Time-tested wisdom says the sky’s the limit. However, a group of billionaires are looking to change that as they launch the first ever venture to mine asteroids, in space. For real. Click through for the details.

Hollywood director James Cameron, who completed a record dive to the bottom of the Mariana Trench only weeks ago, billionaire Google founders Eric Schmidt and Larry Page, and a handful of Ph.D holders, NASA scientists and billionaires are all behind a new enterprise which looks to capitalise on asteroids. Their venture, Planetary Resources Inc., will “overlay two critical sectors – space exploration and natural resources – to add trillions of dollars to the global GDP” and “help ensure humanity’s prosperity.” All this, by mining on asteroids.

I know what you’re all thinking, Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Armageddon. Thing is, you’re not far off. Minus the Aerosmith and the whole blowing-up-the-asteroid bit, it’s almost exactly what Planetary Resources Inc. is looking to do.

Studies suggest that gold and other metals in the earth’s crust originated from asteroids that collided with the planet during its early life.

Planetary Resources Inc. is hoping to take advantage of this by launching manned, or unmanned, missions to mine on such asteroids. This isn’t the first time the idea has been discussed before either, the biggest problem has always been the cost.

Earlier this month, a study by NASA scientists concluded that, for a cost of $2.6 billion, humans could use robotic spacecraft to capture a 500-ton asteroid seven meters in diameter and bring it into orbit around the moon so that it could be explored and mined. The spacecraft, using a 40-kilowatt solar-electric propulsion system, would have a flight time of between six and 10 years, and humans could accomplish this task by around 2025.

That would only cover getting the asteroid closer to Earth, not mining or getting materials back to the surface of planet, a feat which itself carries dauntingly high costs. Still, it is plausible.

The company was founded by Peter H. Diamandis and Eric Anderson, both avid advocates of commercial space exploration and former NASA officials. In an interview with Forbes earlier this year Diamandis said, “Since my childhood I’ve wanted to do one thing, be an asteroid miner. So stay tuned on that one.”

Tomorrow, the company will formally unveil its plans at an event in Seattle, and potentially sow the seeds the next big ‘rush’.

[Source: The Telegraph, WSJ]