A team of billionaires which includes the well known film director James Cameron are planning a venture into mining asteroids for their fuel and minerals. The company known as Planetary Resources are also hoping to set up their first space fuel depot by 2020.

Within the next 2 years the company are planning on launching personal space telescopes to locate prospective asteroids for mining. The telescopes won’t be pointing at the asteroid belt, they’ll be looking for asteroids which pass near Earth.

The company is hoping to exploit the potential of water rich asteroids, they believe they could provide future spacecraft with not only drinking water but air and fuel at a much cheaper rate than bringing it from Earth.

Asteroids also contain precious minerals such as gold and platinum, Planetary Resources believe that if they were able to mine these they would bring huge profits to the company.

So far the scientific community has responded with a hefty dose of scepticsm, claiming the plans are more science fiction than anything else, but Planetary Resources president Chris Lewicki retorted by saying "everything is science fiction right up to the point that it's science fact."

Lewicki, who was involved in Nasa’s rover and lander missions to Mars, said "three, four, five years out, depending on trajectory, is when we envision getting up close and personal with an asteroid."

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