WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic:TechStuff Mines Some Asteroids 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.240 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios, 0:00:07.320 --> 0:00:13.720 How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:13.760 --> 0:00:16.400 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:18.279 How Stuff Works and I Heart Radio and I love 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:21.759 all things tech. And at this time for another classic 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:25.040 episode of tech Stuff. The episode you are about to 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:29.440 hear originally published on June four, two thousand twelve. It 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:34.400 is called text Stuff Minds Some Asteroids. And I remember 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:36.519 when we recorded this because it was kind of funny. 0:00:36.560 --> 0:00:38.400 It was right around the same time that Stuff you 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:41.720 should Know, was recording an episode about asteroid mining, and 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:43.919 we didn't know that they were doing it, and they 0:00:43.920 --> 0:00:47.040 didn't know we were doing it. So there was a 0:00:47.560 --> 0:00:50.880 bit of a rush, a gold rush if you will, 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:53.960 on asteroid mining podcasts. That all came out of How 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:55.520 Stuff Works at around the same time, but it was 0:00:55.560 --> 0:01:00.960 completely uncoordinated, because that's how we roll here at podcast World. 0:01:01.640 --> 0:01:04.040 I hope you guys enjoy this classic episode. I'll be 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:09.440 back in just a moment to to um. So that 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:11.959 was that was a hint. Actually it would be more 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:18.880 like running Coward. We're talking today about asteroids. We did 0:01:18.920 --> 0:01:22.680 an episode about you know, figuring out how to deflect 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:25.399 an asteroid if it were coming towards the Earth in 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:27.880 a in a threatening manner, like it said, it's a 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:30.800 nice play. You got here be a shame with someone 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:35.119 I don't know, flattened it. Um, So, apart from dealing 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:38.480 with asteroids trying to extort your planet for for various resources, 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:41.920 we wanted to talk about extorting asteroids for resources. I'm 0:01:41.959 --> 0:01:44.920 a little frightened right now. I'm a little goofy right now. 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:48.000 Bonus points if you get the reference to the video 0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:51.760 game in which you do mind asteroids. Yes, so we're 0:01:51.800 --> 0:01:55.160 talking about asteroid mining and why would we do it, what, 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:58.320 how would we do it, and what's going on with 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:01.200 that whole idea anyway out? Before we get started, I 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:04.440 should mention we do on how stuff works. Dot Com 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:08.200 have an article about how asteroid mining will work. The 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:11.080 will there is important because as of this moment we 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:14.760 are not mining asteroids. We have um ideas about how 0:02:14.800 --> 0:02:16.840 we would do this, and there is in fact a 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:21.720 company that exists right now that plans on mining asteroids, 0:02:21.720 --> 0:02:25.560 but that even that plan is about a decade out 0:02:25.760 --> 0:02:30.359 from fruition, assuming everything goes well. Yeah, just just for 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:32.600 the record, I want to say that I'm I'm coming 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:36.799 up with my own company to pan for asteroids. I'm 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:39.880 not certain exactly how we'll do it, but I'm gonna 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:42.200 make an effort. I claim that there are a lot 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:45.320 of them on the ground of the Georgia Renaissance Festival, 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:47.800 which is you know, most people would just call it gravel, 0:02:47.919 --> 0:02:52.160 but I maintain it's actually asteroids, and that they are 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:55.880 they're they're intruding upon my property because I claim them. 0:02:55.919 --> 0:02:59.600 Because well, we'll get into the complications of the legal 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:04.519 system and mining for asteroids and a little bit because well, 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:08.960 we're treading new ground in space. Well, that's that's true. Actually, 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:11.399 some of the people involved with this company are are 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:15.320 very interested in space anyway. I mean, they have been 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:20.440 sort of citizens supporters of the space effort, you might say, 0:03:20.760 --> 0:03:25.080 people like Larry Page and Eric Schmidt yes, Googlers yes, yes. 