SAN FRANCISCO (Wired) - When he looks at photos sent back to
Earth from NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous spacecraft, Jim
Benson sees much more than rocks in space. He sees a gold mine.
"There are more than 400 near-earth asteroids," Benson, 52,
points out, "with gold and platinum deposits up to 100 times the
concentrations of the ores mined on Earth."
Since terrestrial mining companies often spend $50 million a
year for prospecting and $2 billion to establish new mines in
remote areas, Benson thinks space mining may be economically
feasible.
That's why he's looking for $50 million to build a Near Earth
Asteroid Prospector, to be launched in 2000 or before. "After
landing, we'll stake any mining and patent claims, then declare
ownership of the asset," he says.
Bringing the mother lode back to Mother Earth will be the
tricky part, so, in the near term, Benson hopes to extract ice from
asteroids and sell it to manned space stations such as Mir. Since
it costs $20,000 per pound to lift supplies into orbit, he figures
it's a seller's market.
A former software executive, Benson has assembled groups from
the University of California at San Diego, the state of New Mexico,
and the University of Texas at Austin to design his spacecraft, and
he's started recruiting engineering talent from Hughes and General
Dynamics to help him build it.
One potential snag remains: The 1979 United Nations Moon
Treaty states that space resources are owned by humanity and must
be shared equally.
The US Congress never signed off on the treaty, however, so
Benson prefers to cite the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which
Congress ratified. The 1967 document prohibits nations from owning
extraterrestrial real estate -- but does not say anything about
private firms.
Benson is convinced that the possibilities are enormous.
"We're at the dawn of a new era in space," he says. "I'm
determined to be on the leading edge of it."