Mastodawn

Spaceflight 🚀

#MiningTechnology 📆 September 13, 2023 The #economic potential of extracting raw #minerals from #space for use on Earth or for #InSpaceManufacturing is infinite. The #asteroid ☄️ database Asterank has estimated the resource values for asteroids tracked by #NASA. It claims that the ten closest and most cost-effective #asteroids to mine from #Earth contain around $1.5trn 💰 of natural #resources in today’s economy, which is equivalent to the current annual value of the entire global 🌍 #mining ⚒️ industry.
The current level of investment 💵 into #SpaceExploration and the potential exhaustion of Earth’s resources mean that #AsteroidMining is more of an inevitability than a possibility. https://www.mining-technology.com/comment/asteroid-mining-resource-rich-developing-economies/

#AsteroidMining

What asteroid mining will mean for resource-rich developing economies

The extraction of valuable minerals from our solar system is the most hotly contested aspect of the race to exploit space.

Mining Technology

Pete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫Sep 24, 2023

@spaceflight
So the ten most cost-effective asteroids taken together would contain resources equal to one year's worth of mining on Earth.

How many years would it take to mine them?

How much are the next 10, less cost-effective ones, worth?

Spaceflight 🚀Sep 24, 2023

@petealexharris Earth's gravity pulled all heavy elements into its core during its molten youth more than four billion years ago.This left the crust depleted of such valuable elements https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_mining#Minerals_in_space

Asteroid mining - Wikipedia

Pete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫Sep 25, 2023

@spaceflight
Sure. The numbers just aren't convincing.

Besides, we only need an endless supply of rare metals once we already have an endless supply of the things we need more: water, food, energy, utilised human potential.

We have hungry children and burning forests. No amount of cheap iridium is going to fix that, and I'm not convinced it'd ever be cheap.

What it looks most like is a scam for the rocket-owning class to extract a few billion in investment before the collapse.

Spaceflight 🚀Sep 25, 2023

@petealexharris and then they settle on Mars ? 🤔 https://techhub.social/@spaceflight/110171620266762169

Spaceflight 🚀 (@[email protected])

Dr. Paul Sutter on how could #humans #colonize #Mars 🔴 (pros & cons) https://youtu.be/y4DZO_-OXck #SpaceColonization #SpaceScience #HumanSpaceflightBasics #HumanSpaceflightHealth

TechHub

Pete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫Sep 25, 2023

@spaceflight
Capitalists will never settle Mars, there isn't an existing culture and ecosystem to steal from anyone.

@petealexharris I recommend to read this book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_trilogy

Mars trilogy - Wikipedia

Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈Sep 26, 2023

@spaceflight @petealexharris this series had a profound influence on me as a young teenager.
I would love for it to be made into a TV series

@Lazarou you're not alone 😁 https://www.imdb.com/list/ls560017151/

Mars Trilogy Casting for Movie/series - IMDb

Mars Trilogy Casting for Movie/series

IMDb

Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈Sep 26, 2023

@spaceflight Fabulous news! (ooo, top talent too!)

@Lazarou it's just a wish list. Which director do you think might be capable to implement it appropriately ?

Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈Sep 26, 2023

@spaceflight ah well, thought that cast list was too good to be true! 😁

Although I haven't seen it yet, I would guess the showrunners behind Foundation could pull that off, and the team behind The Expanse of course.
Hopefully now this strike seems to be settled things might get rolling.

@spaceflight @petealexharris Counterpoint: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-settling-mars-is-a-terrible-idea/

Why Settling Mars Is a Terrible Idea

The downsides of spacefaring, infiltrating Florida’s gator poachers, and more books out this month

Scientific American

Tom Ritchford Sep 24, 2023

@spaceflight Our problems on Earth are due to excessive waste, not lack of resources.

Spaceflight 🚀Sep 24, 2023

@TomSwirly https://www.un.org/en/land-natural-resources-conflict

Land, Natural Resources and Conflict: From Curse to Opportunity. An UN-EU Partnership in action

Tom Ritchford Sep 25, 2023

@spaceflight I have actually seen that link before: it in no way refutes what I said.

