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Asteroid Resources Could Make Science Fiction Dreams and Nightmares a Reality

Posted by samzenpus on from the best-and-worst dept.

MarkWhittington writes "With two private companies, Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries, proposing to set up asteroid mining, the prospect of accessing limitless wealth beyond the Earth has caused a bit of media speculation about what that could mean. The question arises, could asteroid resources be used to create the greatest dreams — and perhaps the worst nightmares — of science fiction?"

4 of 223 comments (clear)

  1. Re:We have no clue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The solar system is nothing like Earth.
    For one thing, it's not a planet.

  2. Doesn't lose suction by tepples · · Score: 4, Funny

    They completely left out the notion of a Dyson Sphere

    I wonder if that's because the target audience might confuse it with a brand of vacuum cleaner.

  3. I have no idea... by tippe · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... but I've duly made a mental note to never accept a mission to fix the communication gear on one of their mining ships after it suddenly stops all transmissions with Earth... I've already got enough "training" on that subject to know that things never turn out well.

  4. Re:Hello, economics by grep_rocks · · Score: 3, Funny

    I think a better business model would be: 1) nudge near earth astroid into collision course with earth 2) submit ransom note 3) profit!