"If you look at natural resources in outer space, the nearest step is to go to a nearby asteroid from the Earth," says co-founder and leader of Planetary Resources, Eric Anderson, as quoted by SPACE. Anderson said these asteroids are very valuable and so easy to achieve.
Planetary Resources refer to water and various types of metals such as ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, or platinum as the two power sources to be explored in the asteroid.
"Platinum group metals are metals that are needed and more easily obtained in the asteroid with a platinum content of abundant than on Earth," says Anderson.
The company estimates that a space rock with a width of 500 meters (1,650 feet) containing platinum group metals is equivalent to the amount of platinum ever excavated in human history.
Outer space activities of the mining plan was backed by filmmaker James Cameron as an adviser and co-founder of Google, Larry Page, as an investor.
Planetary Resources does not mention the certainty of the execution time of the mining activities of outer space, but Anderson said the company takes several years for the period of preparation.
"During that time, we will determine the number of objects the first mine to be explored and what space missions will be used," said Anderson.
Planetary Resources has designed a low-cost space telescope but with adequate skills that will orbit near the Earth in 18 to 24 months.
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