Earth-buzzing Asteroid Would Be Worth $195B If We Could Catch It 265
coondoggie writes "The asteroid NASA says is about the half the size of a football field that will blow past Earth on Feb 15 could be worth up to $195 billion in metals and propellant. That's what the scientists at Deep Space Industries, a company that wants to mine these flashing hunks of space materials, thinks the asteroid known as 2012 DA14 is worth — if they could catch it."
Re:Who owns the asteroid? (Score:5, Informative)
Yes it's ratified, and how is the number of spaceships relevant to the question of mining rights?
Re:Who owns the asteroid? (Score:5, Informative)
The whole point of these materials being valuable is due to the fact that launching said material into space is expensive, so the materials wouldn't be taken back to earth, they'd be used in space.
Re:Supply & demand (Score:5, Informative)
If we could stick into the Earth-Moon L4/L5 points it could sit there for a few million years without any sci-fi hardware. The difficulty is getting it there in the first place.
I think the reason there isn't any demand for orbital construction is because there isn't enough materials. If we could get that sorted, the construction opportunities will follow.