Yes, you read the title of this correctly. Something big might be about to happen in terms of manned (or possibly robotic) space exploration, outside the remit of NASA and other national, governmental space agencies. Big names like Google, James Cameron and the X-Prize Foundation might be getting into the space mining business!
It’s the kind of thing you’d expect to see as an April Fool’s prank, but we’re well into the month at this stage.
There’s no doubt that these alleged players combined would have some real financial clout, possibly rivalling any budget that NASA could bring to bear on a single high-profile mission.
Time will tell, but it’s an exciting announcement.
The company involved is called Planetary Resources and, as is mentioned in the clip below, there’s not much on the site at the moment, but there will be an official announcement on Tuesday, April 24th at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, WA. Expect to see more information about this venture on their website on announcement day!
With this and Virgin Galactic sending paying customers on suborbital flights next year, could we finally be seeing an end to the doldrums manned spaceflight has been in for the last 40 years!?
Filed under: Manned Space Flight
