Jeff Bezos will build a colony on the moon

[Archer]

This and the fact that space ships are tiny and drilling/mining equipment is heavy and cumbersome.
If by some miracle they managed to get onto an asteroid and mine successfully; how would they get those minerals back to earth?

Sorry to break your foil hat here buddy but there is no conspiracy to be found here; we are just not ready yet for mining asteroids.

It's almost as if in order to mine asteroids we would need not only a base to launch from that is not on Earth, but also facilities off planet to process the raw materials gained. If only there was a suitably close chunk of rock that we could set up on...

 

[Cray]

Very interesting!

I honestly hope this becomes a reality. I just think we're already too dated to ever see this kind of developments in our lifetime.

I must admit to being an eternal optimist with regards space exploration, and I must admit the recent interest in space from countries that previously had nothing to do with it (and private companies) is very encouraging - just hope we get to see some more awesome things in our lifetimes

 

[Ninja'd]

Asteroid redirection was something being investigated by NASA (although this was primarily to stave off an extinction level event) but some scenarios would be to change the orbit of said asteroid to one around the earth or even the moon.

Wouldn't it be cheaper to send Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck up there?

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

This and the fact that space ships are tiny and drilling/mining equipment is heavy and cumbersome.
If by some miracle they managed to get onto an asteroid and mine successfully; how would they get those minerals back to earth?

Sorry to break your foil hat here buddy but there is no conspiracy to be found here; we are just not ready yet for mining asteroids.

yes, I agree fully with everybody, sending mining equipment just like crossing the atlantic is hard,

but as soon as it get done once, and the technology improves enough for something a bit more sustainable,
maybe it will be better use of humanities time,

 

[saor]

Wouldn't it be cheaper to send Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck up there?

Soundtrack would cost too much.

 

[Temujin]

If I had the cash, I would be putting a 'hotel' in orbit... loads of rich ****ers with money to burn on a holiday up there...

 

[LazyLion]

if Jeff had any brains, he'd take loans and try to mine an asteroid, just 1 asteroid has enough minerals to crash the world economy.
he would be the worlds first trillionaire.

THIS ^ There is an estimated $400 Quadrillion in the entire asteroid belt. Plenty of rare earth metals which are in huge demand.

 

[grok]

Mining an astroid: Crash it into the moon, then mine your gold or whatever from the residue.

Bigger concern is every single disaster movie involving planetary destruction ever..
What's the first thing rich people do? They use their fortune to build arks to escape the earth with.
Thus far its Elon, Branson & now Bezos heading off planet.

What are they not telling us?

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

wtf are you smoking? If you stopped for one second and thought you would realise how ridiculous this notion is.

To start off an asteroid is not a magic package full of useful materials, the vast majority are just dust and ice, to find even one that has a useful amount of anything in it would cost TRILLIONS...

The number of encounters a man made craft has had with an asteroid/comet: 4, 2 of which were crashed on purpose, one failed and one landed for literally a second to bring a few grains of dust back.

Total cost of these 4 missions, over 2 billion dollars.

yes, its expensive, dont doubt it one little bit,
and yes technology is not quite there yet, 100% agree,

but remember we (allegedly) landed a man on the moon in 69, and did it again a few times after that,
and this is in a time when a smartphone was the size of a big room, and the aircon for said computer was the size of a building.

today everybody has 100 x the processing ability in their pockets, as the lunar modules guidance computer.

so humanity has advanced in leaps and bounds since that time, but what have we done further?
answer me that?

build robots, and (primitive) space stations, but what else? cure world hunger? overpopulation?
safe nuclear waste disposal?

I reckon as a species we just marching in place, very little progress in the bigger scheme of things,
I mean if an asteroid was going to hit earth, what would we do to deflect it?

send a bunch of oil drillers? send a robot? pray?

has all the advancement of the (human) space program up till now been a waste?

I mean has any (rogue billionaire)
decided to change the status quo enough to actually send people or machines to harvest a small asteroid?

and make many trillions in profit, for a small initial outlay?

no everybody still stuck on earth with the small brain mentality, of its too expensive?

half a century back, crossing the Atlantic was hard, and many died trying to achieve that goal.
whats stopping humanity from advancing further? besides cost?

I probably not the only one that thinks their is more to the story, and probably will be ridiculed no end for this,
but there has to be a treaty of some kind to sending Humans into deep space?

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

Mining an astroid: Crash it into the moon, then mine your gold or whatever from the residue.

Bigger concern is every single disaster movie involving planetary destruction ever.. What's the first thing rich people do? They use their fortune to build arks to escape the earth with. Thus far its Elon, Branson & now Bezos heading off planet.

What are they not telling us?

my question precisely, why partner with governments that blow tax payers money on useless things?
what do they know they aren't telling us?

 

[Temujin]

Mining an astroid: Crash it into the moon, then mine your gold or whatever from the residue.

Bigger concern is every single disaster movie involving planetary destruction ever.. What's the first thing rich people do? They use their fortune to build arks to escape the earth with. Thus far its Elon, Branson & now Bezos heading off planet.

What are they not telling us?

They're secretly planning an intergalactic 3-way to repopulate the planet

 

[ScottulusMaximus]

nonsensical drivel

You clearly have absolutely no grasp whatsoever of the complexities of space travel. Do some research, think and come back with proper questions.

