space-miners to crush asteroids and 3d print satellites

Lisa Gonzalez and Paul MarksThe Dragonfly bring the samples back to Earth (Image: DSI)
Once a quirky idea, commercial asteroid exploration has become a competition with the establishment of the second company focused on nearby mining
Earth space rock
The new company plans to investigate asteroids, mine asteroid resources, and use 3D printers to make products from raw materials in space.
Aerospace industry (DSI)
On Tuesday, Virginia McLean held a press conference at the Santa Monica Flight Museum in California.
\"Our business plan is to get into this field at the beginning of this field, starting today,\" said founder and chairman Rick Tumlinson . \".
To illustrate the company\'s ambitions, he invited the 19 th century pioneers, Merriwether Lewis and William Clark, who led America\'s first expedition across the continent to the Pacific.
\"We want to build on the legacy of Lewis and Clark of the government space program to open up for settlers and shopkeepers.
\"The announcement came after the first commercial plan to mine precious metals and other resource asteroids announced by Bellevue Planetary Resources in Washington on last April.
The asteroid is filled with potentially valuable materials, including nickel, and water and gas that can be used to make fuel for future space missions.
But much of their value comes from the fact that they are already in space.
\"The value of a ton of typical asteroid rocks & dollars;
It is 1 million kilometers on track, but only US dollars;
4000 on Earth, \"said Mark Soter, an Australian mining consultant and a member of the DSI board of directors.
\"If we can get it in the space we want to use it, it can be very valuable material.
\"The DSI wants to eventually help build, build and operate satellites in orbit without the need to bring those components back to Earth.
As a first step, DSI plans to launch three laptops
A large satellite called Firefly observed nearby in 2015.
Determine which asteroids are the best targets for mining.
In 2016, it plans to launch a DragonFly spacecraft to bring samples of weight between 23 and 45 kilograms back to Earth.
Then in 2020, the company wanted to start harvesting asteroids for useful goods, especially raw materials for fuel.
The DSI anticipates that its first customer is the owner of the communication satellite that requires the propellant to remain in the designated orbit.
DSI is also developing a space.
Based on the \"weightless casting\" of the 3D printer, the asteroid is ground, useful fragments are separated, and they are integrated into the finished product.
The company also hopes to build an orbital platform that can launch high beams.
Provide fast internet and cheap solar energy to anywhere on Earth.
The company has not announced how much money they already have and who their initial investors are.
\"One reason for holding a press conference is that it can be found by more investors,\" said dsi ceo David Gan . \".
The main competitors are well known for their strong financial resources.
Google\'s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, as well as former Microsoft chief architect Charles Simonyi, all support Planetary Resources.
They have similar tasks.
Launch a space telescope to discover asteroids containing precious metals and to mine the best candidate planets.
On Monday, Planet Resources took a step toward that goal by launching a prototype of an asteroid --
Hunting Telescope, Arkyd 100.
\"Competition is usually good,\" says Alan Stern. \"It also validates the market . \" Alan Stern, a former NASA scientist, is now working with several companies focused on moon tourism and mining.
But Tim Spa, director of the Center for asteroid and comet observation at Cambridge, Massachusetts, still believes that those who want to be miners underestimate the difficulty of the mission.
\"I\'m still skeptical, but I hope it\'s wrong,\" he told the New Scientist . \".