Wildcatters of Titan?

[MiddleAgedKen]

Okay, it's not Titan, not yet (and not for a good long while), but maybe this is a thing. The idea is to be mining near-Earth asteroids for platinum group metals and water by 2025.

They have a plan that has a certain "face" validity, the numbers don't look too daunting (won't be cheap, and I figure it will cost double or more the published estimate, but looks to be in the realm of doable), and there doesn't (on first read, anyway) to be an excessive amount of "here a miracle occurs."

Spaceward Ho!

[Rich]

Soon to be endlessly debated ad-nauseum by the politicians, particularly those who buy into the zero-sum game plans.

And the needed permissions created by that political class withdrawn and re-debated (and re-taxed) upon every instance of serious injury or fatality.

And to think that when all is said and done, it will be the bust of a politician that will grace the hallways of any future Agency that will monitor our space environment.

[Steamforger]

We just need a maple syrup war to finance the whole thing.

[blackeagle603]

Any bets on whether the EPA will find a way to insinuate themselves into it?

[MiddleAgedKen]

Any bets on whether the EPA will find a way to insinuate themselves into it?

As reaction mass?

[Guncrazy]

Who says the launches--or even the company--will have to be based in the USA?

It's a private company. They can set up a facility in equatorial Africa, or South America, or on a ship registered under a foreign flag.

China and Russia both have launch facilities. And giving them a cut of the mineral rights would probably be cheaper than compliance with our own country's alphabet soup of regulatory agencies.

[Precision]

Who says the launches--or even the company--will have to be based in the USA?

It's a private company. They can set up a facility in equatorial Africa, or South America, or on a ship registered under a foreign flag.

China and Russia both have launch facilities. And giving them a cut of the mineral rights would probably be cheaper than compliance with our own country's alphabet soup of regulatory agencies.

Sad but true