Also:

half a century back, crossing the Atlantic was hard

no, just no

 

[Cius]

Imagine this scenario. Man gets tech to populate new planets. Sends only people with no genetic defects and IQ's in the 140+ range. Lets them live there for a few hundred years. They easily solve the problems of space and a new planet and develop much faster than earth. Earth meanwhile due to humans being humans and idiocracy type scenario manage to destroy themselves largely. Other humans resettle and rehabilitate earth once again with only their best and brightest again starting the cycle of an advanced human race MKII

 

[Archer]

You clearly have absolutely no grasp whatsoever of the complexities of space travel. Do some research, think and come back with proper questions.

Also:

no, just no

You said it a lot nicer than how I would've done it :crylaugh:

 

[crackersa]

my question precisely, why partner with governments that blow tax payers money on useless things?
what do they know they aren't telling us?

Cost is everything. Do you want governments to bankrupt themselves? Which programs should they abandon so they can fund the asteroid mining? And making statements like you have is not helping your case. NASA has done plenty of advances, you are just wearing blinkers to notice it.

getting an interview at the amazon for office? Big whoop, let me know when you get hired at the head office, where the real tech advances happen.

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

You clearly have absolutely no grasp whatsoever of the complexities of space travel. Do some research, think and come back with proper questions.

Also:



no, just no

ok, you continue to believe whatever you want to believe,

when the giant asteroid comes, just pray? alright? it will miraculously miss Earth then...

and dont forget to feed the mountain demon in Hawaii, with a spare goat or something, as its angry now.

no need for USGS and all those eggheads, just grab a (handy) goat and chuck it in to the volcano.

all problems in the world can be solved by applying your logic to problems...
pray and say its better use for Nasa to build giant prayer wheels,

or flap their arms to achieve lift





my ramblings, are based of historical facts, how difficult was it to cross the Atlantic?
VERY, and took Forever if the wind wasn't cooperating, (8 weeks)

what did people do? stay in overcrowded and disease riddled Europe?
if they did what would humanity look like today?

same too with Space exploration, we have had out columbus moment (moon landing)
now what? how do we make (a lot) of money from it?

what advancements have been done in space exploration since that time?
robots? laboratories? not much else I must admit.

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

Imagine this scenario. Man gets tech to populate new planets. Sends only people with no genetic defects and IQ's in the 140+ range. Lets them live there for a few hundred years. They easily solve the problems of space and a new planet and develop much faster than earth. Earth meanwhile due to humans being humans and idiocracy type scenario manage to destroy themselves largely. Other humans resettle and rehabilitate earth once again with only their best and brightest again starting the cycle of an advanced human race MKII

or more likely, a war develops between those haves and have nots,
one wipes the other out, interbreeding happens, and we get a new species killing off the old one...

happened before with neanderthals, and homo erectus.
why not today?

 

[LazyLion]

wtf are you smoking? If you stopped for one second and thought you would realise how ridiculous this notion is.

To start off an asteroid is not a magic package full of useful materials, the vast majority are just dust and ice, to find even one that has a useful amount of anything in it would cost TRILLIONS...

The number of encounters a man made craft has had with an asteroid/comet: 4, 2 of which were crashed on purpose, one failed and one landed for literally a second to bring a few grains of dust back.

Total cost of these 4 missions, over 2 billion dollars.

I think you are confusing comets with asteroids. There are many asteroids in the asteroid belt that are mineral rich and have fairly stable slow orbits around the sun.
Comets for the most part are much larger have much wider elliptical orbits, are made of dust and ice and are moving thousands of times faster.
There is no point to trying to mine those, same with asteroids in the same trajectory.
They would go after asteroids in the asteroid belt.

 

[crackersa]

ok, you continue to believe whatever you want to believe,

when the giant asteroid comes, just pray? alright? it will miraculously miss Earth then...

and dont forget to feed the mountain demon in Hawaii, with a spare goat or something, as its angry now.

no need for USGS and all those eggheads, just grab a (handy) goat and chuck it in to the volcano.

all problems in the world can be solved by applying your logic to problems...
pray and say its better use for Nasa to build giant prayer wheels,

or flap their arms to achieve lift





my ramblings, are based of historical facts, how difficult was it to cross the Atlantic?
VERY, and took Forever if the wind wasn't cooperating, (8 weeks)

what did people do? stay in overcrowded and disease riddled Europe?
if they did what would humanity look like today?

same too with Space exploration, we have had out columbus moment (moon landing)
now what? how do we make (a lot) of money from it?

what advancements have been done in space exploration since that time?
robots? laboratories? not much else I must admit.

What logic did he use? Your the one that’s not applying logic to the conversation, hell you are borderline theory conspiracy right now. Just go ahead and claim it, you know you want to.....flat earth.

 

[Cray]

I think you are confusing comets with asteroids. There are many asteroids in the asteroid belt that are mineral rich and have fairly stable slow orbits around the sun.
Comets for the most part are much larger have much wider elliptical orbits, are made of dust and ice and are moving thousands of times faster.
There is no point to trying to mine those, same with asteroids in the same trajectory.
They would go after asteroids in the asteroid belt.

Not to mention that heavy elements will generally be a lot more plentiful among asteroids as compared to earth (most of the heavy elements on earth migrated to near the core during the formation of the planet).