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This is the business plan that could have been taken directly from the screenplay of a Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster.
A Scottish entrepreneur proposes to launch a new gold rush of several billion pounds – by mining in space.
23-year-old Mitch Hunter-Scullion is looking for 2.3 million pounds to build a satellite capable of identifying platinum deposits on asteroids close to the Earth.
And while this may seem like the science of the future, it is expected that the exploitation of asteroids will become a big undertaking because it is believed that the celestial bodies are filled with precious metals and minerals.
NASA estimates that the total value of resources enclosed in asteroids equals 100 billion dollars (75 billion pounds sterling) for every person on Earth.
The Asteroid Mining Corporation, led by Mr. Hunter-Scullion, became the first company in the country to join the industry of the future.
He has a plan of action that could see mining begin in ten years.
But the first space contractor must launch the first asteroids mining mission in the UK and seek 2.3 million pounds to build a satellite capable of identifying platinum group metal deposits on asteroids close to the Earth.
The student of Liverpool Hope University hopes to launch in India an Asteroid Prospecting Satellite (APS1) in 2020 to perform spectral badysis and determine if there are any " viable candidates' for mining.
It calculates that a single metal asteroid of 25 meters in diameter, contains about 29 tons of platinum worth about £ 725m.
"Yes, I think it's feasible," he said. "Our goal is to develop a revolutionary technology that will eventually allow the extraction, processing and use of materials derived from millions of known asteroids near the Earth.
"The APS1 will be our first step towards this success: APS1 will be a spectroscopic space telescope that will collect data on target asteroids and will serve as a test for some of our technologies that we will later expand to real applications, mining missions.
"Our crowdfunding campaign to help us finance the cost of APS1 is now operational and we are confident that we can attract enough investment."
million. Hunter-Scullion, who set up AMC after completing my dissertation at Liverpool Hope University on asteroid extraction, added: "In searching, I realized that few companies had been created with the intention of operating an asteroid, none being in the UK.
"It was a subject that fascinated me and when I finished university, I decided to create AMC and start working on the development of technology that will open the possibilities of an above-ground commercial market. "
Without professional experience, Mr. Hunter-Scullion has received support from Business Gateway Glasgow and is now working to allow mining to be done legally. He is working with the International Institute of Air and Space Law of the University of the Netherlands to draft a draft law on space activities in the United Kingdom.
The company believes that this legislation is essential to the development of the UK's space mining industry, as it allows British companies to prospect for and extract mineral resources from asteroids, moon and from other celestial bodies.
million. Hunter Scullion is not the only one to recognize the potential of asteroids.
The first asteroid company, Planetary Resources, was founded in 2012 by Diamandis, Chris Lewicki and others in Washington, USA. In the space of one year, the American company Deep Space Industries was created by Rick Tumlinson, Stephen Cover and a host of others.
Goldman Sachs bankers also hope to build a "spaceship catching asteroids" to make billions of mines in space.
A 98-page report from the investment banking firm claimed last year that asteroid mining for precious metals in the near future is a "realistic" goal.
"Prospecting probes can probably be built for tens of millions of dollars each and Caltech [California Institute of Technology] suggested that a spaceship seizing asteroids could cost $ 2.6 billion," the report says. .
No asteroid has yet been sampled directly, but NASA intends to change that with its plans to send a probe to the mineral-rich asteroid 16 Psyche.
16 Psyche is located in the great belt of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter, is one of the most mysterious objects of the solar system, and could be worth a small fortune.
It is considered a piece of metal 130 miles wide, consisting of iron, nickel and rare metals, including gold, platinum and copper.
NASA announced in January 2017 that it was planning to send a probe to the asteroid to sample its chemical composition by 2022.
It was calculated that the iron in 16 Psyche alone, was worth £ 8,072 quadrillion.
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