Genius idea. It'll be like playing Homeworld again :)
Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled
101–110 of 221 posts
Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even if you had blueprints that said "here's exactly how to build a space telescope" just building it and going through all the proper testing would be quite expensive. Certainly you could just privately fund, say, Johns Hopkins University's APL to build a spacecraft for you, but it would still cost hundreds of millions of dollars and still be a comparatively risky endeavor. More so when you consider that the operati…
> Even if you had blueprints that said "here's exactly how to build a space telescope" just building it and going through all the proper testing would be quite expensive. As launch costs go down, the cost of experimentation is going to go down, leading to faster turnaround and less on-the-ground testing. Rapid iteration will eventually be the norm.
Oh yes, definitely. I'm just explaining why there hasn't been a privately funded space telescope yet.
Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled
#103If mines are such ugly, destructive things, why is it that I find this development so beautiful?
Mines are ugly and destructive because they fuck up habitable crust and life. There's none of that on an asteroid.
Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled
#104Cannot explain how much this excites me... but can somebody familiar with the matter please elaborate on the economics of this? How, exactly, do they intend to make money? I was under the impression (from previous articles) that the raw minerals from the asteroids were worth tens or hundreds of thousands $$, while the process of bringing them to Earth would be orders of magnitude higher (millions or billions). Wouldn…
The intent is to use the material in orbit. It costs loads of money to send stuff to orbit (e.g. for the ISS) and this could be cheaper, especially for bulky stuff. Bringing it all the way back to the surface is not worth the energy required.
The intent is to use the water in orbit, but they're saying they'll bring the platinum down here. If you're already in earth orbit, going back to the surface doesn't take much energy.
Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled
#105I hate to admit it, but my brain initially processed the headline as: "Google execs have backed an asteroid mining venture. In other news, James Cameron has been unveiled." Then, after that horrendous attempt at comprehension, it came up with this, which was only slightly better: "James Cameron has unveiled an asteroid mining venture that is backed by Google execs."
There was this nice piece by the NYT about the history and traditions of comma placement recently. Interesting read.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/09/fanfare-for-...
Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled
#106Finally, extraordinary concentration of capital has an upside.
Apparently, billionaires who made their money by inventing things people want have a tendency to do other cool things that benefit people.
Billionaires who got there by, say, making giant bets with the downside backed by the public purse, tend to be absent from these sorts of ventures.
Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled
#107Are they considering also sources of energy (gases for example) to mine? I mean, metals are good, but we will need more energy too. Also, what metals can they mine? Can they mine lithium (maybe we can ship 'batteries' to charge on the moon or asteroids?)? Cool stuff anyway.
Solar is a better bet for energy in near earth space as opposed to batteries. That changes as you go out to the Belt and Mars, but even then a radio thermal generator (RTG) is probably better.
If you want to ship energy to Earth surface you want solar again. Generate electricity from panels, convert to microwave, beam to receivers on Earth, convert back to electricity, problem solved. And no, the beam density would not high enough to cook anyone.
Google "space based solar power" for more.
Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
FTA: "A single platinum-rich space rock 1,650 feet (500 meters) wide contains the equivalent of all the platinum-group metals ever mined throughout human history, company officials said." Quick Wikipedia/Google math: 1 cubic foot of Platinum = 1330 pounds [1] Total platinum mined ever = ~25 cubic feet [1] * 1330 lbs = 33250 lbs = 532,000 oz Current price of platinum = $1,560/oz [2] Total value of platinum in an aster…
Wow! I can't believe we've only ever mined 25 cubic feet of plat. Reading your source I'm not sure it's right, "The annual supply of platinum is only about 130 tons" "one cubic foot weighs a little more than 1,330 pounds" 23*1330lb = 13,875kg ever 130tons = 117,934kg per year "basement of less than 25 cubic feet" Maybe them meant basement of 25 square feet or 250cuft which is still tiny basement.
It's definitely wrong.
According to [1], 614,631 kg were mined in South Africa (which accounts for about 80% of world production) between 2002 and 2009.
Density of platinum = 21.45g/cm^3 = 21.45 * 10^6 g/m^3 = 21.45 * 10^3 kg/m^3
=> total volume mined 2002 - 2009 = 614631 / 21450 = 28.65 m^3 approx.
So that's about 28.65 * 35.29 = 1011 cubic feet, JUST in South Africa and JUST between those years.
Other estimates visualise the total ever mined as a cube of 20 feet per SIDE ([2]), which sounds a bit more like it, given the numbers above - but still feels a little bit low.
[1] http://www.indexmundi.com/minerals/?country=za&product=p...
Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled
#109This NY Times article has a lot more information: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/24/science/space/in-pursuit-o... . It's wonderful to see people spending huge amounts of money to expand the reach of humanity instead of our capacity for narcissism. Startups like these give me hope for the future.
From the Times article:
this one has the distinct advantage in that it has technical savvy and adequate capitalization to get started.
Gotta feel bad for the guys who provided the "inadequate capital" to the earlier companies that never had the "technical savvy" to make it happen.
I see the imaginations of the hackers here burning, and it excites me. I only wonder if the human species as a whole isn't too cynical to try risky space ventures again.
Re: Asteroid Mining Venture Backed by Google Execs, James Cameron Unveiled
#110This NY Times article has a lot more information: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/24/science/space/in-pursuit-o... . It's wonderful to see people spending huge amounts of money to expand the reach of humanity instead of our capacity for narcissism. Startups like these give me hope for the future.
"One possibility the company is considering is to nudge a small asteroid, perhaps one as long as a football field, into an orbit around Earth closer than the moon." I hope they're careful. :-)
This leads to scary thoughts on using this for military purposes