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The amount of raw material in space is utterly ridiculous. The most boring, irrelevant asteroid probably has more usable raw material in it than the largest min
by astrodust 8y ago
The amount of raw material in space is utterly ridiculous. The most boring, irrelevant asteroid probably has more usable raw material in it than the largest mines on Earth.
- WrtCdEvrydy 8y agoRobotic mining company.
- noir_lord 8y agoBeen a trope in scifi for a long time, I remember reading about automated mining systems in a scifi novel back in the 80's. It refined pure metals and then blew gas through them (think of a Carbury's wispa), these where then dropped into the pacific and floated until a ship retrieved them. The idea seemed neat though the line from "We are going to drop a 1000 tonnes of metal into the pacific and that of we are going to drop a 1000 tonnes of metal onto your house" seemed a thin one. It's hard to defend from the bottom of a gravity well against someone at the top of one.
- astrodust 8y agoDropping metal back on Earth presumes that we'd actually care about Earth at that point. There might be so many resources up there that nobody comes back.
- JoeAltmaier 8y agoThis. I have the idea that folks on the ground will play games with money, and imagine themselves wealthy while developing asteroid resources. But it'll all be for the benefit of space-based industry, which will server space-based populations. Ultimately Earth will realize they have a big pile of imaginary points and no more metal.
- RandallBrown 8y agohttps://www.planetaryresources.com https://www.planetaryresources.com
- astrodust 8y agoUnless they're autonomous, the lag would be brutal.