We just completed the 6th annual NASA Robotics Mining Competition, and like always it was awesome! This year, 46 universities from around the United States brought robots to mine the simulated Martian soil and win the coveted Joe Kosmo Award. Every year it has been an amazing success. We have learned valuable lessons that […]
Asteroid Retrieval It has been proposed that NASA go out, grab an asteroid, and bring the asteroid to Earth. It would be placed into high lunar orbit (not directly in Earth orbit). Once there, astronauts can go out to visit it. This would demonstrate key technologies like the solar electric propulsion and the ability to […]
We are living in an awesome generation, the first one that will mine space! Some companies want to mine the Moon. Others want to mine asteroids. Here’s a brief survey of the Who and the Where. At the most recent count, I found eight companies with a focus on space mining. They are at various […]
People sometimes ask me if space industry is “for real”. They want to know if you really can make a profit launching rockets into space, doing exotic activities like deep mining on Mars, bringing back metal ore to Earth, refining it, and selling it on the Earth’s metal markets at a profit. How can that […]
What is the one most important thing that makes Earth special for life? You are thinking water, and that’s right…but the funny thing is that Earth has hardly any water at all (by solar system standards). Water Wars If the Earth were an apple, you could dip the apple into a bucket of water, pull […]
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