The Second Space Race: It’s On

Fans of Joss Whedon's cult TV sci-fi hit Firefly will be glad to know the show lives on — as the name for a new kind of one-way exploratory vehicle launching in 2015.

That's if the newest space startup, Deep Space Industries, gets the commercial sponsorship it is seeking. A scrappy collection of NASA veterans, entrepreneurs, aerospace and mining consultants, with as-yet unknown sources of funding, DSI seems to embody much of the spirit of Firefly.

Like the motley crew of the good ship Serenity, this asteroid mining company is talking a bigger game than it currently has.

Like the motley crew of the good ship Serenity, this asteroid mining company is talking a bigger game than it currently has. It's running an angle on the best intersteller plunder available, while trying not be outfoxed by its wealthier competitors. Shiny.

The company launched Tuesday as a direct competitor to Planetary Resources, which was up until now the only company on the planet seeking to mine those $20 trillion-dollar rocks flying around far above our heads.

Planetary Resources has an impressive roster of billionaires (such as Larry Page and Eric Schmidt) backing it, and some lofty plans. But DSI may have gone it one better in the budget and innovation departments.

It plans to send inexpensive CubeSats on one-way missions of up to six months. They will prospect for the richest asteroids up close, rather than send up space telescopes to scan them from afar, which is Planetary Resources' goal.

The new startup also says it has a patent on a space foundry, a 3-D printer that can use asteroid metals and minerals as its raw materials. "The MicroGravity Foundry is the first 3D printer that creates high-density, high-strength metal components even in zero gravity," DSI co-founder Stephen Covey said in a statement.

If you need a primer on near-Earth asteroids, or how easy much easier it is to grab one of these near-Earth rocks than to go to the Moon, read this story. Or check out DSI's fantastically overproduced CGI movie trailer of a promotional video:

The launch came just two days after Planetary Resources issued a rather more down-to-Earth vid, in which it boasted that it was under contract to NASA to produce its asteroid-finding space telescope, the Arkyd-100:

Competing companies. Competing business models. Trillion-dollar resource goals. And just like that, ladies and gentlemen, the second space race is on.

Moveable Forces, Irresistible Objects

The first space race, between the USSR and the USA, was primarily political. It was Cold War rivals flexing their exploratory muscles. The only reward was worldwide kudos and bragging rights to the Moon. This one will be primarily economic, and the potential rewards are incalculable.

Neither DSI nor Planetary Resources are the first companies to be founded around the goal of asteroid mining. But they are the first companies to compete for it.

That sound you heard is Adam Smith's invisible hand of the market reaching into Near Earth orbit.

That sound you heard is Adam Smith's invisible hand of the market reaching into Near Earth orbit.

Just as in the first space race, there's no guarantee either side will succeed. Space itself may present insurmountable challenges, not least of which (now as in the 1960s) is funding. But DSI's CubeSat-based proposal seems to do everything it can to get over the funding hurdle.

The whole idea of CubeSats is that they can hitch a ride on any space-bound rocket for a nominal fee; it's the province of university engineering departments the world over. Six nations successfully launched the new class of micro-satellites for the first time in 2003.

There have been dozens of similar launches since then, most recently in October. The first Kickstarter-funded Cubesat, ArduSat, is set to be launched this July. (The project asked for $35,000 in funding, and got more than $100,000.)

On Your Marks, Get Set, Mine

Planetary Resources has tentative plans to launch its first Arkyd in 2014. The pictures that produces should spur more interest and investment. If DSI launches the next year as planned, marking the first time a private company has sent a mission to an asteroid, that should goose interest still further — and both companies will find it easier to go on to their respective next stages, gathering samples from promising-looking rocks.

This is the most important way in which the second space race differs: if one of these companies wins in any way, they both do — as do more potential competitors.

A rising tide lifts all asteroid miners.

A rising tide lifts all asteroid miners.

"There are 2 to 3 million near-Earth asteroids," DSI CEO David Gump pointed out. "There's room for everyone to prosper." He estimated that each ton of asteroid minerals would be worth $1 million in orbit.

At that rate, it wouldn't take much for DSI to become wealthier than the wildest imaginings of the Serenity crew.

Intrigued? Let us know in the comments, and watch the whole Deep Space Industries press conference here:

Image courtesy Deep Space Industries