Call for Space Miners Met with 2,000 Resumes

What’s the Latest Development?

We’re sorry to inform you that the asteroid mining position you were seeking has been filled. Just three weeks after the firm Planetary Resources announced its intention to mine asteroids for water and precious metals, it has received over 2,000 applications from prospective space miners–not the nuclear bomb toting, oil rigging kind, but engineers who would design and build “a fleet of asteroid mining robotic probes.” Thanks to the overwhelming response, the company is no longer looking to fill positions, but it does expect to begin searching for student co-ops for Fall 2012. 

What’s the Big Idea?

Were it not for the big names behind Planetary Resources, the company might be seen as too far-fetched to merit attention. Main investors in the company include Google execs Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, who are worth $16.7 billion and $6.2 billion, respectively. “Filmmaker and adventurer James Cameron, former NASA astronaut Tom Jones and MIT planetary scientist Sara Seager are advisers.” The company is currently prospecting for candidate asteroids containing water and other mineral resources. Eventually, it wants to launch swarms of unmanned spacecraft to extract those resources. 

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