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:29.840 And James Cameron Yes, who has has made a movie 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:36.240 or two involving space exploration. Um documentaries, I should say, right, 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:42.960 he's done some documentaries about ocean stuff as well space stuff. Yes. 0:03:43.520 --> 0:03:47.040 Game over man. So so we're gonna talk a bit 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:49.920 about let's talk a bit about in general, about mining 0:03:49.920 --> 0:03:54.480 asteroids and why you would want to. Here's why if 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:56.360 we ever want to get to a point where we're 0:03:56.360 --> 0:04:00.000 getting off this rock to move to some other rock. Uh, 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:02.880 one of the big problems that faces us is where 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:05.640 do we get our raw materials in order to make 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:10.440 the kind of infrastructure we will require in order to say, 0:04:10.760 --> 0:04:14.000 survive somewhere else. It's not like you can go and 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:17.719 take it all with you, not easily anyway, because well 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:20.280 and right now there really is no way because the 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:24.760 last cargo carrying UH ships that we use, the Space Shuttle, 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:29.839 are retired. So now we have to build specific vehicles 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:34.200 to launch stuff out there into space because the vehicles 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:37.680 we would have used are no longer in service. But um, 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:40.839 and there's no at least in the United States, there's 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:45.560 no plan to replace them anytime soon, so at least 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:49.000 not by the government. Privately could be a different issue. 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:51.359 In fact, privately is really where all this is is 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:54.880 falling upon. But if we were to try and create 0:04:54.880 --> 0:04:58.400 a colony, say upon the Moon's surface or on Mars, 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:01.760 we would need to be able to get materials to 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:06.440 that place in order to create the right environment for 0:05:06.560 --> 0:05:08.560 to sustain life. Because I don't know if you realize this, 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:12.359 but they are both rather hostile environments when it comes 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:18.600 to human survivability not survive. Yeah, if you've if you've 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:21.160 seen the documentary Total Recall, you know that if you 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:24.080 were to take your mask off in Mars, your eyes 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:25.920 would pop out of your head and uh, you would 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:29.760 turn into Donald Schwarzenegger. Um little and in fact, okay, 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:33.200 for in reality, we could not survive in either place 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:37.080 without life support systems. Right, So how do we get 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:39.520 the stuff we need to the plants, including things like 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:44.480 water and oxygen? That's part of it. Actually we would 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:48.840 we would likely ship stuff in various kinds of of 0:05:49.200 --> 0:05:52.000 of vessels. But when you absolutely positively need it there 0:05:52.000 --> 0:05:53.840 in three months, it would be so much better if 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:56.800 we could get that material either from wherever it is 0:05:56.839 --> 0:06:00.840 we land or nearby asteroids. And as it turns out, 0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:03.279 a lot of asteroids have materials in them that would 0:06:03.279 --> 0:06:07.680 be very useful in either life support features or in 0:06:07.839 --> 0:06:11.200 building out an infrastructure itself. And uh, in fact, in 0:06:11.240 --> 0:06:16.560 our article we talk about three basic categories of asteroids. 0:06:17.080 --> 0:06:20.040 All right, there's the C type asteroid, which is the 0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:22.400 vast majority of the types that we would find in 0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:26.320 our Solar system. And by the way, we mainly think 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:30.560 that asteroids are sort of remnants of the formation of 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:34.840 the Solar system. Yeah, so in some cases leftovers. Sometimes 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:40.440 it's from uh perhaps a collision, an interstellar collision, but 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:45.240 mostly it's just leftovers from the Solar system itself forming. 