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Is Space Mining Feasible?
Roland Piquepaille writes "There is a large amount of precious minerals on the Moon and Mars. Would it be feasible to bring these valuable materials back on Earth? Space.com says that mining specialists and space engineers, who gathered at the latest Space Resources Roundtable, think the answer is yes. But there are many issues to solve. The first one is to build a permanent base. Then, you have to live on space resources. The article looks at other issues, such as strategic and economic potentials, before examining legal concerns about working conditions and extraterrestrial resource ownership. As the article says about lawyers, it 'turns out you can't leave Earth without them.' This summary contains more details and a rendering of a possible commercial Lunar base."
Just imagine all the cheese from the moon!
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Tell Bush there are weapons of mass destruction on Mars.
Another reason to spend meelions of dollars on something that might not even prove fruitful. Woohoo.
Why go shopping for asteroids when they deliver? Sure, the delivery schedule and drop-off point is unpredictable, but hey - free minerals!
As the article says about lawyers, it 'turns out you can't leave Earth without them.'
Unlike Kennedy, no one speaks of "returning [them] safely to the Earth."
Sure there is. Think of the amount of raw rock we could utilize. We could make large rocks and small rocks, and even dust if we wanted to.
"I believe that Nasa is solely responsible for America being where it is today."
You're right. With NASA taking care of the native uprisings, inventing flight and defeating the Nazis - I've never understood why they don't get larger amounts of funding. Maybe it is because they have done so much with so little. The transcontinental railroad is one of my personal favorites in that great list of NASA accomplishments.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
That's nothing compared to the problems that would start once space tourism becomes popular. Just think... the millions of visiting tourists will have to use the bathroom at least once. This is why it's vitally important to get a receipt.
Ladies and Gentlemen...we are forgetting a little thing called "the force" here arent we.
Is space mining feasible? YES! With the force.
The force is strong in this one, give him a pick and a wheelbarrow!
[I can picture a world without war, without hate. I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it]
It all boils down to this: The "Galaxy Far, Far Away" is small and dense. Since it was "a long time ago", this seems likely, because we live in an expanding universe.
Evidence: Light speed is a big freakin' deal. Han's ship can just barely pull it off for short bursts, and he routinely outruns top-of-the-line Imperial Cruisers by doing so. Most of the time, the Falcon, like most other ships, coasts along at sub-light speed.
All these people travelling below light speed are going from one star system to another in a matter of hours or days on a fairly regular basis. This means that most of the stars are only a few light-hours apart, and crossing the galaxy from a place as remote as Luke's homeworld all the way to the capital planet near Galactic Central Point is a mere matter of days. Let's be generous and say that the whole galaxy is about a light-year wide.
Now consider that the thickness of our own galaxy, even way out here on the fringes of the unfashionable Eastern Spiral Arm, is about three thousand light years, you get a sense of how tiny their galaxy really was.
In a galaxy where the stars are that close together, it stands to reason that "deep space" is not really that deep. There's still some gasses in high orbits over planets. (Whatever gasses they are, they are not very refractive, because it still looks like deep space... and they are not very dense, because some of the ships, like the B-Wing and the Slave 1, get by without being very aerodynamic.)
This is why you hear R2 beeping, Tie Fighters exploding, weapons firing, etc.
So those of you who are physically incapable of saying to themselves "it's just a movie" can finally sit back, relax, and enjoy the film. Space flight in the Star Wars setting is not the same as space flight in the here and now.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
In the great tradition of Western civilization - lets ship felons out!
Surely a lot of enterpreneual people would gladly exchange 10 years in jail for 3 years of back breaking work mining Ceres or whatever for the chance of complete reabilitation and possible fortune.
It is cheaper - less safety precautions needed. So NASA should just provide minimum transports and expertise and private prison management companies will do the rest.
Along the same lines, let those who want to leave Earth. Freaks, sects, religious minorities, music downloaders.
Just like America, Australia, etc. space will be initially populated by the official scam of the Earth.
Of course there is air in space.
There's an air in space museum.
You may not be able to leave earth without lawyers but nothing is said about bring them back.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
You've never actually been to Floriduh, have you?
how are we supposed to create a trade triangle with Mars and the asteroid belt? NOBODY LIVES THERE! With whom are we going to trade? This is not TraderWars.
cpeterso
Give each ton one of my million IPv6 addresses?
Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.
Stop the Slashdot effect! Don't read the articles!