Company Targets Asteroid—and Profits

摘要

Geologists routinely work with oil and gas companies, and biologists form the backbone of the biotechnology industry. But space scientists typically have little contact with the rough-and-tumble world of profit and loss. That could change, however, ifa group of entrepreneurs pulls off the first privately financed mission beyond Earth's orbit. The company hopes' to make money by selling data gathered from a nearby asteroid. And it is counting on a steep discount in the cost of such data, compared with what NASA would have to spend to collect it, to attract customers. It also hopes to offer a platform for government-built instruments.