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:47.520 So it's sort of like you know when you take 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:51.760 apart piece of electronic equipment or car's engine and you 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:55.000 reassemble it, and then there's the there's pieces. I think 0:06:55.040 --> 0:06:58.040 of it as any time I buy anything from Ikea, 0:06:58.240 --> 0:07:01.440 and I think, oh, there's some pieces here that should 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:04.000 have been used in the formation of this cabinet, and 0:07:04.080 --> 0:07:06.040 yet here they are in my hand, and I don't 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:08.960 see any place to put them in. Three years later, 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:12.040 all my dishes break. The two are the two I 0:07:12.240 --> 0:07:15.960 maintain are not connected. No one tell my wife anyway. 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:20.000 So the Yeah, the the asteroids. You would expect to 0:07:20.080 --> 0:07:24.600 find many of the same elements within asteroids as you 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:28.000 would find within the various planets and other bodies in 0:07:28.040 --> 0:07:30.760 our Solar System, And as it turns out, that is 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:34.040 exactly the case. So in the C type of asteroid, 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:40.640 which comprises about of the asteroids in our Solar system. 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:44.240 They have uh a lot of the same elements that 0:07:44.280 --> 0:07:47.720 you would find in our in the Sun, apart from 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:52.680 hydrogen and helium and other volatile elements, because they would 0:07:52.680 --> 0:07:55.760 have boiled off into space, which is really too bad 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:58.960 because helium mining for helium would be great because, as 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:01.320 it turns out, we're running out on Earth, and you know, 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:03.560 the main culprit of why we're running out of helium 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:07.880 on Earth, that's right, it's crazy to think about. But 0:08:07.960 --> 0:08:11.119 those party balloons that we enjoy oh so very much 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:16.800 are actually a problem in scientific research because helium is 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:19.280 very useful for doing things like using it as a 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:22.520 cooling agent. You know, the large Hadron collider uses liquid 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:25.640 helium to get the superconductors as cold as possible to 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:30.680 reduce electrical resistance. But meanwhile, little Timmy, who's speaking a 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:33.880 long the has been brilliant in his balloon all day long, 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:38.839 has just to set scientific research back for decades. Thanks Timmy, 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:43.000 happy freaking birthday. You can switch to hydrogen. I can't 0:08:43.040 --> 0:08:45.360 see a problem with that. And looking for balloons get 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:48.600 too near the birthday, can right? Yeah, so hydrogen combustible, 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:52.600 don't put it near the birthday. Candles um, unless you 0:08:52.640 --> 0:08:56.400 know you don't like timmy anyway. Moving on, so let's 0:08:56.400 --> 0:08:59.120 see type of asteroid. Then we've also got the S 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:02.840 type of asteroid. This is about sev of the asteroids 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:07.600 we would find in our Solar system, and they contain magnesium, nickel, 0:09:07.760 --> 0:09:12.120 and iron. These are very useful elements. Uh. The M 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:15.280 type asteroid not an M type planet, as we learned 0:09:15.280 --> 0:09:18.920 in Star Trek, which by the way, no scientific basis there. 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:21.040 They just decided to call it M type planet to 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:24.280 mean any sort of earth like planet that human being 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:30.040 could survive upon. You No M is for my planet. 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:34.160 So the M type asteroids have uh, nickel and iron. 0:09:34.800 --> 0:09:39.240 And so once we see these asteroids out there, and 0:09:39.240 --> 0:09:41.319 we you know, most of them exist between Mars and 0:09:41.400 --> 0:09:44.720 Jupiter and a belt, an asteroid belt. You may remember 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:49.280 famous explorations of asteroid belts, like in the documentary UH 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:54.359 Empires Strikes Back, which was had a very expirited exploration 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:59.000 of an asteroid belt. What, yes, they have giant animals 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:02.040 on them? They do not. That is that's me being 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:05.040 silly again. But no, the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:07.360 that's where the majority of the asteroids in our Solar 0:10:07.360 --> 0:10:09.920 System reside, but sometimes they break free from that belt 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:12.600 and they float around in space. Occasionally they come near 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:15.840 the Earth. Near being a relative term. We're talking in 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:19.360 