Space-Mining Company Prepares for Launch

[Albino Boo]

Commodity prices are unlikely to fall by any substantial amounts in the future, as the easy to mine materials are going to be harder and harder to find as time goes on. And while launch costs are indeed high, the risks of landing materials is nowhere near as bad as you think. Re-entry calculations are not very difficult to do, and there's more than enough uninhabited area's on the planet to drop things safely.

This isn't the first time in recent history the commodity prices have rocketed. In the mid 70s your saw similar profiles. High oil prices in the wake of the Yom Kippur war drove up had a knock on effect across most areas. Gold and silver was driven up by investors seeking safe havens in difficult economic times. There where people making the same argument that you have put forward then, yet 10 years later all those prices had tumbled. The main drivers for commodities now are unrest in the middle east, investors seeking value and Chinese manufacturing. The only difference between now and the 70s is Chinese manufacturing, however the demand form China is likely to drop. The Chinese government has recognized that they are at the top of bubble currently and are trying to engineer a soft landing.

True that the iron isnt really going anywhere, but we are using it. Its not like when someone needs some more iron theres always going to be someone who doesnt need it anymore.

And strictly speaking it doesnt just apply to iron. Several commonplace metals are going up in price because its getting harder to find fresh supplies on Earth.

This brings me on to my second point. Which is cheaper recycling minerals already extracted, or lunching robots travailing at 25000 mph, moving 1/2 million miles, mining a 2 ton asteroid, repeat until you have a few tons, then launching5 tons of iron back at Earth and losing 2/3 of mass on rentry. This isn't hydrocarbons we are talking about here its basic elements. The reason why iron is more common than than gold is due the laws of physics, the heaver the element the less of it of created by fusion in stars or by super novas. Yes there are vast quantities of minerals out there but they are going to be in roughly the same distribution you find on Earth. In other words you going to find vastly more iron than you are gold. Even at todays prices iron ore is dirt cheap. Even if you do find a 20 ton lump of pure gold, what do think that's going to do the price of gold? The markets can respond quicker than you can get the gold on the ground. The more you find the less its worth.

 

[juyunseen]

This is all well and good, but when are we finally gonna figure out how to build a safe space elevator?

 

[tangoprime]

What would a job application look like?

Do you play eve? Yes

What role do you play? Miner

You're hired!

That's what we need, goonswarm creating a real life Hulkageddon.

 

[Jymm]

One great offshoot of the project is all of multiple surveying telescopes placed in orbit will increase the chance of early detection of potential earth striking asteroids.

 

[Sun Flash]

Well we are running out of helium. Makes sense, I guess and anything that furthers space exploration is aces in my book.

As a side note, If the article picture came in a higher definition, I would totally use it as my wallpaper. EDI must've had some kind of cyber aneurysm doing that.

 

[chadachada123]

Idea for free labor: give control of these mining-bots over to video gamers. Bam.

I, for one, would love to scan some asteroids for minerals, even if it's something like examining raw data and reporting on that.

It'd be like that genome-game except more awesome.

 

[spartandude]

One great offshoot of the project is all of multiple surveying telescopes placed in orbit will increase the chance of early detection of potential earth striking asteroids.

i still doubt it, we are so terrible at it, only a few years ago an (all life on earth ending size) asteroid want past earth, really really really really close, and we only noticed it after it went by

 

[chadachada123]

This brings me on to my second point. Which is cheaper recycling minerals already extracted, or lunching robots travailing at 25000 mph, moving 1/2 million miles, mining a 2 ton asteroid, repeat until you have a few tons, then launching5 tons of iron back at Earth and losing 2/3 of mass on rentry. This isn't hydrocarbons we are talking about here its basic elements. The reason why iron is more common than than gold is due the laws of physics, the heaver the element the less of it of created by fusion in stars or by super novas. Yes there are vast quantities of minerals out there but they are going to be in roughly the same distribution you find on Earth. In other words you going to find vastly more iron than you are gold. Even at todays prices iron ore is dirt cheap. Even if you do find a 20 ton lump of pure gold, what do think that's going to do the price of gold? The markets can respond quicker than you can get the gold on the ground. The more you find the less its worth.

We aren't talking about iron or gold, though. We're talking about nickel and phosphorous and argon and tritium and a bunch of other stuff that is heading towards limited supply.

There was a great article I read not too long ago about some of the elements we use for electronics that is running desperately low but is found in great abundance in asteroids, if only I could find it.

 

[Salakayin]

True that the iron isnt really going anywhere, but we are using it. Its not like when someone needs some more iron theres always going to be someone who doesnt need it anymore.

And strictly speaking it doesnt just apply to iron. Several commonplace metals are going up in price because its getting harder to find fresh supplies on Earth.

