In article ,
says...

On Friday, November 4, 2016 at 12:21:41 PM UTC+13, Alain Fournier wrote:
Luxembourg to invest 25M¤ in Planetary Resources, an asteroid mining
startup. See
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/aste...ment-1.3835047

Cool.


Alain Fournier

https://www.scribd.com/doc/212158958/Asteroid-Mining

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141...s-in-our-stars

A solar powered self replicating machine system that's propelled by a solar powered ion rocket that masses under 300 kg - can be launched for under $1 million - as a secondary payload - and make its way to any Earth crossing asteroid. Once there, it grows to encompass the asteroid and return the rare materials to Earth.

Self replicating machines of the type you envision simply do not exist
yet. If they did, they'd be taking over terrestrial mining today.

Jeff
--
All opinions posted by me on Usenet News are mine, and mine alone.
These posts do not reflect the opinions of my family, friends,
employer, or any organization that I am a member of.