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Luxembourg expands its space resources vision
Étienne Schneider, deputy prime minister of Luxembourg, frequently tells the story of how he got interested in building a space resources industry in the country. His efforts to diversify the country's economy several years ago led to a meeting with Pete Worden, at the time the director of NASA's Ames Research Center and a proponent of many far-reaching space concepts. During an Oct. 22 panel discussion at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Washington, he recalled Worden advocating for commercial space: "Why shouldn't you go for space mining activities?"
"When he explained all this to me, I thought two things," Schneider said. "First of all, what did the guy smoke before coming into the office? And second, how do I get him out of here?"
He eventually bought into Worden's vision, starting a space resources initiative that attracted companies to the country while enacting a space resources law like that in the United States. By the beginning of 2019, though, it looked like it might all be a bad trip. The two major startups in that industry, Deep Space Industries and Planetary Resources, had been acquired by other companies with no interest in space resources. Worse, the Planetary Resources deal wiped out an investment of 12 million euros Luxembourg made in the startup.
Schneider is undaunted by those setbacks as he continues work to make Luxembourg a hotbed of entrepreneurial space, a scope that has expanded beyond, but has not abandoned, space resources. During the IAC, the country's year-old space agency signed an agreement with NASA to explore potential cooperation, building on an agreement Luxembourg signed with the U.S. Commerce Department in May. Just before the conference, Luxembourg announced it would partner with the European Space Agency on a space resources center in the country.
The article includes an interview with Schneider.
Previously: Luxembourg Announces Investment in Asteroid Mining
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(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday December 09 2019, @03:32AM (3 children)
Is extraterrestrial asteroid mining ever going to be cheaper than digging a little deeper than five miles into the asteroid we live on to see what's inside? At least there's a helluva furnace down there we could use. Why go millions of miles into empty space to catch a grain of sand when you only need to go at most 4000 miles into nice dense, already molten mineral rich rock?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday December 09 2019, @04:25AM (2 children)
The gold you're looking for is probably not in the upper mantle. Molten gold in the core is kind of hot, and mixed up with a lot of not-molten-gold. How do you get it out, repeated petaton nuclear blasts? Maybe get a Death Star involved and collect the pieces.
Bean counters will decide if asteroid mining makes sense. The cost of doing anything in space is about to drop by orders of magnitude, so that will be helpful.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday December 09 2019, @05:17AM
Don't hold your breath, tho'.
Equally, it's not wise to breathe hot air; and even less to breathe hype instead of air.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Monday December 09 2019, @06:41AM
The gold you're looking for is probably not in the upper mantle.
We might not have to go that far at all. It doesn't have to be molten. All that crust and mantle are still swirling around, so on the way down you might bump into a vein or two. On top of that, you clear out some nice huge underground caverns.
Bean counters will decide if asteroid mining makes sense.
It is their point of view I'm taking. Going underground seems cheaper than hunting asteroids.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..