Dylan Tweney has a good read over at VentureBeat on a trend of sorts among the ultra-rich: investing in space exploration startups. "The wonder isn’t that billionaires are doing this, the wonder is that it’s taken them so long."

  • OldBrownSquirrel

    Maybe the current generation of billionaires, in contrast to earlier generations of billionaires,  have read more Asimov/Clarke/Heinlein/etc. than Ayn Rand?

  • Martijn Vos

    It’s certainly what I would do if I had a few billion to spare.

  • http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios

     As would I, in a heartbeat! Maybe this is the way BB will ease into the story of Planetary Resources plans to mine the asteroids. Can’t believe it still hasn’t been posted.

    • JayeRandom

      I was wondering why the PR P.R. didn’t get directly covered on BB.  Would have thought this was of direct interest to all happy mutants?

    • LikesTurtles

      I’m curious as to how they’re going to handle safety with asteroid mining. Accidently (or heck, purposely) push one into the wrong orbit and you’ve got a disaster on your hands that’ll make 9/11 look like a mere slip on a banana peel.

      • Antinous / Moderator

        Goddam miners whacked us, Johnny.

    • penguinchris

      Sometimes when BB’s late in posting a story that’s already been all over the internet, they seem to just not bother, unless it’s something really big. Which, frankly, the Planetary Resources thing isn’t – because it’s so speculative.

      • Antinous / Moderator

        We’re not a news service.

  • silkox

    I’m sure the billionaires have totally earned their shiny toys, but why don’t at least a few of them spend their money on fixing climate change? Some estimates say $117 billion a year could stabilize CO2 at 550 ppm — which is still awfully high, but better than the alternative.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_6LOJDBXCDHL5MVQQRLOCCJ35AY alexb

    I can’t figure the logic behind attempting to mine an asteroid when the moon is closer and has been accumulating materials from asteroids for billions of years. Surely it would be cheaper to mine the moon?

    • Mark Dow

      Two reasons are that takes a lot more energy to get material off the moon, and some of the good stuff has sunk below its surface.