Everything's a Copy of a Copy

I don't watch movies very often. I cannot even tell you the last time that I have been to the movie theater. In fact, practically every movie that I have seen are because of my best friend from high school (who is now a film and theater major) and my college roommate from freshman year (who made it his job to educate me on only the greatest movies). Part of the reason I see very few movies is because only a good football game can hold my attention for two to three hours. The other reason has to do with the lack of creativity in today's movies. It seems that every storyline is a copy of a copy.

Don't worry, this rambling does lead to science, I promise... I just love Fight Club and wanted it in my blog somewhere.

Let's begin in 1992. FernGully: The Last Rain forest is a great cartoon involving fairies, beautiful rain forest, a goofy bat, and evil humans sent to destroy the land! That is until Zak, one of those evil humans, gets shrunk down to fairy size. He discovers that the forest is beautiful, and should not be torn down. The humans unleash a oil monster who operates the logging machine, which Zak (against all odds) must try to stop to protect the forest.

Hexxus, the evil oil-like antagonist, from FernGully

I think this movie has too many environmentalist undertones for my taste. If oil was in the form of a fiery cloaked skeleton who knew how to control a logging machine, I would be terrified as well. But I digress... 

Next movie, Disney's Pocahontas (1995). Coming to America in search for gold, Captain John Smith and his crew have little respect for the Natives of the land. Once Smith meets Pochahontas, they fall in love. Both the tribe and the settlers are not happy with each other, so they begin to fight. The settlers finally learn to live with the Natives rather than try to kill them for their gold.

Sounds familiar? If it doesn't, then how about we move forward to 2009. I guess James Cameron believed that 90's kids would forget their childhood movies, because Avatar seems eerily familiar. Don't wait for me to tell you, so check out the picture of the plot line compared to Pocahontas.

Now do you see my point? Hollywood continually reuses plot lines for new movies. Now here comes the science! Is it possible that scientific research is borrowing ideas from Hollywood? 

After discovering Planetary Resources, I would say yes. Their mission is simple, find near-earth asteroids that contain water or rare earth metals and mine them for their resources. The company believes that "Harnessing valuable minerals from a practically infinite source will provide stability on Earth, increase humanity’s prosperity, and help establish and maintain human presence in space." 

Now this company is still in the beginning phases, but they do have many wealthy contributors including Larry Page, Co-Founder of Google, Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, and who other than James Cameron. 

                                         

There is no other person on earth who is more qualified for this operation than the man who "wrote" and directed a movie about mining resources on other planets. I highly doubt aliens will be inhabiting the asteroids they mine, but better safe than sorry, right?

So Planetary Resources' objective looks promising on paper. They plan on launching satellites which will locate near-earth asteroids and determine their composition. Once these are determined, another satellite can attach to these asteroids to mine them. The resource that Planetary Resources is most interested in is water. Water from these asteroids can be used as rocket fuel, which will allow asteroids to serve as "interplanetary fueling stations." 

This water can also be used to propel asteroids closer to earth in order to retrieve rare-earth minerals. Propelling these asteroids to earth can be easily explained in the video below. Imagine the man is a mineral-rich asteroid, and the skateboard is the recently extracted water. When the water is used as a fuel, it is shot out into space, sending our mineral-rich asteroid to earth (the white car).

Naturally, this is going to be a costly endeavor. Planetary Exploration has done well in attracting interest in their goals, but the largest hurdle will be the technology that comes with mining asteroids. Until then, they are accepting job applications. (Notice the position General Space Nut)

I look forward to seeing what Planetary Resources does in the future. If they are successful, it will change the course of history in terms of resource scarcity for the better. Unfortunately, there will probably be a few more FernGully/Pocahontas/Avatar remakes by then.

What are your opinions on Planetary Resources' goal of mining near-earth asteroids?

-Taylor