Slashdot Mirror
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.
Going to "space" with a planet-bound elevator is just about as adventurous and exciting as going "abroad" to Mexico (or, if you're not an American, to your neighbouring country).
Space elevators are fine and dandy if you've already mastered the technology to colonise other planets. Space elevators do not, however, allow us to do the actual colonisation.
Oh, and they're conceptually gay too.
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)??
When men used to be men
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.
visit my free wallpaper collection, wp.erasei.com
As always, a tech-for-the-sake-of-tech argument comes out.
There wasn't anything that horrible wrong with 'sitting back and waiting' as you call it.
The rush of some space-heads to rush out into space is ridiculous. We don't need to do that. In fact, I'd prefer if some of you would stop acting like that excuses you trashing the one terraformed world that we know and (some of us) sort of like.
Please stop watching so much crappy 'Science Fiction' drama and recognize it for what it is- fiction.
if NASA had been more interested in progress and results as oppossed to personal power and childish greed, then they would have avoided both the stepping in the way of private progress and would not have put in bureaucrat/corporate suit weenies out for their own personal gain. Thank you NASA, once again you prove how inefficiency and incompetence will always overcome that foolish drive to suceed you love to crush and control