Commercial Space Developments
 

Planetary Resources' First Spacecraft Successfully Deployed, Testing
Asteroid Prospecting Technology on Orbit:

"Planetary Resources, Inc., the asteroid mining company, announced today that its
Arkyd 3 Reflight (A3R) spacecraft deployed successfully from the International
Space Station's (ISS) Kibo airlock and has begun its 90-day mission. The
demonstration vehicle will validate several core technologies including the
avionics, control systems and software, which the company will incorporate into
future spacecraft that will venture into the Solar System and prospect for
resource-rich near-Earth asteroids."

See:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/07/pla...pacecraft.html


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Possible future target:

Asteroid worth £3 TRILLION in precious metals passed Earth on Sunday:

"The space rock has attracted the attention of asteroid mining company Planetary
Resources, because it is thought to have a 100 million ton core of platinum that
the company might one day want to exploit."

See:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...atch-live.html

Hopefully this leads to actual communities and other expansion into the solar system.

Congress says it's time to start mining the solar
system:

"Congress has approved a bill to regulate space commerce and – for the
first time – space mining."

See:

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Upd...e-solar-system

Can we cheer?

Sure! So, where can I sign to get my RIG and Plasma Cutter?

SpaceX Makes History: Successfully Launches, Lands
Falcon 9 Rocket:

"SpaceX successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket on Monday night, the
first from the private spaceflight company since its rocket exploded on
liftoff in June.

The first stage of the rocket, used to propel the payload to 100km (62
miles) or so until the second stage takes over, then successfully landed
on Earth again at a prepared landing zone. This is the first time SpaceX
has ever attempted to land a rocket on land, and the first successful
attempt to recover a rocket from an orbital flight. Previous attempts, all
unsuccessful, were attempted on floating landing pads."

See:

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovati...rocket-n483921

I woke up today to the news of Space X getting that rocket to land safely. This is truly the beginning of a space age! :D

Dynamic tag cannot be rendered. (PrintableThread)

Now that'll make space mining more viable, along with colonizing mars cause even if we do make a mistake on our tests, at least we can recover the rocket and don't have to spend millions building a new one, and instead just refuel for $ 200,000, analyze what went wrong, make corrections, and then try again.

Emerging Small-Satellite Launch Vehicles:

"An expanding market for cubesats and other small satellites is driving
development of low-cost launch vehicles."

See:

http://aviationweek.com/space/emergi...images-1389141


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Quite a few small launchers in development, I wonder how many will
make it?

Spiderfab, Expandable stations and Reusable rockets could
make affordable Bezos vision of millions working in orbit:

"Amazon.com and Blue Origin CEO Jeff Bezos envisions “millions” of
people living in orbit as his exploration company, Blue Origin, and
other commercial ventures develop spacecraft to make travel more
widely available.

Investment from wealthy entrepreneurs with a passion for space will
usher in a new era that makes leaving the Earth’s atmosphere
accessible to anyone, Bezos said Tuesday.

Earlier, he announced that Blue Origin will put $200 million into a new
rocket assembly facility and launch site in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

"Our ultimate vision is millions of people living and working in space,"
Bezos said during a rare, 30-minute interview in Florida with reporters
after the Blue Origin announcement.

"We have a long way to go.""

See:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2016/03/spi...tions-and.html

Space as part of the human equation is something I want. Part of who we are, where we are going. Not just something in the night sky that people sometimes throw things into.

When the International Space Station Goes Kaput
in 2024, What Comes Next?:

"Moving day is fast approaching. Sometime in 2023 or 2024, the
Russians have said they will abandon the International Space Station.
Assuming they carry through on this plan, detaching their modules from
ISS and using them to build an all-Russian station, the station could soon
become uninhabitable.

That's then, however. For now, the International Space Station is still
growing -- thanks to Bigelow Aerospace."


