We're in the same age demographic, brother, I'm right there with you. ;o) Rich, I think humanity will see that eventually, but for it to happen, the cost of obtaining those resources on earth would have to exceed the cost of procuring them from space. The value of those resources would have to be enormous. This could also mean that those resources have been depleted on earth and are just no longer available. Major technology advances could also bring down the costs of extra-terrestrial mining. I think too that if the technology and infrastructure exist for extra-terrestrial mining, then space-based manufacturing is probably going to exist at the same time. Except for very large items, only the finished goods would be de-orbited and brought back to earth, or the moon, or Mars. I think we're talking about scenarios that still lie a couple of hundred years hence. Lots of changes are going to take place on earth first. Humans don't share very well. War will be cheaper than space-based mining for a long, long time to come. On Sun, May 3, 2009 at 8:19 AM, Richard Tenney <retenney@yahoo.com> wrote:
I represent that remark! ;)
The movie "Outland" was on yesterday (the one with Sean Connery about miners in space). Is commercial mining of asteroids/moons foreseeable, or is the cost to bring ore home gong to remain too prohibitive?
--- On Sun, 5/3/09, Chuck Hards <chuck.hards@gmail.com> wrote:
...fellow astronomers on the wrong side of 50, lol.
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