Planetary Resources is a company with aspirations to be the world’s first asteroid-miners. Launched Tuesday in Seattle, they have the financial backing of Microsoft and Google billionaires, James Cameron (yes, that James Cameron) and Ross Perot Jr.

The object of their desire is Amun 3554, an asteroid that orbits the Sun, much like Earth does. It contains an estimated $8,000,000,000,000 (that’s eight trillion dollars) worth of platinum, “an essential precious metal used in everything from jewelry to fuel cells to computers”, a metal currently trading at $1500 an ounce.

The $8 trillion figure is an estimate based on observations by John S. Lewis, professor of planetary science, author of Mining the Sky: Untold Riches from the Asteroids, Comets, and Planets, and now a consultant to Planetary Resources. He also found 3554 Amun to contain another $8 trillion in iron and nickel, and a mere $6 trillion worth of cobalt.

So, the total payout from one unassuming asteroid? $20,000,000,000,000.

The catch is introducing all these resources to Earth’s economy with out devaluing them. We still need these metals for manufacturing and other industries.

Another valuable resource contained in these asteroids? Water. As space mining and traveling in general becomes more common place, water is essential to survival. Instead of bringing up this heavy substance, having a ready supply in zero-G is just as valuable as platinum since that’s less fuel you are using to get out of Earth’s gravity well.

Check out this video and see if they have what it takes to be space pioneers.

Source: Space-travel.com

Russia has announced an advanced nuclear powered interplanetary propulsion system that should be ready by 2017 and will power a ship capable of long-haul missions by 2025.

The drive should operate continuously for up to three years producing 100-150 kilowatts of energy that powers a powerful electric ion engine that uses Xenon as its propellant.

Tests should start as early as 2014 with an overall investment of about a quarter of a billion dollars over the course of five years.

Nuclear power is one of the few sources that can output enough power required by this type of vehicle over the long haul. Chemical rockets lack the power density for interplanetary missions.

In the US, NASA started a project to develop a similar nuclear engine, but funding for it was cut in 2003 as the focused on robotic missions.

Tony’s note: $250 million dollars sounds pretty low, but maybe I’m not accounting for Russian efficiency and inginuity. I’m a little jealous, to be honest. This is the sort of thing the US via NASA should be embarking on. I suppose we should be thankful that the human race in general still has the exploratory drive to be more than we are and things like this can happen. Private sector, what say you?

On a downer note, I’m a bit skeptical on how they will follow through. Their track record is a bit sketchy with regards to nuclear power in space. I hope they can pull it together.

Io9 has a fantastic gallery of some concept art that includes detailed futuristic cities, amazing airships, and haunting landscapes. Click the image below to view the eye candy!

From io9:

Concept artist Josh Kao has worked on X-Men First Class and Halo 4, but we really love is some of his designs of futuristic cities. His cityscapes have the shininess, and the attention to detail, that make city concept art so amazing.

More info: Josh Kao’s Blog and Josh Kao Art

The Sand Flea is an 11 pound wheeled robot that looks like a toy RC car at first glance, but can propel itself into the air up to 30 feet in order to jump tall building (and other obstacles) in a single bound.

Boston Dynamics, builder of advanced robots with unique abilities, explains, “An onboard stabilization system keeps it oriented during flight to improve the view from the video uplink and to control landings. Current development of Sand Flea is funded by the The US Army’s Rapid Equipping Force.”

Amazing video of some of it’s hijinks:

NASA has started up a laboratory called Eagleworks which is studying advanced propulsion and using the quantum vacuum to power it. The proposed schedule is pretty ambition for solar system exploration: in 50 years time.

Since the work being pursued by this laboratory is applied scientific research in the areas of the quantum vacuum, gravitation, nature of space-time, and other fundamental physical phenomenon, high fidelity testing facilities are needed. The lab will first implement a low-thrust torsion pendulum (less than 1 micronewton), and commission the facility with an existing Quantum Vacuum Plasma Thruster. To date, the QVPT line of research has produced data suggesting very high specific impulse coupled with high specific force. If the physics and engineering models can be explored and understood in the lab to allow scaling to power levels pertinent for human spaceflight, 400kW SEP human missions to Mars may become a possibility, and at power levels of 2MW, 1-year transit to Neptune may also be possible. Additionally, the lab is implementing a warp field interferometer that will be able to measure spacetime disturbances down to 150nm. Recent work published by White suggests that it may be possible to engineer spacetime creating conditions similar to what drives the expansion of the cosmos.

The concept of Q-Thrusters, Quantum Vacuum Plasma Thrusters, is a very interesting one that is partially described in the PDF linked to below describes using virtual particles created in the vacuum of space as reaction mass for a thruster based engine. how would we utilize this phenomena? A couple of approaches are described: Vacuum sails that develop a net force by having materials on either side with different optical properties; Inertia control by altering vacuum energy density and reducing total spacecraft mass thus minimizing kinetic energy and amount of work needed to accelerate a spacecraft; and dynamic systems that make use of the dynamic Casimir force to generate a net force.

A q-Thrister would work using the same principles behind Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) thrusters. The virtual plasma is exposed to crossed fields which forces plasma in one direction at high velocity. Q-Thruster differ by using the quantum vacuum fluctuations as the fuel source eliminating the need to carry propellant. Not carrying propellant solves a host of problems plaguing designers of space propulsion drives, particularly ones intended for interstellar travel.

the NASA paper also suggests that it may be possible to engineer spacetime creating conditions similar to what drives the expansion of the cosmos

NASA PDF

We’d have a hell of a tide. Life would likely be unable to exist. Let’s just say, I like our current arrangement.

Watch 4.5 Billion Years of the Moon’s Evolution in 2.5 Minutes.

YouTube: “From year to year, the moon never seems to change. Craters and other formations appear to be permanent now, but the moon didn’t always look like this. Thanks to NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, we now have a better look at some of the moon’s history. Learn more in this video!”

Universe Today has an interesting article about a bad side effect to Alcubierre’s warp drive idea. The problem is the drive would generate very energetic particles in it’s wake that would be released when the ship slows to superluminal speeds. A valid concern, but let me explain why I think this is a non-issue to some degree.

The article touched on this, but the obvious solution is to make your approach outside the system and/or off the system’s plain. Space is very very empty, even within star systems, when it comes to bodies such as planets, moons and other assorted rocks. The released energies would be blast into the interstellar void between stars, dissipating it’s energy well before it ever reaches another system, if it even would ever reach another system.

If you approached the system at a vector that was more perpendicular to the galactic plain, it would direct the energies out into the galactic void. You would need two jumps, however, one to get you away from the galactic plain and another shorter one to reach the system at the perpendicular vector.

Unless I’m missing something here, IANAP. Otherwise, we would also have an ultimate weapon of mass destruction. I’m not sure I like that prospect. Actually, I’m sure I don’t like that prospect.