Mining Asteroids@Home

An anonymous reader writes "Like the lively discussion on mediation strategies for exterminating asteroids, a six-person expert panel is debating today whether humans exist because of big collisions or in spite of them. Interestingly Mexico's oil (and most of the rest of the world's resources) seem to have arisen from later mining of these byproducts: the luck of geography or the price at the pump for dead dinosaurs."

Comments

Has been cancelled

[QEDog]

The discussion has been cancelled after a meteor crashed into the 6 panelists hotel...

Lets not rock the boat

[EMiniShark]

Regardless of whether we exist because of asteroid collisions, I'd rather not give space the chance to reinvent the planet again :)

At home ? They'll sue you know..

[MosesJones]

I can just see the adverts now

"Did you read an article that encouraged you to mine asteroids in your own home? Did you drag an asteroid out of orbit, or drive to a place in order to catch one, did this vapourise you, your loved ones and most of the state ? Here a Sue, Grabbit and Runne Associates we specialise in extra orbital and terrestrial accidents. Last year we helped Bob who strapped himself to 10,000 fireworks to get into space, Bob sadly died but were helped his widow sue Nasa for 100,000,000 dollars. Phone us now and we'll help you get over your stupidity"

(quick voice over)
"ActualAmountMayNotBeAsAdvertisedHereLevelO fClaimI sNotIndicativeOfAwardChargesApplyAndWeOnlyAcceptSt upidPeopleWhoDon'tReadInvoices"

Your just building yourself a litigation hell Slashdot.

Big collisions exist because of humans

[leonbrooks]

Stands to reason - we destroy practically everything else, it must be the Universe's way of protecting itself against us.

Great Impact Debate I: Benefits of Hard Bodies

[mikeophile]

For a minute, I thought this would be pr0n.

Humans Would Never Have Survived Without Asteroids

[Doctor Sbaitso]

Asteroids, without a doubt, helped our species survive. What else would have filled the immense void in the arcade hall in the years between Pong and Pac-Man?

Regardless...

[AndroidCat]

Regardless if asteroid impacts helped or hindered life on Earth (no so good for the dinosaurs, good for our proto-mice ancestors) I don't think that an asteroid impact would be a good thing today, thank you. Any future life forms that would be helped by an impact can kiss my grits.

Role in planetary forming

[nairnr]

A few interesting points from this article. One is that a number of impacts helped in creating some of the earths key resources. As evidenced by Canada's nickel deposits around the Sudbury impact crater, and Mexico's oil deposits around the Chicxlub impact.

In addition, the major impacts may not have contributed that much to mass extinctions. While there may have been a momentary spike in extinctions, the vast majority of extinctions were not related to a major event.

It is difficult for us to fully understand the effect of asteroid and comet impact on the earth, as we are so dynamic that much evidence gets lost..

Bah!

[Rayonic]

I've been mining asteroids at home for the past twenty years! How is this "News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters"?

Wait... hemmaroids are the ones in space, right?

Re:Billions of factors...

[Anonymous Coward]

If you'd finished reading the article, most of them disagree with the fact that spieces died out "most likely, as a result of large impacts."

First of all, in contradiction to Benny Peiser's remarks, Peter Ward has presented data showing that while it is true that the majority of species that have ever existed are now extinct, only a minority of those, a few percent in fact, were victims of mass extinctions. Instead, most extinct species have come to an end at some random time between mass extinctions.

Re:Billions of factors...

[blair1q]

Maybe.

Chaos theory doesn't say that every change will result in a vastly different outcome.

It just says that some changes can result in vastly different outcomes.

What it rarely points out is that most change results in only a minor difference. But then, it wants to be ***Chaos***Theory*** and not just the instability section of the chapter on metastable systems.

Bush Administration

[sterno]

At the conference, the Bush Administration is expected to seek support for a pre-emptive strike against the Universe. Administration sources were quoted as saying, "The Universe has a long history of unpredictable agression and deterrance of its threats is simply not an option." Donald Rumsfeld went on to state that the US military strategy would bring about a swift and clean victory over the Universe.

Make Material Fast!

[Anonymous Coward]

Take five minutes to read this and it WILL change your life!

All you have to do is send an asteroid to the planet at the top of the list. Then remove that planet from the list, move the rest up one space and add your planet to the bottom of the list. Pass this list around by radio transmissions to other solar systems. Eventually your planet will reach the top of the list, and you'll have more asteroids than you know what to do with!

This really works. It is NOT a SCAM!

Praise to the dinosaurs.

[kkkalen]

Since some of us figure we owe our petroleum resources to dead dinosaurs, it stands to reason that the next form of life on this one-day-to-be-post-apocolyptic planet will filling their gas tanks with dead humans.

The A.T.A.R.I. Asteriod Extermination System

[ShinmaWa]

Many years ago -- I exterminated thousands of asteroids at home using the Asteroid Targetting And Removal Instrument 2600.