Space mining startup set for launch in US

[Vehl]

76. No wonder Google is researching Space Elevators in its Secret Google X labs

When the news broke about Google's secret X labs, the information leaked out mentioned that it was working on self driving cars, augmented reality, Robots and Space Elevators.

The Self Driving car has been under public testing for a couple of years now, the Google Glass project(Augmented reality) was released to the public last month, and now we hear of this new Startup by Google excecs and James Cameron on mining asteroids.

What better way to cheaply and efficiently transport materiel and people from and to space than Space Elevators?
While this tech might not be available anytime soon, Kudos to Google for actually spending money on long-term projects, unlike other companies which are all about short term profits.

Google’s Lab of Wildest Dreams

It’s a place where your refrigerator could be connected to the Internet, so it could order groceries when they ran low. Your dinner plate could post to a social network what you’re eating. Your robot could go to the office while you stay home in your pajamas. And you could, perhaps, take an elevator to outer space.

These are just a few of the dreams being chased at Google X, the clandestine lab where Google is tackling a list of 100 shoot-for-the-stars ideas. In interviews, a dozen people discussed the list; some work at the lab or elsewhere at Google, and some have been briefed on the project. But none would speak for attribution because Google is so secretive about the effort that many employees do not even know the lab exists.
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At most Silicon Valley companies, innovation means developing online apps or ads, but Google sees itself as different. Even as Google has grown into a major corporation and tech start-ups are biting at its heels, the lab reflects its ambition to be a place where ground-breaking research and development are happening, in the tradition of Xerox PARC, which developed the modern personal computer in the 1970s.
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For example, space elevators, a longtime fantasy of Google’s founders and other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, could collect information or haul things into space. (In theory, they involve rocketless space travel along a cable anchored to Earth.)

more here
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/technology/at-google-x-a-top-secret-lab-dreaming-up-the-future.html?_r=2

Google X Labs: First Project Glass, next space elevators?

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — In a top-secret lab in an undisclosed Bay Area location where robots run free, the future is being imagined

From driverless cars to augmented-reality glasses, Google X Labs is tackling tough technology problems and getting them into the popular imagination.

What's Google X? Most of what we know about Google X Labs comes from a New York Times article last fall which said engineers are working on a driverless car and other robotics projects, the "Web of things," and even a space elevator.

The secret lab, where Google co-founded Sergey Brin is said to be deeply involved, is meant to tackle difficult technical problems and develop products that one day could bring Google new sources of revenue.

Just last week, Google released a video of its driverless car taking a legally blind man to the shopping center, a poignant example of how that technology could improve his life.

more here
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57409402-76/google-x-labs-first-project-glass-next-space-elevators/

I'm pretty sure that we are onto something here...Asteroid Mining + Space Elevators....there is no way these two things are not connected/independent projects.!