A Little Piece of the Heavens

              This, is an asteroid. For those of you who don't know, an asteroid is a large chunk of rock that floats around in space, with the most asteroids in our solar system being located in the Main Belt between Mars and Jupiter. Now, recently many asteroids have been discovered that don't belong to the Main Belt, but instead pass through Earth's orbit, with about 9,000 known to date, and about 1,000 discovered every year.
              With about 1,500 asteroids that are about as easy to reach as it is the moons surface, there are quite an abundant amount of these near our home. Now, why am I talking about asteroids? Is there one that is about to crash in your backyard and wipe out half of the worlds population? Not quite. This new venture named Planetary Resources with the backing of big names (and bigger wallets) such as James Cameron, Ross Perot Jr. and Larry Page, is creating the first plans to actually mine asteroids. Unknowingly to most, asteroids are gold mines when it comes to useful materials such as iron, nickel and water to even rare platinum metals that are hard to find on Earth. Unlike Earth though, where heavier metals are located closer to the core, the metals in asteroids are evenly distributed throughout the body due to the fact that they are just solid chunks of space rocks.
                The possibilities that this could create are endless. Not only would it expand our knowledge of space and improve jobs in that sector, but it would introduce billions, if not trillions of dollars to our economy and even allow for longer flights in space, (you could refuel on water, oxygen and other necessary elements needed for a long term stay in space.). Seeing as NASA's space shuttle program is officially over, the private space industry is beginning to boom, with the privately owned SpaceX company launching the very first private shuttle launch in history hopefully here in the next few days, the possibilities are just beginning for the private space industry.
                 My recommendation - if there is an IPO for this company, invest what you can. Chances are it will pay off.