Why aren't we in space yet, exploring and mining asteroids?
We have the technology. We had it in the 60s and 70s already when we went to the moon.
We have the incentives. Platinum is expensive as fuck and could be found on asteroids, lots of money to be made.
What went wrong?
>>45299294
The jews.
>xD space travel le science nigger said we shud
Back to reddit.
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and his Father gave us the earth after He made us in his image. Why would you be so selfish as to abandon such a gift such as that?
Why would we waste money on space exploration when we should focus on keeping our population healthy and cleanse the heretics from the earth?
Good idea, why don't I just buy a spaceship and hire a crew
>>45299294
>We have the technology. We had it in the 60s and 70s already when we went to the moon.
>We have the incentives. Platinum is expensive as fuck and could be found on asteroids, lots of money to be made.
You have zero idea about the practicality of rocket science. Rocket science has ALWAYS been risky, fail-prone and massively expensive.
>>45299319
>Why would we waste money on space exploration when we should focus on keeping our population healthy
Earth will eventually be uninhabitable for us. Therefore, in order to survive, we have to find a new world, or new worlds. There will never be a time when we don't have unhealthy or poor people. So why not start exploration now?
While you are le eric maymay rusing us, there are people who think like you do. With their logic, the human race will eventually be extinct.
>>45299294
4k tv's are more important soooory
Protip: Going into space isn't profitable... yet.
Spoiler: There isn't enough resources on or solar system to go to the nearest star, so we will likely die here.
>>45299294
Why can't you explore the earth now?
>>45299467
He probably meant "discover", sounds more apropiate.
Maybe the Chinese space agency will force congress to give NASA money
I have seen the INTERNET born
I regret nothing
>>45299491
I'd rather take a plane and deal with airline bullshit than cross the Bering land bridge during the last ice age.
>implying you would ever have been an explorer
You do realise an extremely tiny amount of people ever were initial explorers? Same will happen with space.
>>45299623
wtf
>>45299623
Stop hacking me dude.
>>45299623
r u a hacker
>>45299623
>image embedded in post
>it's not even hosted on 4chan
what is this sorcery
>>45299623
what the fuuuuuuuuuck?!?!?!?!??
>>45299623
it only needed to be a double to be perfect
Oh IM LAFFIN
They do it for free
>>45299623
i'm real fuckin scared guys
>>45299623
thanks, swaglord
>>45299623
whoa shit
>>45299623
janitization disregards html sanitization
>>45299692
Oh it's just some /s4s/ mod fucking around.
>>45299623
mods are fags
>>45299294
True, but we were born just in time to see the birth of mega-cities, which will be worlds of their own.
>>45299294
>We have the technology
no we don't
>implying you can get to an asteroid with any meaningful payload necessary for mining
just because all the cool kid billionaire's rocket companies can put shit into LEO doesn't mean we have shit to mine rocks in space
33 posts in and still no explanation or answer to the original question in the OP. ;_;
>Platinum is expensive as fuck
because it's rare
when we have a billion platinums, then it's not expensive anymore
also how are we supposed to bring all of it home?
we just gonna drop it from the sky like a massive bomb?
>send unmanned flight to outside of galaxy with robot drones with building skills and AI
>lose contact
>centuries go by
>out of nowhere, giant robot ships enter designated Earth space territory
>the lost robots have created their own colony and life
>Must destroy their creators in order to be #1
>Directed by Michael Bay
>>45299294
I often think about the fact that i was born too early to explore the galaxy. Makes me cry a little inside every time.
if it was really worth it to start mining platinum on asteroids right now, people would be doing it.
>>45299294
The United States has allowed the right to control the conversation on government spending and they cut the NASA budget and moved the agenda away from an intelligence based society.
>>45299623
>what the fuck I don't remember expanding this image
>wait it won't close
>what the fuck it's embedded
Thanks, [s4s].
>>45299823
>inb4 /pol/ spews Fox News tier shit in response
>>45299818
I'm sure there are many companies that would be prepared to build spaceship so they could mine comets, it must just not be worth it right now.
Even if you were born in the right year, what make you think you're the one they'd strap into a billion dollar rocket?
What makes you think you wouldn't be exactly where you are right now?
If you aren't good enough for NASA in this generation, you sure as hell won't be good enough in the next.
ESA has put a lander on a comet, first step to Asteroid mining. Meanwhile Mars One is preparing for settlement on Mars. Europe will lead the way.
