Seattle, Wash. – Planetary Resources PR – April 24, 2012  – Planetary Resources, Inc. announced today its plan to mine Near-Earth Asteroids (NEAs) for raw materials, ranging from water to precious metals. Through the development of cost-effective exploration technologies, the company is poised to initiate prospecting missions targeting resource-rich asteroids that are easily accessible.

Resource extraction from asteroids will deliver multiple benefits to humanity and grow to be valued at tens of billions of dollars annually. The effort will tap into the high concentration of precious metals found on asteroids and provide a sustainable supply to the ever-growing population on Earth.

A single 500-meter platinum-rich asteroid contains the equivalent of all the Platinum Group Metals mined in history.

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NASA PR — A critical element of NASA’s support to our CCDev2 partners is the exchange of knowledge and experiences NASA has gained over our 50-year history of human spaceflight. One the way we transfer knowledge and experiences is though the distribution of current and historical technical products.

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Illustration of an asteroid retrieval spacecraft in the process of capturing a 7-m, 500-ton asteroid. (Image Credit: Rick Sternbach / KISS)

Not waiting for Tuesday’s press conference, Planetary Resources officials have outlined their plans for mining asteroids to The New York Times:

The president and chief engineer is Christopher A. Lewicki, who previously worked as a manager on Mars missions at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Based in Bellevue, Wash., the company employs about 25 engineers and has development contracts for technologies like laser communications that it believes it will need for prospecting and mining missions.

The plan is to launch the first spacecraft — a small telescope to find small nearby asteroids — within the next two years. Next, the company would send out a batch of small explorers to visit some of them. Actual mining would begin after that, first targeting water and then platinum.

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The original launch date had been April 30. SpaceX just released the following update: After reviewing our recent progress, it was clear that we needed more time to finish hardware-in-the-loop testing and properly review and follow up on all data. While it is still possible that we could launch on May 3rd, it would be wise to add a few more days of margin in case things take longer than […]

Moon Express lander test vehicle. (Credit: Moon Express)

Mountain View, CA (ME PR) – Moon Express, a Google Lunar X PRIZE contender, announced today that it has successfully delivered a mission design package to NASA under its Innovative Lunar Demonstration Data (ILDD) Program, providing NASA continuing data on the development of the company’s commercial lunar missions and plans to mine the Moon for precious planetary resources. The newest task order in the $10M ILDD contract called for Moon Express to provide NASA with data about the company’s progress through a Preliminary Design Checkpoint Technical Package that documents details of mission operations, spacecraft development, payload accommodations and Planetary Protection Plans.
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LAS CRUCES, NM (NMSA PR) – The New Mexico Spaceport Authority (NMSA) has announced two contract awards to companies located in the State of New Mexico. The contracts are for Spaceport General Services and the Spaceport Operations Center (SOC) Fit Out Design.

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This week on The Space Show with David Livingston…. 1. Monday, April 23, 2012 2-3:30 PM PDT (5-6:30 PM EDT, 4-5:30 PM CDT): TOM OLSON is back with us to discuss the upcoming business plan competition for the New Space Conference this summer. New and much larger cash prizes are being offered this year. Learn how you can enter, compete, and possibly win! 2. Tuesday, April 24, 2012, 7-8:30 PM […]

Sparks, NV (SNC PR)– Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) welcomes the United Launch Alliance’s (ULA) new Human Launch Services organization, which will support the company’s efforts to human rate the Atlas V launch vehicle.  This office will now serve as an interface between SNC’s Dream Chaser^® orbital crew vehicle team and ULA’s Atlas V launch vehicle team.  ULA and SNC have been working together for seven years on development of the Dream Chaser^®Space System (DCSS).  The DCSS is a U.S. commercial space transportation system funded under NASA’s Commercial Crew Development Program that is capable of carrying crew and cargo to low Earth orbit, including the International Space Station.

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NASA PR — Steady progress continues for industry partners in maturing their commercial crew transportation systems. Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corporation, and Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK) completed milestones over the past two months while SpaceX, Blue Origin, United Launch Alliance (ULA) and Excalibur Almaz Incorporated prepared for future milestones to get them closer to fielding operational crew transportation systems. The recently completed milestones bring the total number of completed milestones to 38 of the 62 planned for Commercial Crew Development Round 2 (CCDev2) activities.

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