencies, startups and big-name companies such as Boeing and Microsoft.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlanetary Resources [is] developing many more relationships with leading mining and energy companies who are seeing this as the inevitable future of their business,\u201d Lewicki said.<\/span><\/p>\n

During his speech, he hailed commercial space achievements such as the installation of Bigelow Aerospace\u2019s inflatable habitat for the International Space Station. Even Goldman Sachs is now taking an interest in space, Lewicki said.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoldman Sachs released a report with an analysis really comparing these projects in space as being, at this point in time, not much different than large projects on Earth,\u201d he said. \u201cThe finances and the risk are the same, the technology is equally accessible, and they said it\u2019s very likely that we\u2019ll see this time of extension into space as we do with traditional mining for all the same reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris Lewicki, CEO of Planetary Resources (GeekWire photo) Planetary Resources CEO Chris Lewicki wants to let Mars-bound rockets carry five times more cargo than what\u2019s possible today \u2014 but he doesn\u2019t plan on simply making bigger rockets. The asteroid-mining company believes that rockets can free up some extra space by refueling in space, rather than […]<\/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":[4927,1519,4817,5394,4820],"class_list":["post-18919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-asteroid-mining","tag-asteroids","tag-chris-lewicki","tag-goldman-sachs","tag-planetary-resources"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18919"}],"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=18919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18919\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}