>>45299294
>>45299785
there are a variety of reasons
1. the end of the cold war meant that the space program's largest source of money, the Department of Defense, was cut
2. at the end of the 70s people just stopped giving a shit, blame boomers and changing cultural standards. As the middle class dies so does it's aspirations/wants for space travel as more important (food, healthcare, college, employment) comes first. This is arguably the most important because without rabid support of the public, potential engineers become day traders and research money is syphoned off to things like Sally Mae or Freddie Mac
3. Boeing and Lockheed created the United Launch Associates, which basically monopolized space travel until SpaceX came along
4. the space shuttle, as cool as it is, was a shitty attempt by dumbasses to force private investment into the space program too early. The SS itself is costly compared to traditional rockets.
5. propulsion research stagnated after three mile island, because people were suddenly afraid of nuclear power. It's back to normal now but there was a good 10-20 year period between the late 80s and late 90s when it just stopped. We could probably have nuclear rocket motors by 2020 had this not occurred
but it's not all bad, the space program is rising again and now we have cool shit like pic related
>>45299433
>implying nuclear powered warp drives won't exist
not in our lifetimes though
>>45299909
Mars One is a scam. It's not going to happen.
>>45299294
We're already in space, exploring asteroids. Not mining them yet though.
Literally where have you been the past few weeks
>>45299294
>Went to the moon
Source
>>45299294
>tfw you were born just in time to shitpost on 4chan
>>45299623
DELETE THIS
>>45299910
Thank you, much higher quality of response than the other clowns in the thread.
>>45299940
IT BEGINS
>>45299433
>There isn't enough resources on or solar system to go to the nearest star,
Dude, it's space. You don't need a continuous drive motor to go places.
>>45299918
>>45300045
Im sorry anons, you need to learn your stuff.
http://archive.wired.com/science/space/news/2008/08/space_limits?currentPage=all
>>45299294
You can still explore earth. I mean, a lot of it has been explored already, but you can go and explore it again.
>>45300072
>in a human lifetime
>>45299623
â–²
â–² â–²
>>45300155
That would be with a "theoreticall non-existant" propulsion system anon...
>And then there's the issue of fuel. It would take at least the current energy output of the entire world to send a probe to the nearest star. That's a generous figure, it would be as much as 100 times that.
So, like I said, there ins't enough resources to get there.
you get to explore the internet though
>>45300267
B-but it wasn't like those years when you discovered websites, even bbs, it was like magic
those were good times
>>45300199
>So, like I said, there ins't enough resources to get there [in 80 years].
Yeah, get that, didn't know you were originally replying directly to OP's image. You should've said 'we can't go to the nearest star in a current lifetime.'
Human race can still travel to the stars though, it'd just take generations... or a massive increase in life expectancy.
>>45299294
On a serious note.
I once read this article that said something along the lines of us being in a technological "dark ages".
The 60's was all about the hype of space travel, every kid wanted to be an engineer or an astronaut. That was what was considered cool. The whole country felt proud of these accomplishments and they embraced products that came from technology developed by NASA.
Ever since the 70's it's been nothing but politics about war and blind nationalism, which directly impacted the hype for space travel and funding for NASA. The american politicians throw issues like gay marriage at us to divert us from their terrible foreign policies. For what? Just for the US to sell weapons to their allies. It's a non stop money war machine where the people get screwed and the rich get richer. They even set certain demographics against each other to distract from real issues.
People like Elon Musk are like fucking wizards who skipped the 70s-00s and have that explorative and innovative personality. They search for the impossible and seek to accomplish it. Im just really hoping this becomes a norm again.
You're thinking about it the wrong way OP.
Most of those people during that time and also in the future will be working mudane jobs somewhere safe.
>make your own adventure
>>45300349
What's going on has to do with what this guy said >>45299910
The middle class is dying. There's no longer competition from the Soviet Union saying that you have to your workers well otherwise they might flip their shit. Kennedy tried to cut through the Cold War bullshit (Operation Northwoods) and was assassinated for it. The military industrial complex has only grown much stronger since then.
>>45299795
10/10 would watch
>>45299294
I honestly blame conservatives. They just want to continue their completely capitalistic ventures without any actual ventures in education. Remember when Kennedy was all "FUCK THIS WE'RE GOING TO SPACE" and we made it to fucking space? WE GOT TO THE MOON
We built a culture based on going to space, getting the kids smart enough to get us ready to do space shit, making everything more compact so we could get them there more easily without using up so many resources, or just making these things use less expensive parts to let every little boy or girl buy whatever the fuck they wanted because it didn't cost bajillions of dollars in huge materials to make a computer my Lumia 520 could shit out after drinking bad milk.
