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Protect solar system from mining 'gold rush', say scientists
- perfunctory 8y ago"...analysed how soon humans might use up the solar system’s most accessible resources should space mining take off. They found that an annual growth rate of 3.5% would use up an eighth of the solar system’s realistic resources in 400 years. At that point, humanity would have only 60 years to apply the brakes and avoid exhausting the supply completely."
- citboin 8y agoSo then obviously we would need to find a way to expand beyond mining the asteroid belt. The article says "...humans might struggle to mine the sun, or extract useful materials from Jupiter, a gas giant with more mass than the rest of the solar system’s planets combined..." So those would be the obvious next targets, assuming we can't or don't expand beyond our solar system.
- SlipperySlope 8y agoThis proposal is analogous to the Moon Treaty. There is no way that Earth is going to control the other planets, asteroids and space colonies when they get their own nukes. It could very well be a tragedy of the commons akin to what happened to Earth's ocean. I, for one, believe that energy is the key resource - not minerals. And energy in space is sustainable using the Sun.