Asteroid Mining

[a completely inoffensive name]

Besides, didn't China buy up all the rare earth metals or something?

See my previous post.

[rvg]

Asteroid mining should really pick up if we construct some processing facilities on the ISS. That way the entire process will be confined to outer space negating the huge costs of leaving and re-entering Earth.

[a completely inoffensive name]

Asteroid mining should really pick up if we construct some processing facilities on the ISS. That way the entire process will be confined to outer space negating the huge costs of leaving and re-entering Earth.

You still need to transport the final product to earth after processing, which means constant leaving and re-entering for the ship. So why bother putting the processing facility way up there for billions of dollars when it could be done for millions on earth?

[rvg]

You still need to transport the final product to earth after processing, which means constant leaving and re-entering for the ship. So why bother putting the processing facility way up there for billions of dollars when it could be done for millions on earth?

To use it to expand the ISS itself.

[Major Robert Dump]

Well since we are gutting our space program in America because we can't manage our infinite money, someone has to carry the torch.

[PanzerJaeger]

Well since we are gutting our space program in America because we can't manage our infinite money, someone has to carry the torch.

It is very interesting to watch private industry take over as government gets out of the space business. We will see how our space companies compete with China and India's space programs.

I would hope NASA could become an R&D clearing house to support these efforts, determining the feasibility of various proposals and passing out grants to promising ones. We should create a kind of space industrial complex, much like the military one that has produced some of our best technology. It is actually a pretty good model for developing very high cost, cutting edge tech.

[gaelic cowboy]

It is very interesting to watch private industry take over as government gets out of the space business. We will see how our space companies compete with China and India's space programs.

I would hope NASA could become an R&D clearing house to support these efforts, determining the feasibility of various proposals and passing out grants to promising ones. We should create a kind of space industrial complex, much like the military one that has produced some of our best technology. It is actually a pretty good model for developing very high cost, cutting edge tech.

One thing I would remind people about corporate space projects is the fact that there essentially rent seeking projects just like most millitary projects too. Thats not to say there are no benefits from rent seeking companies we can see that some have contributed to the security of the USA(but not all)

There will always be a need for some federal input most companies are not likely to want to study some aspects of it as there would be little or no return on investment. I expect the big push will be in attempting to harness solar energy out in space to be essentially beamed back to earth, the millitary applications of an essentially a free-ish energy source are huge.

Essentially were returning to an era simmilar to the early explorers who were funded by a mixture investors or the monarchs.

[HopAlongBunny]

To use it to expand the ISS itself.

Possible. A very starry-eyed view would be for processing/manufacturing in space for space related "infrastructure".

[rvg]

Possible. A very starry-eyed view would be for processing/manufacturing in space for space related "infrastructure".

Space rock can be used to create hull space. Lots of hull space, can't have too much of that. Besides, hauling a whole asteroid down to Earth is wasteful, considering that 95% of it is likely to be garbage as far as Earth is concerned, but in space all that garbage can come in handy. Now, if you managed to find an asteroid made of solid gold, then yeah, down to Earth it goes. Barring that, might as well maximize the usefulness of those rocks.

[a completely inoffensive name]

Space rock can be used to create hull space. Lots of hull space, can't have too much of that. Besides, hauling a whole asteroid down to Earth is wasteful, considering that 95% of it is likely to be garbage as far as Earth is concerned, but in space all that garbage can come in handy. Now, if you managed to find an asteroid made of solid gold, then yeah, down to Earth it goes. Barring that, might as well maximize the usefulness of those rocks.

Rock isn't really that useful for orbiting space stations. It would be difficult to construct the proper architecture that is required to provide protection against micro meteorites. Big thick slab walls are actually not that great for high speed collisions.