"In any event, I totally support President Trump's Space Force. And I also support waking NASA up from their "Rip Van Winkle" nap. Time to explore folks! Time to enrich us all! Let's get moving!"
Ever wonder what the rush is? The Chinese, the Russians, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, our United States Space force? Get ready folks. This is not about aliens. It is all about wealth. Where? Out there. There is wealth in them thar asteroids (or planets, or moons). How much wealth? The asteroid which passed by close to Earth in 2015 (not that close to kill us), is thought to have contained over 5 trillion dollars of precious metals. Like gold and stuff. And guess what? There is a whole bunch more where they came from.
Not to let the cat out of the bag, but having a base on Mars is only half a loaf. Having a base on Mars would give us closer access to the 1,000+ mineral rich asteroids in the belt. Wait just a second Bird! I thought these things were only planet killers which we needed to fear! Hey - I saw the movie Armageddon! I know how this works!
Well, not really. NASA using its Near Earth Object Project, is getting better, and better at this all the time. No, we do NOT want a wayward asteroid to become an ELE (extinction level event) on Earth. But we sure would like to mine them. If we can keep them from killing us, they sure could enrich us.
Everyone is clamoring (including me) about the Duluth Shield vein of copper nickel (and other good stuff) which runs up the North Shore of Minnesota. As big as this find is (and it is the biggest untapped find in on Earth), it is peanuts compared to what exists in the cosmos. Like what, besides the 1,000 plus asteroids which contain precious metals? We have found a collapsed star with so much carbon under pressure, the entire star could be a diamond.
I was a 19 year old kid recovering from hernia surgery at Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego when Neil Armstrong took that first step on the Moon. I thought, "Here we go! Tom Swift - get out of the way!" And then - thud. Nothing. Now - It is time folks. As humanity, as Americans, we need to get back to solar and then interstellar space. And while we are at it, let's unlock the secret of dark energy. We all know it exists - let's find the key.
In any event, I totally support President Trump's Space Force. And I also support waking NASA up from their "Rip Van Winkle" nap. Time to explore folks! Time to enrich us all! Let's get moving!
Space will never be the source for rare earth minerals.
ReplyDeleteThe name “rare earth” is a historical misnomer, stemming from that when they first discovered, they were difficult to extract from surrounding matter.
There are vast amounts dispersed around the world and some are as common as copper, they just don't show up in veins.
Cheap labor costs and a willingness to overlook environmental damage will keep China as the world's major supplier and hopefully Japan (Minamitory Island) can pick up the slack when China cuts us off as part of DJT's "tiny hands" "no brains" trade war.
But nothing from space, not now, not ever. The only connection from space is the occasional asteroid striking earth and of sufficient size and composition to be examined/mined.
And the Space Force?
We really need another government bureaucracy to oversee a new "Strategic Defense Initiative". Maybe selective memory prevents your recalling another conservatives 260 billion dollar waste of those tax dollars you worry so much about. That money would be better spent on southern border daycare.