"Now, Bigelow's BEAM is just a prototype, and it remains to be proved
that an "inflatable" space station will stand up to the hardships of
space as well as a "real" space station. But that's why BEAM is up
there. NASA will evaluate BEAM's performance over the next two years
to see if BEAM offers a more economical way to build real estate in
space.

And longer term, if all goes well, BEAM could provide the blueprint for
a whole new way of building space stations, permitting America, and
the companies that conduct experiments aboard the International
Space Station today, to continue operating in space long after the
Russians have departed."

See:

http://www.fool.com/investing/genera...source=yahoo-2

Multiple stations with multiple potential purposes. Lets get moving on going up as part of the economy, rather than just a few government stations.

In addition to the American commercial efforts, and the Russian program,
the Chinese are having a go at it too:

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ch...-idUSKCN0XI07Y

Quote:

"China will launch a "core module" for its first space station some time
around 2018, a senior official told the state-run Xinhua news agency
on Thursday, part of a plan to have a permanent manned space station
in service around 2022."

Time to build space colonies... and humanoid robots.

Deep Space Industries announces Prospector-1- First
Commercial Interplanetary Mining Mission with target
date by 2020:

"Deep Space Industries announced its plans to fly the world’s first
commercial interplanetary mining mission. Prospector-1™ will fly to and
rendezvous with a near-Earth asteroid, and investigate the object to
determine its value as a source of space resources.

This mission is an important step in the company’s overall plans to
harvest and supply in-space resources to support the growing space
economy."

See:

http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/08...announces.html

The Solar System is big enough to hold the space plans of Elon
Musk and Jeff Bezos which combined look like Babylon 5:

"Jeff Bezos talks about the need for humanity to go to space and how his company
Blue Origin will accomplish this goal. He also discusses the unique culture and motto of
Blue Origin. This talk was given at the 2016 Pathfinder Awards at Seattle's Museum of
Flight. Bezos is interviewed by Steve Taylor, chief pilot for Boeing Flight Services

Blue Origin has launched a reusable rocket ship called New Shepard on uncrewed
suborbital test flights. But Bezos has much bigger ambitions, for an orbital launch
system called New Glenn and a super-rocket called New Armstrong.

During last weekend’s Pathfinder Awards banquet at Seattle’s Museum of Flight, Bezos
referred to his long-term goal of having millions of people living and working in space,
as well as his enabling goal of creating the “heavy lifting infrastructure” to make that
happen.

In Bezos’ view, dramatically reducing the cost of access to space is a key step toward
those goals.

“Then we get to see Gerard O’Neill’s ideas start to come to life, and many of the other
ideas from science fiction,” Bezos said. “The dreamers come first. It’s always the
science-fiction guys: They think of everything first, and then the builders come along
and they make it happen. But it takes time.”"

See:

http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/10...h-to-hold.html

Moon Express targets trips to the moon at $10,000 per
person by 2026 and will use rocket with 3D printed parts:

"In mid-2016, the U.S. Government authorized Moon Express to travel beyond Earth’s
orbit and land on the Moon in 2017. This breakthrough U.S. policy decision provides
authorization to Moon Express for a maiden flight of its robotic spacecraft onto the
Moon’s surface, beginning a new era of ongoing commercial lunar exploration and
discovery, unlocking the immense potential of the Moon’s valuable resources. Moon
Express received the green light for pursuing its 2017 lunar mission following in depth
consultations with the FAA, the White House, the State Department, NASA and other
federal agencies.

With a launch date goal for 2017, Moon Express plans to send a rover to the moon’s
surface to begin surveying its surface for the best locations for further operations to
mine iron ore, water, rare Earth minerals, metals, carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and
helium-3. Jain believes that because the challenges presented by moon exploration are
similar to those presented by Mars – challenges such as high radiation and vast
temperature differences – SpaceX and Moon Express have plenty of reasons to work
together."

See:

http://www.nextbigfuture.com/2016/12...o-moon-at.html

That's not very long for the first part.