Guest: Michael Heartsong. Topics: Mining asteroids for commercial purposes. Michael Heartsong of Promethean Enterprises, Inc. was our guest to talk about the Promethean Project, "Mining The Sky." Promethean has an extensive White Paper on this subject which you can download at http://www.miningthesky.com/brochure.html. In our first segment, Mr. Heartsong outlined their mining concept to address both NEO's as well as comets. You will want to pay careful attention to his plan and how "targets of opportunity" will be selected. For the time being, they are not talking about mining the Moon. He also addressed the long term payout problem for raising capital as the project would be incrementally staged over perhaps 40 years or longer. Listen to his plan on how to establish early financial returns on additional income streams with three years and five years. As you will hear, some of the mining venture projects will start showing a payoff within 10-15 years. Michael outlines his customers which he says includes the ISS, anybody with a GEO satellite wanting to refuel it and also structural needs for the ISS. Bill form Virginia asked a series of questions about launcher, markets, time lines, and more. Michael responded to Bill's questions during the balance of this segment. Before this segment ended, Marshall asked about the spin of an asteroid and how that impacted the mining operation. College student Daniel ask about communication delays in controlling a robot and that became a continuing story line through the balance of today's interview. As we started the second segment, Tim from Huntsville called in and talked about propellant depots, aero braking, and more. 3D Rapid Prototyping was also mentioned to Michael as a possibility for consideration with his mining project. Michael then discussed options to deal with an incoming asteroid on a collision course with Earth so listen to how he summarized the options known so far. He said his project might be able to do some mining on a risky NEO such as Apotheosis and at the same time, play a role in deflecting it. Don't miss this discussion. Later in this segment, Michael was asked how changes in our national space policy as proposed by the administration on Feb. 1, 2010 might impact his project. He said he was generally supportive of the changes as it helps commercial space and his project is definitely a commercial project to be funded by the private sector, not the government. He had much to say on this topic so don't miss it. ITAR came up in the context of Michael being able to talk to potential foreign investors. Later in the segment, Trent asked about the types of asteroids that would make the best targets and wanted to know if a "wet" one was better. Michael talks about the three types of asteroids and makes it clear as to what type would be best for his project. We had a question about how his chances for financing would be impacted by the domestic and global economy problems, plus the probable down rating of US and UK treasury bonds. This led to a discussion on this subject first by Michael, then I joined in. Michael was asked for his initial plan and implementation schedule which he provided, including letting us know that he first needs to raise about $12-$15 million of angel capital to fund the research phase of his project. While this discussion took place earlier in this segment, it was a continuous theme throughout the balance of the interview. If you have a comment or question for Michael Heartsong or you want to get involved or just get more information, please contact him directly at msheartsong8@gmail.com.
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The Space Show
