&gt; From about 1970-74, the CIA managed to convince the world that billionaire inventor Howard Hughes had decided to invest millions to mine “manganese nodules,” balls of heavy metals that lie on the ocean floor. Via fake press releases, events, technical specs and front companies, the CIA convinced the world that Hughes was leading a new ocean-mining rush.<p>This sounds exactly like James Cameron&#x27;s astroid mining. I wonder if we&#x27;ll find out in 50 years that the CIA was recovering a Russian spaceship.