On April 23 at Seattle’s Museum of Flight, Planetary Resources, Inc. announced and revealed their plans to search for and mine asteroids for their precious metals and water. With this mission, its members hope to provide more resources for the Earth and humans and reduce the cost of space travel. Billions to trillions of dollars can be contributed to the global gross domestic profit.

As for a more intrinsic motivation, Planetary Resources also hopes to advance human exploration in space.

The money and means largely come from the founders and backers of the group, which include Google co-founder and CEO Larry Page, Eric Anderson (who founded Space Adventures, which arranged space flights for millionaires) Ross Perot Jr. (the chairman of the Board of Perot Systems), Charles Simonyi (who was a part of the team that devised Microsoft Office Suite), filmmaker James Cameron, and Peter Diamandis (founder and chairman of the X Prize Foundation).

Asteroids are space junk – leftovers from when the planets in our solar system fully formed. Their sizes range from several meters to over one thousand kilometers across. Composition varies, though they are mostly made of metals, some of which are present on Earth (“common” ones such as iron and nickel) and some of which are rare on our planet (platinum, for example.) Some asteroids consist of a significant amount of frozen water along with metals.

“Everything we hold of value on Earth — metals, minerals, energy, water, real estate — are literally in near-infinite quantities in space,” Diamandis tells ABC News.

To conserve time, money, and fuel, Planetary Resources plans to mine asteroids near Earth. Thousands possibly float nearby – many of them too small to be detected. Most that will be mined would be more reachable than the Moon since Earth’s gravitational tends to capture smaller space objects, including asteroids.

The mission is divided into sections. Before getting straight to the mining, the group will first build a low-orbiting telescope that will be able to sieve out the asteroids that show the most promise for harvesting (ten percent of over a thousand). The approximate launch date has not yet determined.

Then comes the actual mining. Subsequent to finding the asteroids via telescope, the group will launch space probes containing unmanned robots, which will be sent out by rocket boosters built by private American companies, by the Russians, or by any other source willing to build them for affordable prices.

As Phillip Plait in writes in his blog “Bad Astronomy,” volatiles (oxygen, nitrogen, and water) will be garnered primarily for the sake of having additional resources. The water will either be converted into hydrogen for rocket fuel and oxygen, or it can be broken down to its basic elements for easier and cheaper transport.

After the volatiles, the robots will mine for the precious metals: platinum, palladium, iridium, and ruthenium, and others, all of which are difficult to access on Earth and only exist on the planet because of impacts from asteroids.

“When the availability of these metals increase[s], the cost will reduce on everything including defibrillators, hand-held devices, TV and computer monitors, catalysts,” Diamandis continues. “And with the abundance of these metals, we’ll be able to use them in mass production, like in automotive fuel cells.”

To further save costs, the robots will have the option of storing the metals and water in supply depots in space instead of bringing to resources back to Earth straight away.

Is Planetary Resources’ plan is completely ludicrous? Not really. Mining asteroids is not is not a novel concept. Plait continues writes that he thinks “getting to the asteroids will do just fine,” and to American astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who recently appeared on the Daily Show, the idea is “not bulls#*t.”

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The new Transformers movie just came out and everyone is wondering who will be better as Shia Labeouf’s love interest? Megan Fox or Victoria’s Secret model Rosie Huntington? Megan Fox was recently let go from the Transformers movie after a confrontation with director Micheal Bay. According to Megan Fox, it was her decision not to return for the third movie, which to some is hard to believe. The Transformers movie not only made her career, but also helped her gain more opportunities as an actress instead of a model. Both Megan Fox and Rosie Huntington are not known for the acting abilities, but for they’re beauty. Therefore will Rosie Hunington surprise everyone and top Megan Fox’s performance in Transformers 1 and 2?

Shia Labeouf said the third movie will be the best one out of them all. Is this because of Rosie Huntington? Micheal Bay stated that Megan Fox was not one of the easiest people to work with on set and she showed that after comparing the producer to Hitler. He also stated that it makes sense for Shia Labeouf’s character to have a new love interest anyway so why Rosie Huntington? First, there is no doubt that she will fulfill the sexy persona while running away from robots. Also, she is nothing but excited to work with Micheal Bay.

Recently, at the MTV music awards 2011, Rosie Huntington was interviewed on her relationship with the director. She went on to say she loves his humor and his work ethic, much like her own. Rosie is defiantly giving hollywood a run for her money. Micheal Bay and all of the costars all stated that she is a great actress and that she is making the new love interest between herself and Shia Labeouf very much real. She also stated that to be an actress in this type of a movie, you have to be one of the guys. This is suprising coming from a Victoria’ Secrets Angel. She is known as the tomboy out of all of the angels and she is not afraid to come out of her comfort zone. Going from a model to an actress can be difficult, especially when the movie is as action packed as Transformers. Even Victoria Secret Inc. knows she will not fail to disappoint  any Transformers’ fans. After getting the part, Victoria Secret released a congratulations video. The 90 second video can be found on the Victoria’s Secret fan page. The video is a series of pictures and video clips of the model on the runway, and on photoshoots with explosions and fire in the background to give it that “Transformers Feel.”

It is hard to say whether America will judge Rosie’s performance in the new movie based on her looks or her talent. Megan Fox was never hyped up to be a great actress, especially after Jennifer’s Body premiere. To say the least, being a Victoria Secrets Angel is nothing but easy, so Rosie Huntington should be perfect for the role. I must say, it is a little weird watching the Transformers 3 trailer with a new model as Shia Labeouf’s love interest but it is hard to tell whether she pulled it off without seeing the movie. So, America will just have to go see the movie to make the decision whether or not Rosie Huntington will be the next great thing in Hollywood.

