'Diamond Planet' Discovered By Researchers At Yale
Get ready to grab your trusty pickaxes, new research led by Yale University indicates the planet last year assumed to have a similar chemical make-up to Earth is in fact a diamond planet; home to graphite, diamond and iron rather than water and granite. At least a third of the planet’s mass – the equivalent of three Earth masses – could be solely diamond, according to the study.
Asteroid-Miners Planetary Resources To Catch A Ride With Virgin Galactic
Though its best known for pushing ahead with plans to take paying customers into space, kick-starting widespread space tourism, Richard Branson this week announced at the Farnborough International Airshow that the company is still firmly behind its small satellite launch system. And the billionaire-backed asteroid-mining company Planetary Resources might well be one of its earliest adopters...
It's Official: Planetary Resources Lifts The Curtain On Its Plan To Mine Asteroids
Five days ago we detailed how a group of investors that included Google co-founders Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, director James Cameron, CEO of the X-Prize Foundation Peter Diamandis are funding a project known as 'Planetary Resources' that would help “chart the future”, “add trillions of dollars to the global GDP” and ultimately “[breed] a new definition of 'natural resources'.” Open to interpretation at the time of writing, the company has today revealed exactly what that all means; fuelling a new age of space exploration and eventually mining nearby asteroids for precious metals and rare minerals.
James Cameron, Google Co-Founders Backing Space Resource Project
Titanic, Avatar director and self-confessed diving junkie James Cameron is one name from a number of high-profile investors (a list that also includes Google co-founders Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, former Microsoft executive Charles Simonyi and chairman and CEO of the X Prize Foundation, co-founder of Zero-G Corporation Peter Diamandis) who are hoping to kick-start a new age of space exploration and “ultimately create a better standard of living on Earth”.