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What's The Prospect Of An Extraterrestrial Gold Rush?

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And today's last word in business is: extraterrestrial gold rush.

A company called Deep Space Industries - which sounds like it's a company from a Mel Brooks movie; anyway, it's planning to start mining asteroids - mining asteroids by the year 2015. The idea is to first send small spacecraft to explore asteroids for minerals like platinum and gold.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

The founders of Google are backing a separate asteroid mining venture. But there are skeptics who point out that NASA's own mission to extract just 2 grams of material from a passing asteroid is expected to cost a billion dollars.

And that's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.

INSKEEP: And I'm Steve Inskeep.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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