Earlier this year we learned how a group of space enthusiasts and entrepreneurs were planning to mine asteroids for trillions of dollars.

Now, scientists at CalTech working with NASA have outlined plans to ‘lasso’ a 500 ton asteroid, slow it down, and turn it into an intermediate launching pad for missions to Mars.

A group of successful and distinguished individuals are starting a company to capitalize on assets floating around in space. The company is called Planetary Resources. They held a press conference describing their aspirations this afternoon. While this won’t happen overnight, the company has an incredible staff with immense experience and desire to succeed, and they are committed to success. Here’s some of the revolutionary ideas from their plan.

Forbes covered a story this week about a dream team of billionaires looking to space for the next gold rush, and potentially trillions of dollars in untapped resources. The group is headlined by Google mainstays Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, along with James Cameron (fresh off his journey to the center of the Earth) and space enthusiast and entrepreneur Peter Diamandis.

Author Brian Caulfield speculates that this group has come together to mine asteroids, looking for precious metals that are essential to the electronics that have come to dominate our world. NASA has already demonstrated the ability to land a probe on an asteroid. A formal announcement of the groups intentions is expected on Tuesday of next week, and you can expect it to be major news.