{"id":19615,"date":"2015-08-28T18:58:19","date_gmt":"2015-08-28T10:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/asteroids-loom-as-the-new-klondike-for-seattle-regions-space-industry\/"},"modified":"2015-08-28T18:58:19","modified_gmt":"2015-08-28T10:58:19","slug":"asteroids-loom-as-the-new-klondike-for-seattle-regions-space-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/asteroids-loom-as-the-new-klondike-for-seattle-regions-space-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Asteroids loom as the new Klondike for Seattle region\u2019s space industry"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_196184\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-196184\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-196184\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/150828-search-620x347.png\" alt=\"Asteroid-hunting telescope\" width=\"620\" height=\"347\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/150828-search-620x347.png 620w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/150828-search-1240x695.png 1240w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/150828-search.png 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-196184\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s conception shows an asteroid-hunting telescope in Earth orbit. (Credit: NASA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Seattle could profit from the rush for resources in outer space much as&nbsp;it did during the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s: by selling goods and services to the fortune-seekers.<\/p>\n<p>At least that\u2019s the vision laid out by entrepreneurs who are laying the groundwork in Seattle&nbsp;\u2014 and in space&nbsp;\u2014 for what they hope will be a multitrillion-dollar asteroid mining industry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI do believe that the first trillion is going to be made in space,\u201d Peter Diamandis, one of the founders of Redmond-based Planetary Resources, said via video during a Seattle Space Entrepreneurs reception at Kirkland\u2019s Marina Park on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Chris Lewicki, the company\u2019s president, noted that Seattle became a boomtown because of its location&nbsp;as the \u201cGateway to the Gold Fields\u201d in Alaska. The city\u2019s merchants made their fortunes by provisioning tens of thousands of would-be miners for the outward journey.<\/p>\n<p>He and Diamandis told Thursday\u2019s&nbsp;gathering&nbsp;of about 150 entrepreneurs and space geeks&nbsp;that&nbsp;Seattle is&nbsp;in a similar position today \u2014 not so much because of the region\u2019s geography, but because of its intellectual resources.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Peter Diamandis and The Space Entrepreneurs in Seattle\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oDeOKory-kU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cSeattle is becoming an intersection of extraordinary tech talent \u2014 data sciences, virtual worlds and an amazing place to live, and a much more affordable place to live than Silicon Valley,\u201d Diamandis said. \u201cThat\u2019s bringing&nbsp;a lot of incredible space talent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Seattle also has a few billionaires who have spent some of their dot-com fortunes on their space aspirations, including Amazon\u2019s Jeff Bezos (who founded Blue Origin), Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen (who bankrolled SpaceShipOne and Stratolaunch) and software executive Charles Simonyi (who has gone into orbit twice and is one of Planetary Resources\u2019 backers).&nbsp;The area also boasts some long-term players in aerospace, such as the Boeing Co. and Aerojet Rocketdyne.<\/p>\n<p>Alex Pietsch, director of Washington state\u2019s Office of Aerospace, told GeekWire that&nbsp;the state\u2019s space industry takes in about 30 companies and 2,000 jobs, not including Boeing employment. He said a<span style=\"line-height: 1.625;\">&nbsp;survey conducted this spring by the Washington State Space Coalition suggested that employment would rise&nbsp;12 to 13 percent over the course of the next year.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-188079 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1.png\" alt=\"pluto\" width=\"250\" height=\"189\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1.png 250w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1-200x151.png 200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1-132x100.png 132w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\"><br \/>\n<strong>Science journalist Alan Boyle<\/strong>&nbsp;is the author of &#8220;The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made A Big Difference.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.625;\">One example is Seattle-based Spaceflight Industries, which recently announced a $20 million financing round and expects to double its workforce from around 50 to more than 100.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is an industry that\u2019s growing super-fast,\u201d Pietsch&nbsp;said.<\/p>\n<p>Planetary Resources is&nbsp;part of that growth: Its first prototype mini-satellite, Arkyd 3, was deployed from the International Space Station last month and is providing engineering data for future prototypes, Lewicki said.&nbsp;The next prototype, known as the Arkyd 6, is being assembled in Redmond and should fly on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in early 2016&nbsp;under the terms of a contract with a Spaceflight Industries subsidiary.<\/p>\n<p>The Arkyd 6 will test technologies for taking&nbsp;Kickstarter-funded \u201cspace selfies\u201d and carry a&nbsp;mid-wave infrared imager for Earth observation.&nbsp;That imager is designed to look for the spectral signature of water \u2014 which is the&nbsp;key ingredient in Planetary Resources\u2019 business model.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_196185\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-196185\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-196185\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/150828-deploy-620x413.jpg\" alt=\"Arkyd 3 deployment\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/150828-deploy-620x413.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/150828-deploy-1240x825.jpg 1240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-196185\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Planetary Resources\u2019 Arkyd 3 prototype satellite is deployed along with an even smaller CubeSat from the International Space Station in July.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Within a decade or so, the company wants to start mining ice from near-Earth asteroids for conversion into fuel, drinkable&nbsp;water and breathable oxygen.&nbsp;If that business model is correct, water could be more valuable in deep space than gold is on Planet Earth. \u201cWater is $60 million a ton if you want to ship it to lunar orbit, or on the way to Mars,\u201d Lewicki said. (Gold currently sells for $33 million a ton.)<\/p>\n<p>One killer app could make an industry: For Seattle in the late 19th century, the killer app was selling supplies&nbsp;to gold miners. For aviation in the early 20th century, it was government contracts for airmail delivery. For spaceflight, it could be connecting the entire globe to the Internet via satellite, or setting up low-gravity filling&nbsp;stations beyond Earth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe may have found that killer app for space, and we\u2019re implementing it right now,\u201d Lewicki said. \u201cOr maybe not.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Either way, the fortune-seekers will need to&nbsp;build and test&nbsp;hardware, develop and deploy software, and they\u2019ll create technological spin-offs in their wake. All&nbsp;those earthly opportunities may provide&nbsp;the most reliable ways to strike it rich. That\u2019s the lesson of the gold rush, and the space rush as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s conception shows an asteroid-hunting telescope in Earth orbit. (Credit: NASA) Seattle could profit from the rush for resources in outer space much as&nbsp;it did during the Klondike Gold Rush of the 1890s: by selling goods and services to the fortune-seekers. At least that\u2019s the vision laid out by entrepreneurs who are laying the [&hellip;]<\/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":[39,4927,4820,2340],"class_list":["post-19615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-aerospace","tag-asteroid-mining","tag-planetary-resources","tag-spaceflight"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19615"}],"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=19615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19615\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}