[ProtectOurFreedom]

This will go nowhere without HUGE government subsidies and cronyism. He’s more likely going to tap Washington and our wallets than any asteroids.

[JRandomFreeper]

It's commercial. Some of these guys really don't want government involved.

/johnny

[SampleMan]

This will go nowhere without HUGE government subsidies and cronyism. He’s more likely going to tap Washington and our wallets than any asteroids.

Exactly what I was thinking. All pie in the sky, with no plan for actual return on investment. It is clearly just a government grant repository.

[jmcenanly]

I can see where they would have to be in good odor with the government. Look at how nervous we were when North Korea launched a defunct satellite.
Currently, NASA has been talking about a mission to bring a boxcar sized near Earth asteroid to Lunar orbit. If I were the NASA administrator, I would offer 50% of the projected cost of that mission to whichever of the two nascent asteroid mining companies could bring back such an asteroid. This is how we got Spaceship One, whose descendant, SpaceShip Two, is scheduled to begin carrying paying passengers on suborbital trips later this year.