'Fireflies' to scope out space rocks for mining

Space, it has been said, is big. Really big.

But big enough for two companies that want to mine near-Earth asteroids?

A venture announced Tuesday in California hopes so.

Deep Space Industries says it wants to start sending miniature scout probes, dubbed "Fireflies," on one-way missions to near-Earth asteroids as soon as 2015. Larger probes, "Dragonflies," that will bring back 50- to 100-pound samples from prospective targets could be on their way by 2016, company CEO David Gump told reporters.

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Post by: CNN's Matt Smith
Filed under: In Space

soundoff (4 Responses)

davonskevort

space mining and sending that stuff to earth is a bad idea... the more mass we add to earth the heavyer gravity will get... next thing you know we will be living on a black hole... its too dangerous.. space mines are for space people to build space stuff. besides a heavyer earth will likely be a warmer earth and we dont want that . after all if your for global warming then your against global cooling.

January 25, 2013 at 12:26 pm |
- Dave
  
  I hate to burst your galactic bubble but lots and lots of dust fall on the earth each day. The dust is from meteorites that vaporize in the atmosphere and other stray bits of stuff that earths gravity pulls into it. http://starryskies.com/articles/2003/08/earth.facts.html has some nice data about this. The amount of rock brought to earth by these entrepreneurs is a very small drop in a large ocean.
  
  January 26, 2013 at 7:11 pm |
  - davonskevort
    
    every bit of dust makes us just a tad bit shorter as gravity builds. next thing ya know one bit of dust and bam we become a black hole.
    
    March 11, 2013 at 1:31 am |
- raul
  
  why is it a black hole? why not a whilte hole all thie spacism has to stop.. white flour!! black dwarf.
  
  February 9, 2013 at 6:07 pm |