London, April 23 : Internet search engine giant Google and a former Microsoft software architect are backing a team of scientists to unveil plans to begin mining asteroids "to guarantee the human race's prosperity".
According to a Daily Mail report, Hollywood film maker and explorer James Cameron is also backing this project. 
After exhausting the Earth's supply of natural resources, global corporations now turn to space to replenish their stockpile of raw materials.
Details of the proposed space mission are to be officially launched on Tuesday, by start-up company Planetary Resources.
The proposals will be unveiled at a press conference at the Museum of Flight in Seattle which will also be available to view online.
The company's objectives are to be twofold: the mining of natural resources and space exploration, with the aim of selling the raw materials it extracts from the asteroids and adding trillions of dollars to the global GDP.
The shortage of sources for raw materials on the planet has caused global inflation to spike in recent years causing tensions to rise between nations, experts have said.
NASA scientists say the high concentration of raw materials found in asteroids - such as ingredients for fuel and precious metals like iron and platinum - could supply Earth with vital stockpiles of natural resources.
Space entrepreneurs Peter Diamandis and Eric Anderson are just two of the names behind Planetary Resource. In a press release, the company announced its intentions to create 'a new industry in space and a new definition of natural resources'.
Diamandis and Anderson - both known for their aspirations for commercial space exploration - will host the launch event along with two former NASA officials.
A driving force behind the Ansari X-Prize competition to spur on non-goverment space flight, Diamandis has made no secret of his goal to one day become an asteroid miner.
In an interview earlier this year with Forbes magazine, he said: 'The earth is a crumb in a supermarket of resources.
'Now we finally have the technology to extract resources outside earth for the benefit of humanity without having to rape and pillage our planet.'
Hollywood film maker James Cameron is no stranger to daring exploration.
Just last month the director of Titanic and Avatar became the first solo diver to reach the bottom of the Challenger Deep - the deepest point on Earth.