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Last Monday, the first caucasian Geminoid was presented at Aalborg university. The Toonari Post spoke with the man who’s face was duplicated in the Geminoid-DK robot. Henrik Scharfe studied Information Science and has his doctorate in Human Centered and Informatics at Aalborg University in Denmark. He is currently a professor at the University and has been on the staff list since 1999. In the interview, he spoke about his project Geminoid-DK that consists of a life-size robot.

Can you describe for us the work that you do within the Geminoid project?

I’m an associate professor at the University here in Aalborg and one of my obligations is to direct one of our research centers in Computer Mediated Epistemology. I came up with that word so people would ask me what it is. But really, what it means is that the way we think is influenced by the technologies around us. Epistemology is about how we think, and the computer-mediated part is about the role computers play. Think about something like GPS systems in your car – it changes your sense of direction and it changes the way that you drive. All these technologies, they change the things we do and the way that we think about ourselves, so that’s the foundation of our research here.

Within the Geminoid project we pursue those kind of questions as well. We’ve been following Hiroshi Ishiguro and his work for some years and thought it was deeply fascinating. He was the one who made the first Geminoid six years ago. [Our question is] what happens to human thought if you have realistic, working android sitting next to you? We set up loads of different experiments and we want to place the Geminoid in different situations, we want to record the interaction with it and we aim to learn how better to make communication between humans and robots.

What inspires you the most on a daily basis?

It’s a little bit like science fiction, you know. What science fiction does when it’s good is it takes [a] technology and then it just takes it to the extreme, like full blown artificial intelligence or time travel or androids walking around like human beings – that sort of thing. It allows us to play around with interesting questions; what would life be like if we could actually travel through time or if we had androids walking amongst us.

The Geminoid has that kind of quality, a little bit like science fiction only this is not fiction. We have [...] produced something that can actually fool people into thinking this is not a robot, it’s a human being. So the really cool thing about the project is actually that it raises so many interesting questions. It is really fun and has been throughout the project because yes, there are thousands of emails and loads of things we need to worry about and the Yen was really expensive at some point but this is really what fascinates me and keeps me going.

How does the team work?

We spend a lot of time discussing [methods] and one of the challenges [is to] work with what we call research protocols. A research protocol is a piece of paper that describes in detail how the experiment has to be done, what we are looking for and describes ways of recording that information, so we need to know in advance what to do.  We work with our colleagues in Japan on the same experiments which means we have to agree on the protocol. We do the stuff twice and then we compare the results. It takes a lot of planning and a lot of thinking to get the questions right and we spend a lot of time doing that.

From my point of view, the kind of research we do is not really technical. I am not an engineer, so I am not really interested in the robots from the engineering point of view; I am interested in communication, that’s what I do.

Could you explain us the functions of the robot?

The functionality of this particular kind is limited to the face and the upper body, so for instance it cannot walk. However, the really nice thing is that it can duplicate the facial expressions of the one who is operating it. So if you go into the room with the robot what you will see is a mixture of things. One is the pre-programmed movements that are controlled by a computer, like the breathing system. It will breathe slowly and it will blink automatically, the eyes will be blinking at random intervals. It’s programmed to stimulate my own personal movements. So it moves in a way similar to the way I move.

My second body is [overall] very similar to the one talking to you right now. To the extent that even the freckles on my arms and the scars on my hands have been duplicated. So it’s molded really close to my appearance – that of course is a little strange.

It takes time for something to look as life-like as this. I had to go to Japan [where] they made a mold of my head [with] silicon plaster. They [then] build a clay model based on this cast and this was used as a model for the silicon layer, which you see on the robot. This is a very long and complicated process, made by very skilled people, and I have a lot of respect and admiration for their work, because I think they got it right.

What did the robot make you think about your own existence?

Well, we have a lot of interesting conversation on this matter. For instance, someone has suggested that it’s like making a copy of you that will never get old, never die. But I disagree. Like any machine, robots do get old even if they don’t die in a traditional way. Think about the cell phone you got three years ago, it’s really old today right? Compared to ten years ago it was phenomenal but compared to now, it’s old. So technology does get old. But I think you can learn a lot about yourself by going through a process like this. I am still trying to figure out what the most important things I have learned are and it’s going to take me some time.

When we first [saw] the nearly finished Geminoid, in the ‘off’ state it’s just like looking at something from the wax museum so that’s a little boring. But when you turn on the computers and the autonomous system takes over, the breathing begins and it looks around, the eyes are blinking and it might turn its head and look at you. I am standing next to it, seeing it come alive for the first time and I’m like “that’s it, that’s what I have been wanting to see.” So that was really cool.

What role does passion play in your project?

For me personally, passion is really important. I don’t think you can be a good researcher if you’re not passionate about something. The same in any other part of life. I mean, you can have relationships but if you are not passionate about them what’s the point? That’s part of what defines us as people, I feel very passionate about my wife and about our sons and I feel very passionate about my work and if I don’t, I should probably consider finding another work.

Lean more about the exciting work of Henrik Scharfe and his team from the Aalborg University by visiting their website:

• http://c.aau.dk/geminoid/

Or stay in touch with them through Facebook:

• http://www.facebook.com/pages/Geminoid/165003313547811

Henrik Scharfe – Publications/Books:

• http://www.hum.aau.dk/~scharfe/books.html

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