Back in the 1970’s Jerry Pournelle wrote about a future where Billionaires funded space programs to escape the ever creeping oppression of Earth governments. It looks like some people are looking for a back door out. We may need it.
According to the KISS study, the cost for a future mission to identify and return a 500 ton asteroid to low earth orbit is ~$2.6 billion USD, ignoring the costs to develop the infrastructure necessary to process the materials in the asteroid (“Asteroid usage”, 2012). However, Planetary Resources estimates that a single 30 meter long platinum-rich asteroid could contain $25 to $50 billion USD worth of platinum at today’s prices (Klotz, 2012). Clearly, once the proper infrastructure is in place, there is potential for significant profit. Currently, research into the feasibility of human and robotic missions to asteroids is being conducted by both governmental organizations (JAXA, NASA) and private companies (Planetary Resources). __ MIT on Asteroids
Cislunar Econosphere of Ken Murphy
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2027/1
It Takes a Billionaire’s Bankroll
Building, launching, and maintaining systems for outer space is not cheap. But the prospects for multiplying one’s investment beyond stratospheric levels is a…
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The Arts Mechanical 
“However, Planetary Resources estimates that a single 30 meter long platinum-rich asteroid could contain $25 to $50 billion USD worth of platinum at today’s prices (Klotz, 2012).”
Clearly the economic law of ‘Supply and Demand’ is a mystery to many.
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Exactly what I thought.. like “$25-50 billion worth” of new supply wouldn’t immediately crater the value of platinum. Everybody was getting rich from fracking, for a very short time..
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William, the number of people getting rich, and how soon, is not what is at issue. The issue is the amount of money controlled by people able and willing to invest in an industry. That start up investment amount for asteroid mining is not all that large, compared to the numbers for transcontinental pipelines and other major infrastructure. It is not that much compared to the fortunes of some of the billionaires interested. The “Law of Supply and Demand” is true and simple, but does not include how much of a resource can be brought to market in any given time frame, just because it has been brought into orbit. An unrefined lump of an asteroid sitting in orbit at EM-L1 is no more “in the market” than yet another lump of the Sudbury asteroid that gets discovered, sitting underground in Canada, expanding Platinum group metals resources down here.
Lastly, note that one of the major reasons the fracking industry’s most marginal ventures are not making money is that Saudi Arabia is attempting to demonstrate their economic clout to potential investors, by driving down the price of oil. Doing this to the PGM markets is clearly a harder task for *any* single actor. This becomes an even harder economic lever to turn when you remember, as so much of the journalistic community forgets once Platinum is mentioned, that the bread and butter of asteroid mining is in water, and other volatile substances, sold in Space to those who will use it there. PGMs will be used there first, (rocket nozzles, reactor vessels, and robot anti-corrosion coatings, etc.) and only as the market *there* can no longer absorb it all will it be brought back here to be offered for sale in the “legacy” markets of Earth.
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I think I’m going to have to pull all my references on this stuff and right a detailed analysis post with numbers. Unfortunately, it’s going to take a lot of time and effort to put the stuff that’s not on the internet on or find the articles I need. There was a lot of stuff done about this in the space advocacy groups and aerospace, but it’s all been out of print before the internet.
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