If it's truly the "least efficient and most expensive way" of mining then you have no reason to be the slightest bit worried, it won't get done in that case. Obviously.
Comment on Space is starting to look like the better mining operation
echo64@lemmy.world 11 months agoThis is a lot of exciting words to say “instead of digging up the effectively limitless amount of rock under our feet we can go into space to do it in the least efficient and most expensive way”
It’s very cool, but I would rather we spend our time and resources on more pressing things, given we have the rocks right here.
FaceDeer@kbin.social 11 months ago
echo64@lemmy.world 11 months ago
This is true, but you’ll also see a lot of investment scams by internet famous people, like funding a space company on the lies of Mars colonies
photonic_sorcerer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 months ago
900 tons to orbit just this year isnt a scam.
great_site_not@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Of those 900 tons, how many will be used to get humans to Mars?
lolcatnip@reddthat.com 11 months ago
Rocks ≠ ore. There are numerous materials (e.g. lithium) for the total known deposits on Earth won’t cover more than a few decades’ worth of projected demand, and even then, the mining process is an environmental disaster. Asteroid mining is a long-term project that will require huge advances in multiple fields, but it addresses a real need.
qyron@sopuli.xyz 11 months ago
I can imagine a sort of a conveyor belt made of miniature cargo vessel with one robotized mining station at one end, cutting away an asteroid piece by piece, and a cargo dock at the Earth side.
With enough cargo vessels deployed, let’s say one would arrive at each end everyother day, the moment the conveyor belt was full, the mining operation would be swift.
Assuming a global deal between nations could be struck to have a refinery or at least a cargo dock placed on the moon, to organize large cargos to come to Earth at programmed intervals, it could prove to be a very interesting endeavour.
Raw matterials price could drop, given the sheer available volume.
At least it sounds like a diferent sci-fi plot
echo64@lemmy.world 11 months ago
You could do that on earth
vmaziman@lemm.ee 11 months ago
I would agree if mining the rocks on earth didn’t cause ecological collapses and kill off animals and displace indigenous and exploit underprivileged ethnic classes in post colonial hellholes
vmaziman@lemm.ee 11 months ago
I’m sure mining in space will have its own problems but at least it can’t kill our biosphere
schmidtster@lemmy.world 11 months ago
There’s been studies that have found metal particles in the atmosphere, so anything entering and exiting are seemingly shedding particles.
So it’s likely to cause issues down the road unfortunately.
neshura@bookwormstory.social 11 months ago
I’ll take the issue down the road over the one already in my doorstep any time of the week.
Atmospheric pollution is at least something that seems fixable with extraterrestrial resources. Ruined biospheres due to mining on earth seems less avoidable/fixable unless we go back to pre-industrial living standards.