More details emerged today about Planetary Resources, and the Bellevue-based startup’s plans are sounding more and more like something out of a science fiction novel.
One idea the company is considering: Bringing an asteroid into orbit near Earth to allow robots to mine it for precious metals, according to a New York Times article today that quotes Eric Anderson, one of the company’s co-founders.
Anderson calls near-Earth asteroids “the stepping stones to the rest of the solar system.”
The company plans to start by launching a telescope into space to find nearby asteroids, according to the Times article, which notes that large-scale mining could still be decades away.
As crazy as the whole thing sounds, it’s hard to dismiss out of hand, given the people behind it.
The company’s president and chief engineer is Chris Lewicki, the former flight director for NASA’s Mars Rover missions. Anderson is the co-founder of space tourism startup Space Adventures. Also involved with the company is Peter Diamandis, best known as the creator of the X Prize Foundation.
If that wasn’t enough, the startup is backed by investors and advisers including Google’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, along with filmmaker James Cameron.
According to the NYT piece, the company has about 25 engineers and is already making money through development contracts for the technologies involved in the project.
Planetary Resources will officially unveil its plans Tuesday at Seattle’s Museum of Flight, and GeekWire will be there. Check back for coverage in the morning.
An invite for the event said the company “will overlay two critical sectors — space exploration and natural resources — to add trillions of dollars to the global GDP.”
