NASA On Mining Extraterrestrial Sources

FortKnox writes "Looks like something from the game "Homeworld", but NASA discusses mining ore from planets/asteroids or any other source of "Cosmic Dirt"." I remember debating this idea in high school debate - it's a wonderful idea.

Comments

Re:Don't forget about energy

[targo]

One of my co-workers was telling me that NASA is also actively researching the possible drilling for petroleum on other planets (Mercury comes to mind, IIRC).

What kind of nonsense is that? Oil in the nature is created by huge masses of organic stuff being under high pressure for a long time. Are you seriously saying that there were massive forests on Mercury once (because that's the reason we have oil on Earth)??

Send criminals!

[Erasei]

Ok ok, it sounds like a joke (or a troll even), but seriously.. think about it. How many cons sitting on Death Row wouldn't love to go into the history books for being the first person on Mars. Tell them up front: 'Look, you are gonna die by lethal injection in 10 years, why not help the world and be famous by dying on Mars?' He could be trained to send back data as he goes in, and maybe, after a few dozen or so cons have been, we can get one to survive on the planet surface for awhile.

Seriously.. this isn't a troll. It sounds crazy, but as long as we are killing people, we might as well get some use out of them. And I am sure quite a few death row inmates would rather be remembered for helping mankind get to mars than for killing a few people in a convience store robbery.

I don't know.. maybe I just haven't had enough coffee yet this morning.. just an idea.