I think that , in the beginning, NASA was a great organization and great idea. In between, it has become a bloated pork barrel project that might be better served by private enterprise. I don't like monopolization potentials for communication and navigation satellites, but that has already occurred. The World and its' citizens have a greater problem that requires the same or greater level of dedication, money and physical effort and that is the imminent threat of Global Warming. The Energy problem and we have an Energy problem when enough solar power lands on Texas to power the World and we don't harness it. Can we claim ignorance? What's our collective excuse? Let's just wait until it is too late and the people who own bubbles can live a little longer.
Yes and no.
Most exploration enterprises, especially during the last century, have been government funded. The government needs to first scout around the area, see whats what, mark the good and the bad, and then leave the private industry to come in and maximize efficiency for profit. But you will rarely see private entrepreneurs take chances, especially on a lot of money, on wildshots. Things that they won't know how it will end up.
A group of billionaires and former NASA scientists is now unveiling the first asteroid mining company in history. They claim they will "add trillions of dollars to the global GDP" and "help ensure humanity's prosperity" by mining asteroids for rare metals like gold and platinum.
Their objective is to "harness resources from passing-by asteroids". And they claim they are going to launch their first space prospecting ships within 24 months!
He is talking about what is going to make space resource mining possible:
1. Advanced robotics that will allow for small spacecraft that can do a lot of things on their own.
2. New launch platforms, like SpaceX's Heavy Falcon rockets.
3. Investors with no fear of risk, like Google's Page and Brin. He actually means space nerds with gazillions of dollars.
The company doesn't care about the asteroid belt. They just care about near-Earth asteroids. There are 9,000 known Near Earth Asteroids. He argues that there are 1,500 that are energetically as easy to reach as the Moon.
One of the main resources they are going to mine is water. This will be used for fuel—oxygen and hydrogen—for space missions to Mars and other points of the solar system. Obviously, they are thinking long term here. He argues that, by mining this fuel on near-Earth asteroids, the cost of space travel will be peanuts.
The second resource is precious metals. He says they want to make precious elements abundant. Just like aluminum was a rare metal at the beginning and now it's one of the core building metals in the world, they want to do the same with platinum, gold and other rare elements. This will allow for technology never seen before.
They are also going to launch prospectors to space, specialized telescopes that will explore near-Earth asteroids. They will use these prospectors to study and understand the Asteroids. See how big they are, their spin rate, their speed... and then analyze their components, launching swarms of mining explorers.
Once they realize what are the asteroids they want to use, they will launch the extractors. He hasn't mentioned when are these are going to launch. Probably this is still quite far away.
What's the math of these missions, the cost of launching and bringing it back?
He will not go into the math, but he's arguing that a small asteroid—if you find the right kind—will pay for itself and give billions of dollars in benefits.
He mentioned that a 50-meter-in-diameter asteroid with just 20% water represents the entire fuel spent on the shuttle program.
Where are you building and from where are you launching?
They are building the Arkyd probes in Bellevue, Seattle. They will be launching them alongside other satellites.....snip~
How the Space Miners Will Bring Trillions of Dollars to Earth
http://politirant.com/Smileys/oldrant/satellite.png
Space bores me. There's a whole lot of world to see here, more than any will see in their lifetime. I don't really see the point in manipulating environments not meant for humans instead of improving the environment we have that is specifically suited for us and is far more beautiful and diverse than any other landscape out there.
Everything in existence lies beyond the confines of low earth orbit. In our tiny solar system alone one could spend an evening on Io as you watched the fantastic aurora borealis effect unlike anything possible to imagine on earth as you witnessed the interplay between the electric storms which wrack Io and the close proximity to the magnetosphere of Jupiter the result is a fantastic light show that is unrivaled in our stellar system. You could travel to Mars and stand atop Olympus Mons knowing that you stand atop the tallest geological formation for billions of miles. Or you could journey to Europa and drill down and see what mysteries and beauty the ancient frozen waters hide beneath.
There are a trillion times a trillion things to see, so much in our solar system. Everything that is, was, and ever will be exists beyond the narrow perimeter of our atmosphere.
It doesn't excite you? It doesn't fill you with wonder or interest? Then you haven't thought about it that much.
And I could climb Everest, explore the deepest oceans of Earth, adventure through North American woodlands, traipse through the Amazonian jungle, experience night time in the Sahara and a **** load else that Earth provides (IE: diversity, not for all we know are dead rocks). I will unlikely be able to do this all in one lifetime. The treasure trove is right here.
I have thought about it, and any images I see of other planets does not excite my imagination. Life is fundamental to the diversity of beauty.
We now know whats out there (space), and its more space.
What we should be developing is our oceans.
Hundreds of exoplanets have been discovered already. Some of them are candidates for being life-bearing worlds.
Before you say we'll never get there, I'll say a recent study showed that the Alcubierre Drive could be far more feasible than originally believed... we don't know what another century may bring.
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