New Company Called Planetary Resources To Launch Next Week

Google founders Eric Schmidt and Larry Page and teamed up with "Avatar" movie director James Cameron for an ambitious project that will be launched on April 24, 2012.

The new company, to be called Planetary Resources, will have its unveiling at the Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington this next week.

The purpose of this venture is to combine "space exploration and natural resources" together to earn "trillions of dollars for the global GDP." The Wall Street Journal reprots that this new company will be exploring the feasibility of mining natural resources from asteroids.  Which is an idea that has been around the space colonization effort community for decades.

Former NASA Mars mission manager Eric Anderson, is co-founder for Planetary Resource.  Peter Diamandia is the commercial space entrepreneur who was behind the X-Prize, a competition that offered $10 million to a group that launched a reusable manned spacecraft.




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Ref.
1. Reuters/yahoo.com. "Google execs, director Cameron in space venture" by Gerry Shih, editing by Bernard Orr. April 21, 2012. (http://ca.news.yahoo.com/google-execs-director-cameron-space-venture-005212432--sector.html).

Long Delayed, Boeing 787 Dreamliner First Flight

If all goes well, then December 15, 2009, will be the day that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft takes flight for the first time. If successful, this lead aircraft and six others will go through a six month test program flying around the clock.

That first flight being two and a half years late. And cost Boeing some of orders for their product. But so far, 840 orders are still on the books for the aircraft giant.

Boeing is hoping that it can really make this 80% composite material of carbon and titanium aircraft the most fuel efficient airliner out there on the market today.

Wheels up is expected to be 10 am Pacific time assuming good visibility and decent weather. It will be a four hour flight from the plant north of Seattle and travelling over Puget Sound and over Washington state. The first 787 should be certified and delivered to Japan's All Nippon Airways next year.

Airbus also has a lightweight aircraft in development. Its A350 will also be made of carbon-composite materials.

The other civilian Airbus product, the A380 double decker airliner; is limited by the number of airports in the world that can handle that aircraft. Recently, the A400M military transport finally took flight for the first time as well.

Construction issues for this new building material for a vehicle of this size was partly responsible for the delays. Shortage of parts and the two-month long strike last year didn't help things.

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Ref. BBC, December 15, 2009. "Boeing 787 Dreamliner prepares for first flight" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8413466.stm).

Reuters, December 15, 2009. "Boeing set for first flight of 787" by Kyle Peterson. (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BE20720091215).

This Blog, December 11, 2009. "Airbus A400M Military Transport First Flight" (http://aerospacedreams.blogspot.com/2009/12/airbus-a400m-military-transport-first.html).