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Isn't the earth a space rock????


a425couple wrote:
> 
> from
> https://www.spaceanswers.com/news/new-asteroid-mining-company-announces-plans-to-conquer-space-rocks/
> 
> New asteroid mining company announces plans to conquer space rocks
> by Jonathan O'Callaghan, 22 January 2013
> Deep Space Industries has unveiled plans for a new robotic exploration
> fleet.
> 
> Deep Space Industries announced today that it will send a fleet of
> asteroid-prospecting spacecraft out into the solar system to hunt for
> resources to accelerate space development to benefit Earth. These
> “FireFly” spacecraft will utilize low-cost CubeSat components and get
> discounted delivery to space by ride-sharing on the launch of larger
> communications satellites.
> 
> Deep Space Industries is the second company, after Planetary Resources
> in 2012, to announce such a mission. “Using low cost technologies, and
> combining the legacy of our space program with the innovation of today’s
> young high tech geniuses, we will do things that would have been
> impossible just a few years ago,” said Deep Space Chairman Rick Tumlinson
> 
> The FireFlies have a mass of about 55 lb (25 kg) and the first will be
> launched in 2015 on journeys of two to six months. Deep Space will be
> building a small fleet of the spacecraft using innovative miniature
> technologies, and working with NASA and other companies and groups to
> identify targets of opportunity.
> 
> “My smartphone has more computing power than they had on the Apollo Moon
> missions,” said Tumlinson. “We can make amazing machines smaller,
> cheaper, and faster than ever before. Imagine a production line of
> FireFlies, cocked and loaded and ready to fly out to examine any object
> that gets near the Earth.”
> 
> Starting in 2016, Deep Space will begin launching 70-lb DragonFlies for
> round-trip visits that bring back samples. The DragonFly expeditions
> will take two to four years, depending on the target, and will return 60
> to 150 lb. Deep Space believes that combining science, prospecting and
> sponsorship will be a win/win for everyone, both lowering costs for
> exploration and enabling the public to join the adventure.
> 
> Bringing back asteroid materials is only a step on the way to much
> bigger things for DSI. The company has a patent-pending technology
> called the MicroGravity Foundry to transform raw asteroid material into
> complex metal parts. The MicroGravity Foundry is a 3D printer that uses
> lasers to draw patterns in a nickel-charged gas medium, causing the
> nickel to be deposited in precise patterns.
> 
> Senior leaders at NASA have been briefed on DSI’s technologies, which
> would make eventual crewed Mars expeditions less expensive through the
> use of asteroid-derived propellant. Missions would require fewer
> launches if the fuel to reach Mars were added in space from the
> volatiles in asteroids. Mars missions also would be safer with a
> MicroGravity Foundry on board to print replacements for broken parts, or
> to create brand new parts invented after the expedition was on its way
> to the Red Planet.
> 
> “Using resources harvested in space is the only way to afford permanent
> space development,” said Gump. “More than 900 new asteroids that pass
> near Earth are discovered every year. They can be like the Iron Range of
> Minnesota was for the Detroit car industry last century — a key resource
> located near where it was needed. In this case, metals and fuel from
> asteroids can expand the in-space industries of this century. That is
> our strategy.”
> 
> For example, a large market for DSI is producing fuel for communications
> satellites. Low-cost asteroid propellant delivered in orbit to comsats
> will extend their working lifetimes, with each extra month worth $5
> million to $8 million per satellite. DSI has executed a non-disclosure
> agreement with an aerospace company to discuss collaboration on this
> opportunity.
> 
> In a decade, Deep Space will be harvesting asteroids for metals and
> other building materials, to construct large communications platforms to
> replace communications satellites, and later solar power stations to
> beam carbon-free energy to consumers on Earth. As DSI refines asteroids
> for in-space markets, it also will harvest platinum group metals for
> terrestrial uses, such as pollution control devices.
> 
> Asteroids that fall to Earth are meteorites, and the Deep Space team
> includes Geoffrey Notkin, star of the international hit television
> series Meteorite Men (and who contributed to All About Space issue 1)
> about hunting for them. Notkin has unparalleled expertise in the
> diversity and market value of these elusive rocks, which are transformed
> by intense heat during their plunge to the surface. By contrast, the
> initial asteroid samples to be brought back by Deep Space will have
> their original in-space composition and structure preserved, creating
> exceedingly rare specimens for sale to the research and collectors markets.
> 
> “We will only be visitors in space until we learn how to live off the
> land there,” concluded Tumlinson. “This is the Deep Space mission — to
> find, harvest and process the resources of space to help save our
> civilization and support the expansion of humanity beyond the Earth —
> and doing so in a step by step manner that leverages off our space
> legacy to create an amazing and hopeful future for humanity. We are
> squarely focused on giving new generations the opportunity to change not
> only this world, but all the worlds of tomorrow. Sounds like fun,
> doesn’t it?”
> 
> Tags: asteroid hunters, Asteroid Mining, deep space industries,
> Planetary Resources