thousands and thousands and thousands of miles, but that's still 0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:25.160 relatively close when you think space is enormous. So, uh, 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:28.040 we would probably be targeting the asteroids that break free 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:30.320 first because maybe the easiest to get to getting to 0:10:30.360 --> 0:10:34.720 the asteroids beyond Mars would take so much time that 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:37.160 perhaps by the time they would get back with whatever 0:10:37.240 --> 0:10:39.760 resources you are trying to mind, you might not have 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:45.600 anything to build anymore. So, uh, the asteroids that break free, 0:10:46.000 --> 0:10:50.240 we can actually determine what type of asteroid they are 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:54.360 based upon the way they reflect light. And that's because 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:58.240 different materials reflect light in different ways, and you will 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:01.560 get a different spectrum if you were to uh to 0:11:01.720 --> 0:11:06.560 measure that light and based upon the the composition of 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:09.080 the light that you are looking at. Based upon that, 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:12.360 you can determine what kind of elements are in that 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:14.760 asteroid and you could figure out, oh, well, this is 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:17.600 a perfect candidate for us to go in mind, and 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:20.880 there are other elements that could also be on on 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:25.320 an asteroid, including oxygen. Uh, platinum, gold, both of both 0:11:25.360 --> 0:11:29.199 gold and platinum are very useful in electronics, and uh, 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:32.520 perhaps even water. So you might be able to find 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:37.520 frozen water on an asteroid, which could be obviously very 0:11:37.559 --> 0:11:40.400 important to human survival. So if you find a few 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:43.080 asteroids with frozen water on it and you mind them, 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:45.000 you get the water off of that, you bring it 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:48.280 to whatever space colony you have, then you can have 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:52.200 not just water, but also oxygen. And I understand too 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:55.520 that it's possible that rarer Earth metals might be on 0:11:55.679 --> 0:11:58.120 some of these asters and golden platinum kind of fall 0:11:58.120 --> 0:12:01.360 into that category, but but others as well. There's and 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:04.000 and these are very important, like I said, in electronics. 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:07.000 You know, platinum, as it turns out, is very useful 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:10.679 in electronics, but is also very rare on Earth. So 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:13.160 again one of those things where we would be able 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:19.080 to to exploit a an asteroid without having to do 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:20.960 the same thing on the surface of the planet. You know, 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:25.720 clearly mining on Earth can be a very disruptive process. 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:30.000 It can be ecologically disastrous depending on how you're mining 0:12:30.120 --> 0:12:32.960 and what it is you're mining. Um, So if we 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:37.480 were able to offload that literally to an asteroid, then 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:40.800 that would be beneficial, not just from a resources standpoint, 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:44.080 but an ecological standpoint, because I mean, really, who cares 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:47.840 if your asteroid is falling apart, right, I mean, there's 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:52.959 there's no one there. Um. So using telescopes we look 0:12:52.960 --> 0:12:56.120 at these asteroids, we determine what is what those asteroids 0:12:56.160 --> 0:12:58.520 are made of based on the light that's coming back, 0:12:59.400 --> 0:13:02.960 and then that would allow us to say which ones 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:06.240 are good candidates for mining. Now, how would we actually 0:13:06.280 --> 0:13:11.920 mind the asteroids? Okay, Um, that's a good question, I'll admit. Uh. 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:15.319 Turns out, um, no one has the answer right now 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:18.880 because because we're just not there yet. Even the company 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:21.800 that we were talking about, which is called Planetary Resources. 