The biggest threat facing the planet today is excessive waste, of which CO2 is just the most prominent part.

None of this rocketeering is going to fix that problem; indeed, while rocket fuel is usually hydrogen, the energy used to make the fuel is mostly fossil fuels, so it makes the problem worse.

Spaceflight 🚀Sep 25, 2023

@TomSwirly sure, it's about "reducing pollution of both the air and water on Earth" https://techhub.social/@spaceflight/110995393486355382 . Green hydrogen would be the best https://techhub.social/@spaceflight/109382305150918036 or alternatively @isecdotorg

Spaceflight 🚀 (@[email protected])

Attached: 1 image #LAtimes 📆 Sept. 4, 2022 "Two #asteroids in the belt between #Mars and #Jupiter 🪐 have more #iron, #nickel and #cobalt than exists on #Earth. Ultimately these products could be not only #mined ⛏️ but also #processed in #space, reducing #pollution of both the #air and #water on #Earth" https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-09-04/commercialization-space-earth "Both #NEAs have surfaces with 85% #metal such as iron and nickel and 15% silicate material, which is basically #rock" https://news.arizona.edu/story/mini-psyches-give-insights-mysterious-metal-rich-near-earth-asteroids Picture: #RASSOR on #Ceres https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Prototype-d%27excavateur-de-la-NASA--RASSOR.jpg #AsteroidMining #SpaceMining #SpaceRobot

TechHub

Tom Ritchford Sep 26, 2023

@spaceflight @isecdotorg

I have been reading articles about exploiting the asteroid belt for over fifty years now. During that time we have spent an astonishingly large amount of energy on rocketry, but haven't manufactured even one useful thing from off-world materials.

Also during that time, we went from threat to our climate being distant, to it being almost certain disaster looming in our faces.

Tom Ritchford Sep 26, 2023

@spaceflight @isecdotorg
Space travel is an excuse, so people can continue their compulsive consumption and compulsive waste, but tell themselves, "The magical space technology will fix everything!"

What we are doing is like a man not leaving his burning house because he is online, planning a retirement fund for his great-great-grandchildren.

@TomSwirly how do you define progress ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progress#Measuring_progress

Progress - Wikipedia

Tom Ritchford Sep 26, 2023

@spaceflight This is not germane to the matter at hand.

Some huge, amorphous, poorly-defined concept like "progress" is not useful in dealing with this critical problem: "How do we not decimate the biosphere, and with it, humanity?"

@spaceflight Until we can quantify the *massive* costs of extracting, processing, and returning these metals (in an environment where most existing mining equipment and processes wouldn’t work), no economic analysis makes sense.

I’m *very* dubious that *any* resource obtained off-Earth will ever be economical to use on Earth. (We may see space resource extraction used off-Earth, once we have significant off-Earth infrastructure.)

Spaceflight 🚀Oct 21, 2023

@michaelgemar “The horse 🐎 is here to stay, but the automobile 🚗 is only a novelty” https://listverse.com/2019/05/14/10-quotes-from-experts-who-were-proved-wrong/

10 Quotes From Experts Who Were Proved Wrong - Listverse

The 20th century was a time of great technological advancement, replete with discoveries and inventions that changed the world. We moved from horse and

Listverse

@spaceflight “They laughed at Einstein…but they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.” Handwaving away economics and physics is never very convincing.

Spaceflight 🚀Oct 21, 2023

@michaelgemar just as general pessimism https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/pessimism

pessimism noun - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com

Definition of pessimism noun in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.

@spaceflight I agree, and I’m generally a space proponent, but there are very concrete, specific issues with making asteroid mining physically and financially possible. One can’t overcome them with simple optimism — they need solutions, or at least some indication that there *are* possible solutions.

Spaceflight 🚀Oct 21, 2023

@michaelgemar just as for EVs https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E7QTssgXEAIkEBJ?format=jpg&name=large