(CNN) -- Space, it has been said, is big. Really big. But big
enough for two companies that want to mine near-Earth asteroids?
A venture announced Tuesday in California hopes so. Deep Space
Industries says it wants to start sending miniature scout
probes, dubbed "Fireflies," on one-way missions to near-Earth
asteroids as soon as 2015. Larger probes, "Dragonflies," that
will bring back 50- to 100-pound samples from prospective
targets could be on their way by 2016, company CEO David Gump
told reporters. The goal is to extract metals, water and
compounds that can be used to make spacecraft fuel from the
chunks of rock that float within about 50 million kilometers (31
million miles) of Earth. Gump said the ability to produce fuel
in space would be a boon for NASA, as the U.S. space agency
shifts its focus toward exploring deeper into the solar system.
As much as 90% of the weight of a prospective months-long Mars
mission could be fuel -- and it costs between $5,000 and $10,000
per pound to put anything into spac