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:26.120 Planetary Resources, they come out and they admit the like, um, 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:28.600 we don't know how we're going to mind these asteroids 0:13:28.640 --> 0:13:31.319 because that's a decade out at best. What we're gonna 0:13:31.320 --> 0:13:36.319 do is we're gonna build the machines that can identify asteroids, 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:39.920 detect asteroids, travel to asteroids, and by the time we 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:43.200 get to that point, hopefully we figured out what the 0:13:43.240 --> 0:13:46.880 best way of mining these asteroids would be. Now, from 0:13:46.880 --> 0:13:50.240 what I've understood so far in my study of this 0:13:50.440 --> 0:13:54.679 comprehensive study of asteroid mining. Uh, they're hoping that they 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:57.800 can do a lot of work with robots, which makes 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:01.360 perfect sense. You want to have an you want to 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:05.959 have these robotic devices to mine and asteroid because, uh, 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:09.880 mining mining on its own is dangerous, right, and then 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:14.040 you add in the the dangers of space travel, which 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:19.080 are numerous and certainly deadly. You do not want to 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:22.640 put human lives at risk if you don't have to. 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:27.480 So a robotic force makes a lot of sense. I 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:31.800 mean it. It certainly takes away from great documentaries like Armageddon, 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:35.880 where you know, because I doubt that the robots would 0:14:35.920 --> 0:14:38.360 all get together and sing leaving on a jet plane. 0:14:38.920 --> 0:14:41.160 But on the other hand, it means that those lives 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:46.080 would be relatively safe. Yeah. You think about this and 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:49.160 in the way that you might actually tackle the problem yourself, 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:52.680 and you realize that there are several significant challenges. Let's 0:14:52.680 --> 0:14:57.000 say money as no object. Even getting there challenge is 0:14:57.040 --> 0:15:00.480 a challenge. Landing on the asteroids safely is going to 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:04.560 be a challenge. Mining the asteroids resources another challenge, and 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:07.480 then getting back right loading them into your vehicle, which 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:10.040 would have to be designed so that not only could 0:15:10.080 --> 0:15:11.840 it travel to the asteroid, but it could bring a 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:14.960 payload back from the asteroid to Earth. Now, granted, when 0:15:14.960 --> 0:15:18.040 you're not dealing with gravity out in space, that it's 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:20.000 a little easier to do in the sense that you 0:15:20.040 --> 0:15:23.400 don't have to worry about escaping gravity in order to uh, 0:15:23.480 --> 0:15:26.280 you know, the payload is not gonna affect you in 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:28.560 that sense. But there are other issues as well, like 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:33.880 how will the mining activity change the behavior of the asteroid. So, 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:36.360 if the asteroid, for example, is an orbit around Earth, 0:15:36.880 --> 0:15:38.960 if you start mining the asteroid, is that going to 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:42.240 alter the orbit of the asteroid? Is it going to 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:45.480 possibly either push it to a point where it's going 0:15:45.520 --> 0:15:47.520 away from Earth, which means that you're going to have 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:50.120 to take down to consideration, when you're flying back, you're 0:15:50.160 --> 0:15:51.720 gonna have to make sure you have enough fuel to 0:15:51.760 --> 0:15:54.720 make it back to Earth um or that you know 0:15:54.920 --> 0:15:58.440 you've got enough whatever you need enough power there to 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:01.240 get back, or if it brings it closer to Earth 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:05.560 than you have, the consideration of could this potentially create 0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:09.040 an impact arc where the asteroid could hit Earth And 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:11.400 in some cases, you know, maybe the asteroids of a 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:16.560 size that it wouldn't necessarily hold together and perhaps it 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:20.000 wouldn't be as big an impact. But anytime you're talking 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:23.360 about an impact at that speed, I mean forces mass 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:26.320 times acceleration, right, So even if your mass isn't very big, 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:30.120 if your acceleration is really high, that's that's a lot 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:34.160 of force. So even a relatively small asteroid, if it's 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:37.960 not going to burn up, could be pretty the disastrous 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:40.840 thing that hit the Earth, especially depending on where, I mean, 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:43.320 even in the ocean. Then you're talking about tsunamis things 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:47.040 like that. So yeah, there there's that element as well. 