Everyone around here is still basking in the excitement of our asteroid mining workshop,
which brought together some of the most talented experts.
The goal was zen-simplistic. To bring together experts from mining, asteroids, engineering, business and policy in order to explore the challenges and the possible paths to mining materials from asteroids and maybe the moon.
We were lead by Dr. John Lewis, author of more books than I have fingers. His knowledge of asteroids is poetic, he can recite attributes of each asteroid like a real estate agent depicting an exotic vacation property in Italy. This asteroid has a certain gravity field, this one has platinum, this is why the moon has Helium 3 from the solar winds, but the meteorites.
Supporting Lewis in the technical arena was a diverse group including Brad Blair and Ed McCullough. Mike Duke was there to promote lunar mining and the arguments were passionate. Representing the legal and the business were Jim Dunstan and Larry Austin.
Other voices included Bob Twiggs, who brought a perspective of both education and engineering, and Neville Marzwell whose lead a number of fascinating technical projects.
All told there were some 18 of us, lead by Kris Kimel, who pushed us on to really, really consider what it will take to launch a commercial space mining venture.
We did as Kimel asked, much to our own surprise and delight.
And Andy Mead wrote a nice piece in the Lexington Herald-Leader.
Jeffrey
Image: Dawn Mission Page. Credit: McREL
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