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What "Armageddon" got right about space drilling, and what it (mostly) didn't

Aug 16, 2018
Little about the 1998 blockbuster is true to life, but mining asteroids and comets is "humanity’s future, I’m pretty convinced of that," one expert says.
From left, Steve Buscemi, Will Patton, Bruce Willis, Michael Duncan, Ben Affleck, and Owen Wilson are on a mission to save Earth from an asteroid in “Armageddon.”
Getty Images/Handout

Asteroid mining and the new economics of outer space

Sep 18, 2017
It sounds like science fiction, but companies are putting real work into finding metals floating around on frozen rocks.
Space nerds Molly Wood and Kimberly Adams geek out about asteroid mining on the show. Above, an image mosaic of the asteroid Eros, with sunlight coming from the northeast, taken by the robotic NEAR Shoemaker space probe in 2000. 
Photo Courtesy of NASA/Newsmakers