Comment on Geologists doubt Earth has the amount of copper needed to develop the entire world

• astropenguin5@lemmy.world ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  If you have the tech to do that, just capture the asteroid in orbit and mine it in space.

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  • MangoCats@feddit.it ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I’m envisioning extracting more copper and other metals that would be utilized in space, so - yeah, if you can develop smelting and refinement capabilities on-orbit there’s some attractiveness there, but down on the mud-ball we’re going to use over a million times as much material as we are currently utilizing on orbit and beyond, so getting that material down is going to be a whole lot cheaper and more efficient as a “natural skyfall” than any kind of controlled re-entry.

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• phoenixz@lemmy.ca ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Yeah, that ain’t happening for the next 50 years. The amount of logistics and technology required for that is beyond immense, never mind risks

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  • MangoCats@feddit.it ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Oh, and you say risks, I say: military application potential.

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  • MangoCats@feddit.it ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Well, I suspect we’ve got enough copper for the next 50 years, so… good timing.

    And, you don’t start with a Manhattan sized rock, you practice with little ones just big enough to survive re-entry and work your way up. The key is learning to operate long term with “rock moving tech” in solar orbit. We’re not there, which is why we should have started 50 years ago…

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    • phoenixz@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      We have enough copper for a lot more than that, depending on how far and deep we want to go

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      • MangoCats@feddit.it ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Well, that’s a big component: how efficient / environmentally destructive is the mining?

        Also, as electricity consumption in areas like China, India, Africa increases, they’re going to start needing big multiples of the amount of copper used in the US/Europe/ANZ to-date.

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