Astronomy / Space NASA is looking for robots to extract gold and platinum from asteroids.

[DobrijZmej]

Asteroids Provide Sustainable Resource, Study Finds
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NASA is searching for an asteroid of about 500 tons that can be moved into a path within the moon's orbit so astronauts can visit it as early as 2021 to take samples of the space rock.
"When we wrote this paper we were focused on the moon as a source of near-Earth resources, but near Earth asteroids work equally well and offer several additional advantages," Metzger said. "It takes less fuel to bring resources away from the lower gravity of an asteroid, and since the ultimate goal is to move the industry to the asteroid main belt starting with asteroids first will help develop the correct technologies."

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[Oddball]

A really interesting read DobrijZmej. Thanks.

 

[metatheurgist]

Wonder if that'll change the minds of those people who keep saying space research is a waste of money?

 

[Listeri69]

Wonder if that'll change the minds of those people who keep saying space research is a waste of money?

I always wondered in the 15th Century did people think that columbus guy complete waste of money that....... The only way is onwards and upwards otherwise we'd all be sitting around in caves grunting, ok some of us still do but you get the point

 

[LCplCombat]

I can't see it happening. What would a large lump of gold introduced to the world market do to the price per ounce and the value of the worlds economies?

 

[Patrick_68000]

In the hope that once in lunar orbit, it does not so deviate from its trajectory, for to crash on the earth and destroy all life.

 

[metatheurgist]

I always wondered in the 15th Century did people think that columbus guy complete waste of money that....... The only way is onwards and upwards otherwise we'd all be sitting around in caves grunting, ok some of us still do but you get the point

According to some accounts they did behave the same way - called him a crazy idiot that would sail off the edge of the world. It's understandable that uneducated peasants would think that way, but today, when anyone can pick up a book and learn the same lesson that Columbus's detractors did, it's inconceivable. Especially when one is a US senator.

I can't see it happening. What would a large lump of gold introduced to the world market do to the price per ounce and the value of the worlds economies?

Bring on the revolution I say, what's economics done for anyone recently?

 

[Patrick_68000]

I can't see it happening. What would a large lump of gold introduced to the world market do to the price per ounce and the value of the worlds economies?

You probably have of gold ingots placed somewhere. You have a limited time to sell everything before the collapse.

 

[Hanni79]

If they should manage to actually build an Orbital skyhook + Lift, I would suspect the world economy to become quite rough

Cheap transportation of ores, satellites and other stuff from and to Orbit would be quite the game changer.

Or some suspicious groups try to prevent us from doing this at all, think what would happen if someone managed to catch a 5000 ton raw diamond ... DeBeers might get grumpy over that ...