Skip to content
Artwork for PBS Space Time
PBS Space Time · Today · 14 min

How Asteroid Mining Will Save Earth

Viewers like you help make PBS (Thank you 😃) . Support your local PBS Member Station here: https://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE Uploaded 27-06-18 Thanks to Audible for supporting PBSDS. To start your free 30 day trial and receive a free audiobook visit https://www.audible.com/spacetime or text spacetime to 500 500! The days of oil may be numbered, but there’s another natural resource that’s never been touched, Asteroids. You can further support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime Get your own Space Time t­-shirt at http://bit.ly/1QlzoBi Tweet at us! @pbsspacetime Facebook: facebook.com/pbsspacetime Email us! pbsspacetime [at] gmail [dot] com Comment on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/pbsspacetime Help translate our videos! https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?tab=2&c=UC7_gcs09iThXybpVgjHZ_7g Previous Episode: The Black Hole Information Paradox https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XkHBmE-N34 The richest person in modern history, was John Davison Rockefeller, His net worth was three times greater than that of our richest tech billionaires, inflation adjusted. And the source of that fortune? Timely exploitation of a vast, then-untapped natural resource: oil. Well, the days of oil may be numbered, but there’s another natural resource that’s never been touched, is effectively inexhaustible, and has a dollar value large enough to disrupt entire economies. That resource? Asteroids, and the precious materials they contain. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson predicts that the world’s first trillionaire will be an asteroid miner. The Rockefellers of the 21st century may be less like the internet and tech moguls of the 20th century and more like the old-school oil barons of the 19th century. Hosted by Matt O'Dowd Written by Drew Rosen and Matt O'Dowd Graphics by Grayson Blackmon Assistant Editing and Sound Design by Mike Petrow and Linda Huang Made by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com) Special thanks to our Patreon Big Bang, Quasar and Hypernova Supporters: Big Bang CoolAsCats David Nicklas Anton Lifshits Joey Redner Fabrice Eap Quasar Tambe Barsbay Mayank M. Mehrota Mars Yentur Mark Rosenthal Dean Fuqua Roman Pinchuk ColeslawPurdie Vinnie Falco Hypernova Donal Botkin Edmund Fokschaner Matthew O’Connor Eugene Lawson Barry Hatfield Martha Hunt Joseph Salomone Chuck Zegar Craig Peterson Jordan Young Ratfeast John Hofmann Thanks to our Patreon Gamma Ray Burst Supporters: James Hughes Fabian Olesen Kris Fernet Jane Meyers James Flowers Greg Allen Denys Ivanov Nick Virtue Alexey Eromenko Nicholas Rose Scott Gossett Mark Vasile Patrick Murray Sultan Alkhulaifi Alex Seto Michal-Peanut Karmi Erik Stein Kevin Warne JJ Bagnell Avi Goldfinger John Pettit Florian Stinglmayr Benoit Pagé-Guitard Nathan Leniz Brandon Labonte David Crane Greg Weiss Shannan Catalano Brandon Cook Malte Ubl Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

0:00-14:42

transcript

No transcript — this publisher did not publish one.

show notes

Viewers like you help make PBS (Thank you 😃) . Support your local PBS Member Station here: https://to.pbs.org/DonateSPACE

Uploaded 27-06-18

Thanks to Audible for supporting PBSDS. To start your free 30 day trial and receive a free audiobook visit https://www.audible.com/spacetime or text spacetime to 500 500!

The days of oil may be numbered, but there’s another natural resource that’s never been touched, Asteroids.

You can further support us on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/pbsspacetime

Get your own Space Time t­-shirt at http://bit.ly/1QlzoBi

Tweet at us! @pbsspacetime
Facebook: facebook.com/pbsspacetime
Email us! pbsspacetime [at] gmail [dot] com
Comment on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/pbsspacetime

Help translate our videos!
https://www.youtube.com/timedtext_cs_panel?tab=2&c=UC7_gcs09iThXybpVgjHZ_7g

Previous Episode:
The Black Hole Information Paradox
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XkHBmE-N34

The richest person in modern history, was John Davison Rockefeller, His net worth was three times greater than that of our richest tech billionaires, inflation adjusted. And the source of that fortune? Timely exploitation of a vast, then-untapped natural resource: oil. Well, the days of oil may be numbered, but there’s another natural resource that’s never been touched, is effectively inexhaustible, and has a dollar value large enough to disrupt entire economies. That resource? Asteroids, and the precious materials they contain. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson predicts that the world’s first trillionaire will be an asteroid miner. The Rockefellers of the 21st century may be less like the internet and tech moguls of the 20th century and more like the old-school oil barons of the 19th century.

Hosted by Matt O'Dowd
Written by Drew Rosen and Matt O'Dowd
Graphics by Grayson Blackmon
Assistant Editing and Sound Design by Mike Petrow and Linda Huang
Made by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com)

Special thanks to our Patreon Big Bang, Quasar and Hypernova Supporters:

Big Bang
CoolAsCats
David Nicklas
Anton Lifshits
Joey Redner
Fabrice Eap

Quasar
Tambe Barsbay
Mayank M. Mehrota
Mars Yentur
Mark Rosenthal
Dean Fuqua
Roman Pinchuk
ColeslawPurdie
Vinnie Falco

Hypernova
Donal Botkin
Edmund Fokschaner
Matthew O’Connor
Eugene Lawson
Barry Hatfield
Martha Hunt
Joseph Salomone
Chuck Zegar
Craig Peterson
Jordan Young
Ratfeast
John Hofmann


Thanks to our Patreon Gamma Ray Burst Supporters:
James Hughes
Fabian Olesen
Kris Fernet
Jane Meyers
James Flowers
Greg Allen
Denys Ivanov
Nick Virtue
Alexey Eromenko
Nicholas Rose
Scott Gossett
Mark Vasile
Patrick Murray
Sultan Alkhulaifi
Alex Seto
Michal-Peanut Karmi
Erik Stein
Kevin Warne
JJ Bagnell
Avi Goldfinger
John Pettit
Florian Stinglmayr
Benoit Pagé-Guitard
Nathan Leniz
Brandon Labonte
David Crane
Greg Weiss
Shannan Catalano
Brandon Cook
Malte Ubl

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

links8