Spread the word to the youth

The asteroid mining industry is hiring, needs YOU
Tired of that mundane desk job? Want a more exciting internship experience than ferrying around coffee at a downtown law firm? Then we may have just the thing: Out-of-this-world asteroid-mining startup Planetary Resources is seeking college juniors and seniors eager to blast off into a twenty-second century career (on a temporary, six-month basis).
Planetary Resources is a bizarre new future-tech startup launched by famed Titanic director James Cameron and Google co-founder Larry Page. The organization believes there are billions of dollars to be made harvesting the raw materials found in near-Earth asteroids.
Reads the advertisement: "Planetary Resources, Inc (PRI), The Asteroid Mining Company, is seeking qualified and enthusiastic candidates for paid cooperative education positions to assist in the development of new systems and technologies for the commercial robotic exploration of near Earth asteroids in our Bellevue, WA location. Applicants should have an interest in space systems design and application and should expect a hands-on, intense and dynamic work environment."
If you — or someone you know — is interested in a career in the stars, then it's time to hit the books. You'll need a GPA of 3.2 in your current studies in aerospace, mechanical, electrical, or computer system engineering; engineering physics; engineering mechanics; or computer science. Whomever is chosen will need to be available for official asteroid-type work January through August 2013.
What will the chosen applicants wind up doing for one of the "craziest projects funded by the mega-rich?" We're not sure. But even if you're just standing around getting Larry Page and James Cameron's coffee, that's still a lot cooler than fetching a latte for Consolidated Industries' 2009 Assistant Manager of the Year.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/asteroid-mining-industry-hiring-needs-175928948.html


Spread the word!!

That has to be the dumbest idea ever. We're sitting on a huge rock with every element known to man and they want to go into space to find something?

I just saw a story where the Russians had discovered a cache of diamonds that will last 3000 years.

I guess you failed to notice who is funding this adventure, however dumb it is a job is a job.

Should this work it's a whole new way to mine for our future.

A new company called Planetary Resources started off with a bang by sending out mysterious invitations for its launch, revealing some of its high-profile backers, including Google founders Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt, adventurer-slash-filmmaker James Cameron, real estate developer Ross Perot Jr., and former Microsoft executive Charles Simonyi, who became the world's fifth ever space tourist in 2007. Today, the company took the wraps off its space venture that will send spacecraft to asteroids — not to blow them up like in Armageddon, but to mine them for scarce precious metals and water.

The company plans to find water on Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) to be used for deep space exploration. If ever it develops a way to easily identify water-filled NEAs and to efficiently extract the liquid, the method could be used in the future by spacecraft traveling to locations a lot farther than the ISS or the Moon. Astronauts could purify the liquid to make drinking water, or extract oxygen from it to become breathable air. Hydrogen from the water could also be used to make rocket fuel.

Aside from water, the company plans to mine scarce precious metals that exist in abundance in space. One 500-meter platinum-rich asteroid, for instance, could yield the equivalent of all platinum mined in the history of Earth. "As access to these materials increases, not only will the cost of everything from microelectronics to energy storage be reduced, but new applications for these abundant elements will result in important and novel applications," said company co-founder Peter H. Diamandis, founder and chairman of the X-Prize Foundation.
Read more at http://www.tecca.com/news/2012/04/24/planetary-resources-space-asteroid-mining/#0r1ABsPkE7eFHMXI.99

jrm30655 wrote:That has to be the dumbest idea ever. We're sitting on a huge rock with every element known to man and they want to go into space to find something?

I just saw a story where the Russians had discovered a cache of diamonds that will last 3000 years.

Dear jrm30655 aka shortsighted person,
Yes, every element known to man is on this rock. What's to say there aren't more elements on other rocks? What's to say that the experiences/knowledge garnered won't generate more knowledge/experiences? Remember the wonders we now take for granted gleaned from the space program? Expand your horizons! (pun intended)

lunateak wrote:

jrm30655 wrote:That has to be the dumbest idea ever. We're sitting on a huge rock with every element known to man and they want to go into space to find something?

I just saw a story where the Russians had discovered a cache of diamonds that will last 3000 years.

Dear jrm30655 aka shortsighted person,
Yes, every element known to man is on this rock. What's to say there aren't more elements on other rocks? What's to say that the experiences/knowledge garnered won't generate more knowledge/experiences? Remember the wonders we now take for granted gleaned from the space program? Expand your horizons! (pun intended)

I seriously doubt that youwill find anything on an asteroid that you won't find on this rock. The earth was formed from space rocks.

I'm relatively certain that just getting to work and shipping back is going to be more expensive than any point on earth.