My August PopMech cover story: asteroid mining
When I got the call from a new company called Planetary Resources about their mad scheme to mine asteroids, I pitched it immediately to my editors at Popular Mechanics. The rapid-fire response: “Hell yes!”
I banged out a Web story and a short Tech Watch piece that was slammed into the very next issue of the magazine. The next issue after that had my feature story on the cover. Dunno what had to be bumped to make that happen, but that’s one of the things I like about Popular Mechanics. They move fast on breaking news. As fast as a monthly magazine can, anyway. It make for some tight deadlines, but it’s worth it.
The cover story and an ancillary piece on asteroid mining tech are on online now on popularmechanics.com.
And while you’re at it, check out this video from Planetary Resources profiling some of their engineers and their work on the Curiosity Mars rover.
These guys aren’t fooling around. Billionaire backing and the very best talent in the world make this, the most outrageous private space venture yet, actually credible.
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Bang! Slam! Michael – Great to learn you hauled asteroid to get into Popular Mechanics with an article on mining. The article intrigues my science fiction mind, plus real application of current uses of space exploration.
Harvesting platinum or water from an asteroid soft enough to crumble in your fingers offers a wonderful challenge to the bright engineers in the clip. It shows the pay off is easily worth the huge effort needed to mine a shooting star.
Get James Cameron to invest, and continue to engage lay people like me (though I feel qualified as a curiosity rover) and humanity will be mining safely the bounty in Space. Thanks Michael!