Asteroid-mining company reveals new telescope, says ‘water is the gateway drug of space’

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A lot has happened since Bellevue-based Planetary Resources announced its plans to mine near-earth asteroids just one year ago. To celebrate its one-year anniversary, the company just held a half-hour live stream today to discuss the past 365 days and talk about plans for the future. “It’s really just been epic,” President and Chief Asteroid Miner… Read More…

Innovation of the Year? Vote here in the GeekWire Awards

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It’s time to vote in one of the most hotly contested categories in the GeekWire Awards: Innovation of the Year. Our five finalists are below, as selected by our panel of judges from your nominations. These homegrown Pacific Northwest technologies include an innovative application of social media, an ambitious commercial space venture, a novel input technology for iPhone… Read More…

Washington teen wins NASA “Why Space Matters to the Future” video contest

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There’s just something about Washington teenagers and their ability to talk about space exploration creatively. The Coalition for Space Exploration and NASA just announced the winners of their “Why Space Matters to the Future” national video contest and two Washington teens won first and second place. The contest asked three questions: How has space affected,… Read More…

Planetary Resources pulls in cash from nation’s largest engineering firm to help mine asteroids

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Planetary Resources, the asteroid-mining company backed by some of the biggest names in technology and aerospace, just announced a big investment and new partnership with one of the world’s leading engineering companies. Bechtel Corporation, the largest construction and engineering company in the U.S. with 53,000 employees across 50 countries, has joined Planetary’s core group of… Read More…

Planetary Resources founder: ‘Humans will migrate off Earth in the next 30 years’

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Can you imagine packing your belongings and hopping on a spaceship to go live on another planet for the rest of your life? Eric Anderson, co-founder of Bellevue-based asteroid mining company Planetary Resources, certainly can. Anderson gave a great talk at this week’s Hacker News Meetup, a monthly get-together of geeks who like reading Hacker News. The… Read More…

Deep Space Industries entering asteroid-mining world, creates competition for Planetary Resources

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Planetary Resources, the Bellevue-based asteroid-mining company backed by some of the biggest names in technology and aerospace, now has some more competition. A new Virginia-based space company called Deep Space Industries announced today that by 2015, it will be sending a 55-pound “FireFly” spacecraft into the sky in search of asteroids near earth. The company vows… Read More…

Planetary Resources shows ‘daringly small’ asteroid-hunting spacecraft

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Planetary Resources, the asteroid-mining company backed by some of the biggest names in technology and aerospace, is out with a new behind-the-scenes video showing some of the latest prototypes of the spacecraft that it plans to use to hunt for asteroids. Chris Lewicki, the Bellevue-based company’s president and chief asteroid miner, cites a weight of… Read More…

Newsmakers 2012: Asteroid miner Chris Lewicki points Planetary Resources to a new industry in space

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They plan to send robots into space to mine asteroids — opening up a new frontier for natural resources and creating a trillion-dollar industry in the process. Planetary Resources’ mission would sound crazy if it wasn’t for the people behind it — led by “chief asteroid miner” Chris Lewicki as president and chief engineer. A… Read More…

Asteroid miners may launch their own Kickstarter project

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Planetary Resources, the Bellevue-based company that plans to launch robotic spacecraft to mine near-Earth asteroids, doesn’t need extra money, backed by investors including Google’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, and Ross Perot Jr. But the company is considering a Kickstarter campaign to get the public more involved in its effort — offering donors benefits including the… Read More…

SpaceX and beyond: Latest from the new space race

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The docking of SpaceX’s Dragon capsule with the International Space Station is a landmark for the private space industry, marking the first time a commercial spacecraft has flown a mission to the International Space Station, to deliver supplies. SpaceX is one of many companies developing commercial space technologies and planning to launch their own spacecraft… Read More…