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:49.840 And when you're mining it, how do you collect what 0:16:49.920 --> 0:16:53.080 you're mining? That's that's an interesting problem too, because if 0:16:53.080 --> 0:16:55.880 you're if you're talking about an area where there's no gravity, 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:58.920 and let's say you're breaking apart the surface of the 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:03.280 asteroid in order to get at some resources underneath, then 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:05.480 you have to have some way of catching that stuff 0:17:05.520 --> 0:17:08.639 as it's floating away. So there's talk about perhaps the 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:11.119 would be some sort of canopy system so that you 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:14.480 would have essentially like a net that would catch stuff 0:17:14.520 --> 0:17:16.480 as it flew off the asteroids, so that you didn't 0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:20.600 lose the resources you're trying to mind, Uh, Frank, you 0:17:20.680 --> 0:17:23.840 have a lot. And then there's also the case of 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:28.360 you know, what is the specific method of mining. Are 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:32.360 you using lasers to try and weakend and break apart material, 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:36.640 are you using other forms of heat? Are you using chemicals? Um? 0:17:36.680 --> 0:17:39.879 Are you using physical force? You know that there are 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:42.400 a lot of considerations to make, and frankly, no one 0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:46.199 has come up with the right approach yet because we 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:48.760 still haven't tried it. You know, it may very well 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:52.120 be that the first dozen times we try to mine 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:55.320 asteroids we realize there's got to be a better way 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:59.600 because this method is not efficient enough. If the process 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:05.359 takes more money, time and effort, then you would uh, 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:07.360 then you would have if you tried to get those 0:18:07.400 --> 0:18:09.879 resources some other way. Then clearly that's not the right answer. 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:13.959 That's all you're doing is storing money away. So there 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:16.200 are a lot of questions to answer at this point. 0:18:16.200 --> 0:18:19.280 But let's let's talk a little bit about planetary resources. Now. 0:18:19.320 --> 0:18:21.359 We've mentioned it a couple of times, and we talked 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:23.879 about how people like James Cameron and Eric Schmidt and 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:28.359 Larry Page are interested in supporting this company, and you 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:32.120 might think, well, why why would we worry about why 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:34.600 would we want to support a company that has admitted 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:37.840 that the earliest they expect to be able to actually 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:40.679 mind an asteroid would be ten years from now. And 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:42.760 part of it is that actually is what I've seen, 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:47.080 all right, Well, uh, I was reading an article from 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:50.280 Forbes and and in the article they did an interview 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:54.600 with some executives from Planetary Resources, and they talked about 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:59.240 why company this company is an interesting company and why 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:03.080 it may be able. And it's already making money now 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:05.639 right now, it's making money through investment, but it's also 0:19:06.320 --> 0:19:10.600 going to It's got revenue generation plans for each step 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:18.520 in the journey to having a mining asteroid operation or 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:21.240 astro remining operation. I'm having some issues with some word 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:28.000 order anyway, order word. The first stage is talking about 0:19:28.160 --> 0:19:34.520 creating a space faring telescope called the ARKID one hundred, 0:19:35.040 --> 0:19:37.080 and they're expecting to be able to do this within 0:19:37.119 --> 0:19:40.480 the next two years. And this is UH telescopes with 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:45.840 remote sensing technology. And the idea is to launch around 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:48.760 six or so of these telescopes into low Earth orbit 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:53.119 and each one would be part of a second It 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:55.399 would be a secondary payload. So in other words, you 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:59.359 would not send a spacecraft up loaded down with these telescopes, 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:02.560 and that's it. Um. Instead, what would happen is, let's 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:06.879 say some communications company wants to launch a new communication 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:09.840 satellite and enters into a contract with a private company 0:20:09.880 --> 0:20:14.320 that's going to launch the satellite. Then Planetary Resources could say, hey, 0:20:14.600 --> 0:20:18.400 you've got this much cargo space left over in the vehicle, 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:21.280 can we put one of our telescopes in there with 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:25.000 your communication satellite and have it deployed in that same mission. 