Scientists May Start Mining Asteroids

There's gold in them asteroids!

It sounds like a plot to a very bad sci-fi movie, but reports say it's true.

The idea is to use commercially built robotic ships to squeeze rocket fuel and valuable minerals out of the rocks that routinely whizz by Earth. One of the company founders predicts they could have their version of an outer space-based gas station up and running by 2020.

Scientists say the plan daring, difficult – and very pricey. They do not see how it could be cost-effective, even with platinum and gold worth nearly $1,600 an ounce. An forthcoming NASA mission to return just 2 ounces (60 grams) of an asteroid to Earth will cost about $1 billion.

Investors and advisers to the new company include Google CEO Larry Page and Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt and explorer and Cameron, the man behind the blockbusters "Titanic" and "Avatar."

The idea that asteroids could be mined for resources has been around for years. Asteroids are the leftovers of a failed attempt to form a planet billions of years ago. Most of the remnants became the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, but some pieces were pushed out to roam the solar system.

NASA also has had an interest in asteroids.

Because asteroids don't have any substantial gravity, targeting them costs less fuel and money than going to the moon,and there are probably 1,500 asteroids that pass near Earth.  It all sounds good on paper.

Even though the start-up costs are "astronomical", Richard Binzel, professor of planetary science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said the effort "may be many decades ahead of its time. But you have to start somewhere."