This brings me on to my second point. Which is cheaper recycling minerals already extracted, or lunching robots travailing at 25000 mph, moving 1/2 million miles, mining a 2 ton asteroid, repeat until you have a few tons, then launching5 tons of iron back at Earth and losing 2/3 of mass on rentry. This isn't hydrocarbons we are talking about here its basic elements. The reason why iron is more common than than gold is due the laws of physics, the heaver the element the less of it of created by fusion in stars or by super novas. Yes there are vast quantities of minerals out there but they are going to be in roughly the same distribution you find on Earth. In other words you going to find vastly more iron than you are gold. Even at todays prices iron ore is dirt cheap. Even if you do find a 20 ton lump of pure gold, what do think that's going to do the price of gold? The markets can respond quicker than you can get the gold on the ground. The more you find the less its worth.

Keep in mind, though, that recycling processes can only go so far. What exploring and surveying for mineral sources off of our planet leads to an effective *long term* solution. We have to do this at some point. Minerals within our own planet, and the recylcing of such, will become steadily more limited and harder to achieve. It's like you're stuck on an island, and have to use the materials of the island over and over. You'll only go so far before the quantity and quality decays to a point where its unsustainable. In this case, our planet is the island. It's amazing folks are pursuing this technological avenue now, because the sooner we start on it then the better all around in terms of our situation. Our planet's geology is very limited in some respects, especially those that can be shored up by the geology of those asteriods and the like up there in space. So yeah, startin' now on pursuing this technology will be amazing for the long term situation, and even further advances in space.

 

[Nurb]

I'm going to be the

Is the future of space advancement really in the hands of private companies? Moon and Alien say hello...

We now return you to your lunar eclipse, brought to you by Google/Wal-Mart.

Not only that, the article mentioned the running of the railroads, which was a source of major exploitation and worker mistreatment by the railroad companies, which was the same time the coal mining industry was mistreating its workers. People don't remember history where those companies were sending strike breakers and others to murder and harass organizers who were trying to get better pay and working conditions.

A corporate future is a despotic future.

"I can hire one-half of the working class to kill the other half."
-Jay Gould (1836-1882), American Railroad Industrialist

I'd still want to pilot a future ship, haha.

 

[Zorg Machine]

YES! We are finally going where no man has gone before! We are exploring space...the final frontier! In an extended length of time we wil explore galaxies far far away! I don't have any more space references but trust me, the awesomeness of space missions...the awesomeness of space missions never changes.


seriously though, EPIC!

 

[RedDeadFred]

This brings me on to my second point. Which is cheaper recycling minerals already extracted, or lunching robots travailing at 25000 mph, moving 1/2 million miles, mining a 2 ton asteroid, repeat until you have a few tons, then launching5 tons of iron back at Earth and losing 2/3 of mass on rentry. This isn't hydrocarbons we are talking about here its basic elements. The reason why iron is more common than than gold is due the laws of physics, the heaver the element the less of it of created by fusion in stars or by super novas. Yes there are vast quantities of minerals out there but they are going to be in roughly the same distribution you find on Earth. In other words you going to find vastly more iron than you are gold. Even at todays prices iron ore is dirt cheap. Even if you do find a 20 ton lump of pure gold, what do think that's going to do the price of gold? The markets can respond quicker than you can get the gold on the ground. The more you find the less its worth.

We aren't talking about iron or gold, though. We're talking about nickel and phosphorous and argon and tritium and a bunch of other stuff that is heading towards limited supply.

There was a great article I read not too long ago about some of the elements we use for electronics that is running desperately low but is found in great abundance in asteroids, if only I could find it.

Ya they aren't really concerned about iron or gold. They are more concerned about water and then various platinum metals that can ONLY be found in asteroids.

 

[blackrave]

Am I'm only one concerned here?
Asteroid belt of solar system serves as a shield for Earth
Mining them would be risky

 

[Shadie777]

I am giddy with excitement. I never thought that they would start on this so soon.
Humanity. FUCK YEAH!

If anyone is interested, they did a conference on this:

this is only the first part.

 

[Slayer_2]

Am I'm only one concerned here?
Asteroid belt of solar system serves as a shield for Earth
Mining them would be risky

I'm pretty doubtful we'll put much of a dent in it.

 

[Ignuus66]

Am I'm only one concerned here?
Asteroid belt of solar system serves as a shield for Earth
Mining them would be risky

to be fair, asteroid mining operations can easily be repurposed to destroy incoming threats, not to mention, a simple ion thruster (they recently made a 200 GRAM version) attached to a asteroid would be enough to veer it away, not to mention we could always nuke it away )

 

[Evil Alpaca]

Am I'm only one concerned here?
Asteroid belt of solar system serves as a shield for Earth
Mining them would be risky

Actually it doesn't. Earth's greatest defense is the fact that space is so big and that the chances of an asteroid of sufficient size to hit us are so small. The belt is not like the asteroid field in Empire Strikes Back; its mostly empty space. As such, it does nothing for protecting Earth.

 

[Edible Avatar]

Weyland-Yutani, here we come... or should i say, Cameron-Google