Google Execs And James Cameron Backing Asteroid Mining Project

A mysterious company called Planetary Resources will be unveiling itself next Tuesday, April 24, according to an announcement received by MIT's Technology Review. The company is described as a space exploration company that is aimed at expanding Earth's resource base and is backed by Google execs Larry Page and Eric Schmidt as well as film maker and explorer James Cameron, among other big names.

Leading the event is visionary Peter H. Diamandis, M.D., commercial space entrepreneur Eric Anderson, former NASA Mars mission manager Chris Lewicki, and planetary scientist and veteran NASA astromaut Tom Jones, Ph.D. The event will take place at the Charles Simonyi Space Gallery at The Museum of Flight in Seattle and will be webcast, unveiling a "new space venture with a mission to help ensure humanity's prosperity."

The project aims to add trillions of dollars to the global GDP and create a new industry and a new definition of natural resources. It's sure eerily reminiscent of Cameron's own blockbuster movie, Avatar, where the evil humans mine other planets, seeking the very precious and rare "Unobtanium" for the prosperity of Earth. But hopefully with Cameron's backing, he'll make sure the project doesn't go that route.

[via TheVerge]