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Corporate Space Mining Megathread!!111

Started by jimmy olsen, April 19, 2012, 12:40:21 AM

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grumbler

Quote from: Peter Wiggin on April 19, 2012, 03:36:09 AM
Well, it'd be a problem for people holding the metals in question, but I was thinking more of the accuracy of the value estimates on the asteroid.
:lol:  Someone spotted the elephant in the room!
The future is all around us, waiting, in moments of transition, to be born in moments of revelation. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know only that it is always born in pain.   -G'Kar

Bayraktar!

HVC

Quote from: Jaron on April 19, 2012, 01:37:03 AM
Industrialization is about making money, and space travel is too expensive to be profitable right now. Unless they find a solid gold asteroid, I don't see how this could work and be profitable.
which would devalue gold to the point it's not worth it to space mine anymore.
Being lazy is bad; unless you still get what you want, then it's called "patience".
Hubris must be punished. Severely.

Crazy_Ivan80

Quote from: grumbler on April 19, 2012, 11:40:28 AM
Quote from: Peter Wiggin on April 19, 2012, 03:36:09 AM
Well, it'd be a problem for people holding the metals in question, but I was thinking more of the accuracy of the value estimates on the asteroid.
:lol:  Someone spotted the elephant in the room!

Quick, someone go get Juan Carlos!

jimmy olsen

Looks like asteroid mining it is!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/20/planetary-resources-space-startup_n_1438936.html
QuoteBut a source who spoke to Diamandis about his venture — and did not want to be identified because the discussion was private — confirmed to The Huffington Post that Planetary Resources does, in fact, plan to mine asteroids for precious raw materials.
It is far better for the truth to tear my flesh to pieces, then for my soul to wander through darkness in eternal damnation.

Jet: So what kind of woman is she? What's Julia like?
Faye: Ordinary. The kind of beautiful, dangerous ordinary that you just can't leave alone.
Jet: I see.
Faye: Like an angel from the underworld. Or a devil from Paradise.
--------------------------------------------
1 Karma Chameleon point

Neil

I do not hate you, nor do I love you, but you are made out of atoms which I can use for something else.

Josquius

Quote from: Neil on April 19, 2012, 07:48:54 AM
Tamas, why would anyone be interested in zero-G factories when Chinese ones are more cost-effective?  Hell, it'd even be cheaper to use expensive, First World unionized labour with untenable pensions than it would be to use robots in space.

This seems like a plan to bilk Cameron and Google out of some money, because the technology for asteroid mining is still a long ways away, and the space travel industry has pretty much stagnated.

I recall reading long ago that there are certain things that can only be built in micro-gravity conditions.
What these are though I can't remember....super huge TV screens I think were one but....that is using old technology, I think we've found a work around to that these days.
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Jaron

Certain medical procedures would be a lot less risky in zero grav conditions, but a lot more expensive. And Obamacare doesn't cover trips to the moon.
Winner of THE grumbler point.

Tamas

It wouldn't be on the moon :rolleyes:

What all this putting me in mood for, is a High Frontier PBEM game.

Crazy_Ivan80

Quote from: Jaron on April 20, 2012, 10:29:52 PM
Certain medical procedures would be a lot less risky in zero grav conditions, but a lot more expensive. And Obamacare doesn't cover trips to the moon.

the moon isn't zero-g :p

Faeelin


Neil

Quote from: Crazy_Ivan80 on April 21, 2012, 04:13:12 AM
Quote from: Jaron on April 20, 2012, 10:29:52 PM
Certain medical procedures would be a lot less risky in zero grav conditions, but a lot more expensive. And Obamacare doesn't cover trips to the moon.

the moon isn't zero-g :p
Nowhere is, really.  What people used to call zero-g is today called microgravity.
I do not hate you, nor do I love you, but you are made out of atoms which I can use for something else.

Eddie Teach

Quote from: Neil on April 21, 2012, 09:53:31 AM
Nowhere is, really.  What people used to call zero-g is today called microgravity.

Not in the vernacular.
To sleep, perchance to dream. But in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?

Iormlund

Quote from: Ideologue on April 19, 2012, 02:18:58 AM
Now, solar power satellites, that would be compelling.

That's the most interesting use I see for space-mining. Low grav also has advantages for certain manufacturing processes as well.

DontSayBanana

Quote from: Iormlund on April 21, 2012, 11:26:51 AM
That's the most interesting use I see for space-mining. Low grav also has advantages for certain manufacturing processes as well.

Sure, but there'd have to be insane amounts of shuttling- low or zero gravity might be advantageous for some manufacturing processes, but it seems like most of our material refinement processes are heavily reliant on gravity feed.  Can you imagine the pain in the ass of trying to refine iron or steel in zero gravity?  Do we even have good materials for enclosing a smelting process to keep the molten metal from going everywhere?
Experience bij!

Crazy_Ivan80

Quote from: DontSayBanana on April 22, 2012, 09:25:47 AM
Quote from: Iormlund on April 21, 2012, 11:26:51 AM
That's the most interesting use I see for space-mining. Low grav also has advantages for certain manufacturing processes as well.

Sure, but there'd have to be insane amounts of shuttling- low or zero gravity might be advantageous for some manufacturing processes, but it seems like most of our material refinement processes are heavily reliant on gravity feed.  Can you imagine the pain in the ass of trying to refine iron or steel in zero gravity?  Do we even have good materials for enclosing a smelting process to keep the molten metal from going everywhere?
refining steel in zero-g would be silly since you need to provide the carbon. Getting the other metals... Might be doable if you can separate them from each other based on the weight their atoms have. But getting to that point though seems quite impracticle, if not impossible, with today's tech.