Bonanza in Space – mining firm sees business in platinum loaded asteroid

Asteroid 2011 UW-158 passed 30 times closer than our nearest planet – it has sped past our planet Earth at a distance of just 1.5 million miles away, and is expected to make another pass as close to Earth again after three years.
Hence, ambitious mining firm has drawn up plans to mine it – it is understood that the tiny rock measuring just around half a mile across, has a core made from platinum. It is worth nearly £3.5 trillion – hence, private companies are eyeing it with the intention of mining it.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 20 July 2015.

As per the terms of the existing 1967 Space Treaty that has been signed by almost all countries, no nation can lay claim a celestial body but it does not mention anything about companies, corporations, firms, private entities. That could make it easy for mining forms to carry on their activities.
One of the interested firms is Planetary Resources – it had recently launched a rocket from the International Space Station ISS. It was keen on the idea but have decided to search for water which would be more paying proposition because that would be more valuable to ISS.
As a space journalist has remarked – the race for supremacy in space was initially for politics, now it is becoming more of business.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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