Space Mining Rocks for trillions of dollars
Seems like the stuff of science fiction a spacecraft in space docks on a floating metorite and drills it for a 20 tonnes of platinum or gold then disembarks the rock and returns to earth profiting hundreds of millions of dollars. But it makes you wonder though doesn't it, why wasn't this the whole plan of Nasa in the first place, sending a man to the moon and mars sounds great yeah sure, but what do you exactly get out of it? No wonder the government is broke, if they focused on mining the moon or asteroids then perhaps they'd actually have some money.
Sounds risky though doesn't it, mining the moon or a floating asteroid? But so does opening a Go Go bar in Pattaya, there are risks in all sorts of business plans but we have the technology to do this now, or we will do very soon and the company or maybe government who does so first could will because the richest company on the planet, I mean Solar System 🙂
In fact it's already begun take a look at the picture below, meet Amun 3554 doesn't look like much but according to a new startup called Planetary Resources launched in Seattle this unassuming rock is worth $20,000,000,000,000 dollars! And it's not the only one either, there are tens of thousands of these checks just floating around the sun waiting for someone to bring them down to earth, safely of course.
It may be 20-30 years away before they even attempt to start mining the rocks but it could be even sooner, the most exciting idea is not just the minerals like gold and platinum but for water as well which will make space travel truly possible.
Don't get too exciting about signing up to become a space miner though, it's more likely that the miners of the future will be robots and the engineers who fly them will likely be floating on a space station or sitting in an office in Vegas.
If you listen to the video below that the company Planetary Resources put it they make it sound like this is for the good of the world and the people on it, but the reality is that only a few will benefit, while they make trillions of dollars people will still be starving, AIDS won't be cured and the planet will continue to be mined stripped and beaten down to the point that we will have to live in space because we just can't live here anymore.
If you think this is interesting I recommend you read the book Mining The Sky: Untold Riches From The Asteroids, Comets, And Planets.I'd love to know what you guys think about it?
Physicist Tom Murphy wrote two excellent posts on his blog about why proposed a space resource economy is unfeasible using current technology:
http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2011/10/stranded-resources/
http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2011/10/why-not-space/
btw I registered for the forum but haven’t received anything in my email inbox yet.
you may have to check your spam folder or request a new password be sent
They had a guest on AOTS talk about this recently. I think he said one of the google guys was funding the race to get up there.
http://www.g4tv.com/videos/58279/the-future-of-asteroid-mining/
Remember Gold Rush in the Wild Wild West? This is the 21st century edition. Maybe 22nd century one.