Where would science fiction be without space mining?
From Ellen Ripley in ¡°Alien¡± and Dave Lister in ¡°Red Dwarf,¡± to Sam Bell in ¡°Moon¡± and ¡°The Expanse¡¯s¡± Naomi Nagata, the grittier end of interstellar drama would be bereft if it weren¡¯t for overalled engineers and their mineral-processing operations.
It¡¯s such an alluring vision that real money has been put toward its realization. Alphabet Inc.¡¯s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, and Hollywood filmmaker James Cameron (director of the ¡°Alien¡± sequel ¡°Aliens¡°) all invested in Planetary Resources Inc., which raised venture finance with its mission of mining high-value minerals from asteroids and refining them into metal foams that could be shot back down to Earth. Deep Space Industries Inc., a rival startup, also had bold plans to extract resources from space. Though both companies have now been bought out and their projects put into mothballs, the idea of a space mining industry has refused to die.
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