Is Google`s next venture space mining?

Google founders Larry Page, Eric Schmidt along with James Cameron and Ross Perot, Jr. are backing a brand new space exploration company called Planetary Resources. On Tuesday April 24th  they will "unveil a new space venture with a mission to help ensure humanity's prosperity."

From the press release: "Planetary Resources will overlay two critical sectors, space exploration and natural resources to add trillions of dollars to the global GDP. This innovative start-up will create a new industry and a new definition of ‘natural resources'."

Kinda sounds like asteroid mining don`t you think? The project will be unveiled at Seattle's Museum of Flight by X Prize founder Peter Diamandis along with former NASA Mars mission manager Chris Lewicki and planetary scientist (and former NASA astronaut) Tom Jones.

Or maybe Google just wants to collect martian wifi data.