Cheaper? maybe. But that's really not the point, is it. The point, for the investors at least, is profit. And the reason they have their eye on asteroids, as opposed to the Moon, is what we know down here as "rare Earths". Things that are much more valuable than gold are believed to be present, and perhaps even prevalent, in asteroids.

So, I think the end game for these folks is to bring the materials home, whereas a fuel finding mission is just a nice bonus.

I agree with mob that asteroids present the more valuable target, given the possibility of finding all types of materials that are uncommon to very rare here on Earth. And if you can create new fuel for your spacecraft, as well as manufacture basic products as well, that only adds to the value.

The Moon will probably be fine for a fueling station, but it would also be wise not to screw around with the Moon, considering it is rather important role in tidal forces back here (although the amount of material displacement to cause the Moon distress is probably rather high, never underestimate our greedy little species).

Well put Harry Mudd, well put.

I actually would like to see a proposal for an operation to clear/recycle LEO space junk. I don't know too much about mining or recycling, so I don't know which would be more efficient or plausible to do in space.

But the fact is, there's a tremendous amount of material in space that we could be (in theory) turned into space craft up there, without having to design the craft to leave or enter Earth's atmosphere.

I dearly hope to see an orbital shipyard within my lifetime.

There's no obvious profit in clearing orbital debris (unless someone with deep pockets wants to pay you to do it)

No easy way to do it, with objects in many different orbital altitudes and inclinations. This stuff isn't all in one 'Space Sargasso' location.

No practical way to do it, as much of the hazard is from very small objects, not just big, intact, but dead sate. (Imagine using one pickup truck to clean every bit of litter, even cigarette butts, from every roadside in Texas.)

No easy politically acceptable way to do it. These sats still have owners. Some of them are military and/or reconnaissance sats belonging to a government. They won't take kindly to just anyone capturing and retrieving one of them, even if it's non-functional.

And even if you gathered it all up, forget about trying to turn 50 years of different satellites, with different technologies, after decades of exposure to the space environment, into something useful.
Try doing that with a pile of computers, dating from the first Altair, to today. In the end, you'd just de-orbit the stuff and be done with it.

You don't want dead sats for any material value, you want them to not be hazards to navigation. Period.

DSI has the future. Lots of work ahead.

I don't know ray. First of all, given what is at stake when it comes to all things space industry, it really shouldn't surprise anyone how much that stuff costs to undertake. And if the big money investors are shunned or discouraged from investing in space futures then there will never be a space program other than a costly government run operation.

These times truly are like the first explorations of the "new world" hundreds of years ago. Money, time, and will power of adventurous (and sometimes crazy) people is needed in these kind of ventures.

I don't understand why money is versus ambition.

As for scammers, it would be pretty damn hard to run a space operation scam. Such operations are rare and attract considerable media attention and scientific scrutiny. This isn't like a pyramid scheme where you can show some confusing flow charts and people will throw their money at you; space industries have to have real designs, working prototypes, and engineering expertise.

I'd be very impressed by the scammer that managed to pull that off.

all great points, I do want to detract those with the ambition at all. On the other side of the pancake, Bernie madoff. As an aside I do suggest that we americans bootstrap as many operations as we can, it will only be a matter of time till other nations come to grips with the concept that space is already big biz and is only going to become more so. I for one fault shortsightednes that is rampant across our country and, as a case in point note that the x prize was initally open to individuals and single person enterprises but later racanted and made pairing with an institution mandandtory. Sad and self limiting was just that one decision, but I say it is only one of many decisions made by a slew of americans that, for what ever reason, serves more to limit progress rather than enable and empower progress and the individuals behind that progress. And in the final analysis, what do I see? greed for money. I do wish DSI luck but let's note one fact, they called investors, the investors did not seek them out. Kinda like a second IPO??

all great points, I do want to detract those with the ambition at all. On the other side of the pancake, Bernie madoff. As an aside I do suggest that we americans bootstrap as many operations as we can, it will only be a matter of time till other nations come to grips with the concept that space is already big biz and is only going to become more so. I for one fault shortsightednes that is rampant across our country and, as a case in point note that the x prize was initally open to individuals and single person enterprises but later racanted and made pairing with an institution mandandtory. Sad and self limiting was just that one decision, but I say it is only one of many decisions made by a slew of americans that, for what ever reason, serves more to limit progress rather than enable and empower progress and the individuals behind that progress. And in the final analysis, what do I see? greed for money. I do wish DSI luck but let's note one fact, they called investors, the investors did not seek them out. Kinda like a second IPO??

I do not want to detract those with the ambition at all.

had to get that correct.

I'm starting an asteroid mining venture. All you have to do is invest $100, then get 10 other people to invest. Give me $25 and you get to keep $75.

If you give me your address, I'll come by with flip charts to explain it better.

(Certified space rocks generally have the value of fine art. Tremendous investment! Just don't disclose how much you brought back.) - RC

(Diamonds, fellow travelers! Diamonds in the rough! (Remember Harwood Security when you need safes and vaults!)) - RC

I imagine that asteroid-mined resources would fetch a premium price over Earth-mined materials, simply because of the novelty and environmenal advantages.

A mine in space has no biosphere to worry about polluting, and no property rights to negotiate. Besides that, I'll bet there are industries that would love put space metals in their products for marketing purposes. There's definitely a market out there, even if space mining will almost certainly never be nearly as cost-effective as Earth mining.

That was my thought. This should require careful regulation by all the space-faring governments. Should this come to pass, the whining about government interference in private enterprise is predictable. If profit is the only consideration, and one of the big ones is inadvertently moved into a trajectory that eventually impacts the earth, there might not be anyone left to sue the company that did it. There is also talk of moving one of these asteroids into Earth orbit to make it easier to mine. While that would be very cool, I would not trust a private company to do that.

The chances of any random movement of asteroids sending it on a collision course with Earth is no greater than the chances of any given asteroid heading on a collision course with Earth naturally from orbital decay or random collisions. The chance is so tiny that such a concern is absurd. Moreso because if we caused the trajectory change, then we can obviously change the trajectory more so that the asteroid changes course again and misses Earth. Use your head.

As for moving an asteroid closer for mining purposes, that has greater potential to go wrong, but I find it laughable that you'd implicitly trust the government to oversee that procedure. Wasn't it NASA that lost two space craft and all crew aboard due to technical glitches and poor management?

Regulate it all you want, but for the good of the astronauts, don't put the government in charge of anything.

Pretty cool stuff. And that's before we get into the possibilities of space factories processing materials and chugging out parts for other space missions.

For this to be worthwhile, the end products have to be more than a handful of spaceships.

Whoever processed the aluminum ore that ultimately went into ISS modules, likely also makes aluminum for soft drink cans...

The government should not be running a true business. Besides, being US based, they're subject to US corporate taxes. And expanding the tax base is a good thing...

im not talking being a business im talking mining resources for planetary superiority if americans have space superiority then you might as well call planet earth america