Building a New Economy in Space
Planetary Resources is a company that, at first impression, appears to be the beginnings of a good science fiction novel. At second glance, and with the realization of the people behind its inception, it's clear that this is actually the next level of human exploration in space and beginning of an entirely new industry.
With plans to mine Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) for the extraction of water and precious metals, the startup company is being backed by the likes of Director James Cameron, Google Executives Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, billionaire Ross Perot, X Prize Founder Peter H. Diamandis, Microsoft's Charles Simonyi and a handful of some of NASAs most brilliant recruits.
That's not to say science fiction is completely absent from the equation, as President and Chief Engineer Chris Lewicki admitted in a press conference last month at The Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington:
“We've always been inspired by science fiction and the stories that inspire us to create the future that we're working on now. If everyone remembers Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, there was a certain probe droid that came down in the opening scene, and that probe droid was built by Arakyd industries of the Star Wars universe, and we like to consider ourselves a manufacturer of probe droids for exploring the solar system for resources.”
Thus, the name for Planetary Resources' space vehicle fleet: the ARKYD series, which includes a private space telescope, an Earth-crossing asteroid interceptor and a device to enable laser communication capability. Since the company went public last April, it has more than doubled its engineering team and established a partnership with one of the US' largest construction and engineering companies, Bechtel, to assist in the extraction of materials once spacecraft is landed on an asteroid.
By next April, the first test vehicle is expected to launch, progressing faster than expected.
UPDATES IN SPACECRAFT
At the press conference in Seattle, Lewicki and co-founders Eric Anderson and Diamandis explained the advancements that had been made over the last year in developing the optics of those spacecraft, which will serve three major functions. From space, they will be able to detect very faint asteroids as they pass by, using the optic to close-in on an asteroid. Secondly, the same optic will be used for laser communications, projecting data from the spacecraft back to Earth without using large amounts of energy or large antenna systems. Lastly, the laser will be used to vaporize and ablate part of the asteroid, performing a spectral analysis of its materials. Imaging, communications and ablation, combined into just one function, further keeps the size of the systems down.
HAZARDOUS METEOR DETECTION
In light of the meteor that hit central Russia a few months back, researchers at Planetary Resources are also confident that their research and technology can help detect hazardous materials making their way towards Earth.
“We want to be able to help—to extend the optic nerve of humanity with these space telescopes” says Diamandis. “If we can help become part of the early warning system, that would be tremendous.”
“There's no questions that the asteroids, particularly the NEAs, are very important—not only as a resource, but potential threat and just a very important part of our environment here on earth,” Anderson adds. “The capabilities we're developing here go far beyond resource extraction, although that's our focus,” alluding to the likeliness of a similar event happening again.
BUILDING A NEW ECONOMY IN SPACE
Planetary Resources is not alone. Other companies, such as in the space-based solar power industry, are adding to the new and evolving space economy.
“Asteroid mining of space-based resources is really just a part of an overall space economy, and by our company developing our capacity to provide these resources, it will allow other companies to take that next tentative step forward,” Lewicki said in an interview with Energy Digital. “Together, we'll move forward step by step in expanding our collective economy of the services definitive in space.”
That has all been made possible, of course, through the over 50 years worth of investment the US has made in its space program.
“We're really standing on the shoulders of the people who have done work at NASA, including many of our own engineers,” says Lewicki. Like Lewick, many of the company's engineers made the transition from NASA into the private sector of space exploration—an effort that is “now allowing small teams and private financing to do what used to take an entire government or very large business to do.”
“I think that's a lot of the transition we're seeing in this 'second space race,' where most of the innovation is being driven by private enterprise in pursuit of private and economic goals,” he adds.
There's a sense of renewed excitement occurring in humanity's breach of the solar system similar to the country's first landing on the moon in the 1960s, only this time around it's being led by private companies.
“In aid of all the wonderful events in technology, business and engineering that have happened in the time since,” says Lewicki. “It's really an exciting time to be alive.”
