'Fireflies' to scope out space rocks for mining

POSTED BY: HAKEN
UPDATED: Monday, January 28, 2013 15:02
VIEWED: 3762
PAGE 1 of 1

HAKEN

Monday, January 28, 2013 6:44 AM

Could be a coincidence. Then again, maybe not.

CNN.COM - Space, it has been said, is big. Really big.

But big enough for two companies that want to mine near-Earth asteroids?

A venture announced Tuesday in California hopes so.
Deep Space Industries says it wants to start sending miniature scout probes, dubbed "Fireflies," on one-way missions to near-Earth asteroids as soon as 2015...

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/22/us/space-asteroid-mining/index.html

FREMDFIRMA

Monday, January 28, 2013 9:11 AM

Way cool, I wonder if they'll be using the DS1 type NSTAR ion engine, it's remarkably efficient, in fact ludicrously so given that it exceeded all expectations by enough margin to confuse even it's designers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Space_1#NSTAR_ion_engine
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/history/ds1opseq.html

Being that initial development cost has already been absorbed, licensing the design from NASA presents a very cost effective solution, I think.

-F

ANONYMOUSE

Monday, January 28, 2013 3:02 PM

Well, it's about gorram time someone made a start on asteroid mining! It'll be the first real step towards establishing commercial space travel - I do not count Virgin Galactic, as it'll likely be decades, if ever, before that becomes what the man in the street would define as affordable. I only hope I live long enough (I'm 47) to at least see, if not do, it!