And it turns out that when theEarth is close to and zipping by the sun, when we are moving fastest in our annual orbit, that's the time of year we in the Northern Hemisphere call fall and winter.
The most compelling case for asteroid mining is for a yet-undesired element that turns out to be not abundant in the earth's crust and becomes suddenly valuable because of some future technological advance.
As a result, what starts off unpromisingly as the tarted-up travelogue of a privileged island-hopper turns into a journey of scientific discovery to the corners of theearth.
The good optimism springs from what Silicon Valley does better than anyplace else on Earth: It turns technology into cool products and wraps dynamic companies around them.