美公司擬派機器人太空開礦卡梅隆加入

中國日報網 2012-04-26 15:41

Eric Anderson, co-founder and co-chairman of Planetary Resources, speaks at a news conference at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington April 24, 2012.(Agencies)

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Google Inc executives Larry Page and Eric Schmidt and filmmaker James Cameron are among those bankrolling a venture to survey and eventually extract precious metals and rare minerals from asteroids that orbit near Earth, the company said on Tuesday.

Planetary Resources, based in Bellevue, Washington, initially will focus on developing and selling extremely low-cost robotic spacecraft for surveying missions.

A demonstration mission in orbit around Earth is expected to be launched within two years, said company co-founders Peter Diamandis and Eric Anderson.

Planetary Resources' aim is to open deep-space exploration to private industry, much like the $10 million Ansari X Prize competition, which Diamandis created.

Planetary Resources' first customers are likely to be science agencies, such as NASA, as well as private research institutes.

Within five to 10 years, however, the company expects to progress from selling observation platforms in orbit around Earth to prospecting services. It plans to tap some of the thousands of asteroids that pass relatively close to Earth and extract their raw materials.

Not all missions would return precious metals and minerals to Earth. In addition to mining for platinum and other precious metals, the company plans to tap asteroids' water to supply orbiting fuel depots, which could be used by NASA and others for robotic and human space missions.

"We have a long view. We're not expecting this company to be an overnight financial home run. This is going to take time," Anderson said.

Planetary Resources declined to discuss specifics about how and when asteroid mining would begin. A 30-meter long (98-foot) asteroid can hold as much as $25 billion to $50 billion worth of platinum at today's prices, Diamandis said.

The company's first step is to develop technologies to cut the cost of deep-space robotic probes to one-tenth to one-hundredth the cost of current space missions, which run hundreds of millions of dollars, Diamandis said.

(Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Agencies)

行星資源集團本周二公布了一項到近地小行星進行勘探，并最終開采貴重金屬和稀有礦產的計劃。谷歌公司高管拉里?佩奇和埃里克?施密特、以及著名導演詹姆斯-卡梅隆等人都加入了這項風險投資。

這家公司的總部位于華盛頓貝爾維尤，最初將著眼于研發并出售價格極其低廉的機器人宇宙飛船，用于勘探調查任務。

該公司聯合創始人彼得-迪曼蒂斯和埃里克-安德森說，行星資源集團預計兩年內在近地軌道開展首次示范任務。

該公司的目標是在私人企業中開展外層空間勘測業務，就如同迪曼蒂斯發起的獎金高達一千萬美元的安薩里X-Prize大獎賽。

該公司的首位客戶很可能是科學機構，比如美國宇航局，以及私人研究機構。

但該公司計劃在10年內將業務從出售近地軌道觀測平臺發展到探礦服務，并計劃開發數萬顆近地小行星中的一部分，開采其中的稀有礦藏。

并非所有的任務都會帶貴重金屬和礦產回地球。除了開采白金和其它貴重金屬外，該公司還計劃開采小行星中的水資源，來供應軌道燃料補給站，美國宇航局和其它機構都可以利用這些補給站進行機器人進行的和載人的航天任務。

安德森說：“我們目光長遠。我們并不期待公司能一夜暴富。這需要時間。”

該公司拒絕討論有關小行星采礦如何開展、以及何時開展等細節問題。迪曼蒂斯說，按如今的價格計算，一個直徑30米（98英寸）的小行星可能含有最多價值250億美元至500億美元的白金。

他還表示，該公司的第一步計劃是研發能夠削減外層機器人探測費用的技術，將費用削減至目前高達數億美元的航空任務成本的1/10至1/100。

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（中國日報網英語點津 Julie 編輯：陳丹妮）

Vocabulary:

bankroll: 提供資金，資助

prospecting: 探礦，勘探

depot: 補給站，倉庫

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