How Billionaire Asteroid Miners Make Money -- Without Mining Asteroids

Re:How Billionaire Asteroid Miners Make Money -- Without Min... by brianl on Monday April 30, 2012 @01:42AM (#3908173)

I can't really see a business case where these guys would make a profit before their billionaire club gets bored. I don't think images from hundreds of little cameras are going to be equal the image from the Hubble or its replacement, the Webb. I hope these guys won't be another Iridium.

Maybe the military is funding them: http://www.darpa.mil/Our_Work/TTO/Programs/Space_Enabled_Eff...

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Re:How Billionaire Asteroid Miners Make Money -- Without Min... by pavel_lishin on Monday April 30, 2012 @01:38PM (#3910321)

> I don't think images from hundreds of little cameras are going to be equal the image from the Hubble or its replacement, the Webb.

My expertise in this field extends to reading several Wikipedia pages and sci-fi novels, but:

1. Wouldn't that depend on what they're trying to look at? Can the Hubble even focus on anything closer than Jupiter?

2. Wouldn't they be able to use interferometry to effectively surpass any single-lens telescope?

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Re:How Billionaire Asteroid Miners Make Money -- Without Min... by maaku on Monday April 30, 2012 @02:17AM (#3908245)

They're already profitable.

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