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:27.280 And thus it will save money in that it's not 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:32.600 having a dedicated flight just for the telescopes. That's the idea. Anyway, 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:35.000 Chris and I have to go digging on some more 0:20:35.040 --> 0:20:37.399 asteroids in just a moment, but first we're gonna take 0:20:37.440 --> 0:20:48.280 a quick break to thank our sponsor. So these telescopes 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:52.600 would be able to look out into space with the 0:20:52.640 --> 0:20:56.000 idea that they're they're looking for asteroids, so it's asteroid 0:20:56.119 --> 0:21:00.040 location identification, uh, that sort of thing. This could be 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:04.919 useful for lots of other purposes though, and so the 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:08.200 thought behind Planetary Resources is that they could even rent 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:13.800 out time on these telescopes for other facilities so that 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:17.240 they could do research on, you know whatever, some astronomical 0:21:17.320 --> 0:21:20.080 approach and so these telescopes, which are you know, when 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:22.679 you're floating in space, you've got some you can get 0:21:22.720 --> 0:21:24.639 some really nice pictures of stuff because you don't have 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:28.960 to worry about atmospheric interference and um. And so you 0:21:29.040 --> 0:21:31.320 might be able to make quite a bit of money 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:35.040 essentially leasing out these telescopes. Also, I like the idea 0:21:35.119 --> 0:21:38.320 that one of the other benefits to this approach is 0:21:38.440 --> 0:21:43.720 the possibility of being able to identify potentially problematic asteroids 0:21:43.840 --> 0:21:47.800 much earlier than otherwise we might be able to, because 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:50.160 I mean that is that's a legitimate concern as well. 0:21:50.200 --> 0:21:52.199 There are there are plenty of astronomers out there who 0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:56.119 say we need to be able to identify asteroids that 0:21:56.160 --> 0:21:59.640 could potentially become a problem um, and then be able 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:02.080 to come up with a solution to that problem. And 0:22:02.160 --> 0:22:05.760 we talked about that in our our podcast about as 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:07.840 could an asteroid destroy the art and what could we 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:10.520 do to stop that? As it turns out, blowing it 0:22:10.600 --> 0:22:14.680 up is the wrong answer, by the way, spoiler alert, UM, 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:17.640 that's a great episode. You should listen to it. There's 0:22:17.680 --> 0:22:19.640 lots of other points we make in it besides don't 0:22:19.640 --> 0:22:22.800 blow it up. Um. One of the interesting things too 0:22:22.800 --> 0:22:25.040 about these telescopes is we're not talking about something the 0:22:25.080 --> 0:22:28.439 size of say that the Hubble telescope. These are actually 0:22:28.560 --> 0:22:31.680 very small and could be held in your hand, um, 0:22:32.119 --> 0:22:35.240 and the company expects to that it could cost less 0:22:35.240 --> 0:22:39.879 than uh ten million dollars, which you know, that's a 0:22:40.080 --> 0:22:42.840 pretty small amount really when you start talking about space exploration. 0:22:43.320 --> 0:22:46.520 So it is an easy way for them to, if 0:22:46.560 --> 0:22:48.680 you'll pardon the pun, get off the ground with the 0:22:48.720 --> 0:22:52.439 effort and then their next phase, so that our Kid one, 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:56.080 phase one, phase two is our KID two hundred series. 0:22:56.320 --> 0:22:58.160 Now this is of course something you know, even though 0:22:58.160 --> 0:23:01.240 our Kid one is in the prototype stage or or 0:23:01.280 --> 0:23:05.359 the research and planning stage, our Kid two hundred would 0:23:05.359 --> 0:23:10.200 be the next the next generation, and uh these would 0:23:10.240 --> 0:23:15.199 be equipped with additional stuff on it to help the 0:23:15.520 --> 0:23:19.880 telescope maintain a higher orbit. So the one series would 0:23:19.880 --> 0:23:22.280 be in a low Earth orbit, so essentially falling towards 0:23:22.320 --> 0:23:25.560 the Earth all the time. The two hundred would be 0:23:25.560 --> 0:23:28.359 in a higher orbit and would be equipped to track 0:23:28.400 --> 0:23:33.080 asteroids and also have proportional propulsion systems built into the 0:23:33.160 --> 0:23:37.720 telescope itself so that uh you could change their orientation 0:23:37.720 --> 0:23:42.240 and orbit path from the ground. So you might think, um, 0:23:42.520 --> 0:23:45.000 I we spotted this one asteroid, but we're not in 0:23:45.000 --> 0:23:47.480 an ideal position in order to really hone in on it. 0:23:47.520 --> 0:23:50.879 So we're going to move the telescope so that we 0:23:50.920 --> 0:23:53.840