Now everybody in america sucks at math because "science isn't important" or "the military shouldn't invest in science, that shit is stupid." Not only that but while we have a pretty good education system here we don't really bring any merit to it. Everybody just wants to get really fat eating their 711 while complaining about the immigrants who took their jobs or how people don't understand that they're otherkin or whatnot. Instead there's people cashing in on us while these immigrants laugh at our faces for not trying hard enough, the they go back to their country to help their space programs shit on ours
You know what I'm going to move to india, they got a rocket to fucking space for dimes while we're too busy talking about whether or not a woman should say whether or not she can have a baby instead of talking about finding out what fucking rocket science those indians did and why did it cost less
>inb4 some stupid shit
first gen immigrant living in NYC, i'm fucking glad i took some redneck's job, he wasn't doing anything with it anyway
>>45299623
Is this some cross scripting?
>>45300518
*tips libtard*
>>45300545
This is an 18+ board.
>>45300545
>not realizing that most immigrants would probably the best conservatives if republicans weren't retarded about immigration
We went from spending 20 cents of every dollar spent to 60 cents on entitlements while shrinking nasa's budget.
>>45300545
>american politics
Thank god I'm not part of that
>>45300560
>implying "immigration reform" isn't just a scam by neoliberal republicans and democrats to drive wages down
why don't we care about our fucking human race before giving privileges to rich retards while dying of poverty, hunger and misery?
>>45300695
I don't know where you're from, but in my country it is the poor that are privileged. And it's going to be our doom.
>>45300727
>
>>45299910
>>1. the end of the cold war meant that the space program's largest source of money, the Department of Defense, was cut
>bullshitting this much
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States#Other_military-related_expenditures (see graphics)
>>45299294
>We have the technology
No. We do not.
>>45300727
>the poor are privileged
>poor
>privileged
you sure know a lot about poverty, m8
>>45299386
What is the abstraction of money compared to the prosperity of humanity
>>45299623
i feel violated
i've been forcibly awakened and enlightened
>>45299623
How do embed image
>>45299294
Because it's way too expensive faggot.
>>45299623
nigga wat
>>45300823
People gon't give a shit about the the prosperity of humanity.
>>45299386
And yet each asteroid has trillions of dollars worth of elements in them. Some even 100s of trillions worth. We could usher in an era of super cheap and abundant materials. Once we get fusion then we have a utopia.
Human happiness is generally regulated rather well by our brains.
What may have seemed extremely fun back in colonial times or in the future, wouldn't be that much better than today unless you would happen to be super important.
>>45299744
there won't be any megacities in our lifetimes
>>45301012
>doesn't understand supply and demand
>>45301113
Oh yeah? And what makes you say that?
>>45301178
>implying earth mining is an inexhaustible resource.
>>45299623
MOTHERFUCKER WHAT
>>45299795
>>45300450
Star Trek:The Motion Picture, anyone? Pretty similar.
>you will never be part of a people fit to stride the stars and shatter your enemies
>>45299294
>implying we ever went to the moon
>implying we could ever explore the stars when we can't even change our political-economic system to head off global warming
>implying we could ever explore the stars without a world government which pours the earth's resources into science, technology, and education
>>45300575
This. Thank fucking god.
Our current society is living in the spectacular failures of the promises of the old world.
>>45301178
>he doesn't understand the benefits for the economy of having a ton of cheap asteroid minerals
oh boo who, some copper companies go out of business, who gives a shit?
>>45301323
>When we first came to Helghan we were lost: a broken collection of exiles on the verge of death.
>At first we though our new world would poison and destroy us.
>How wrong we were.
>Helghan saw what was in every one of us: our strength and our indestructible spirit, and made it manifest!
>The great change was in the rebirth of our people: a people fit to stride the stars and shatter our enemies.
No War no advances for mankind.
>>45301389
;_;
>>45300518
it's been an hour since this was posted but it's so egregiously false I must respond.
Modern liberals for one, are cutting science and space programs in favor of welfare programs. This is a simple fact. Look at the voting history and you'll see that republicans support NASA and the like while democrats do not.
Kennedy's proposition was only widely supported because of our rivalry with the USSR. If Obama proposed the something similar today it wouldn't go anywhere because of our debt.
>rockets for dimes
We've managed to land on a comet, and have sent multiple robots to mars. There's probably not much we can learn from Indians besides paying engineers 10 rupees a day
>first gen immigrant living in NYC, i'm fucking glad i took some redneck's job, he wasn't doing anything with it anyway
Rednecks don't live in NYC you dumbass
>>45299909
Mars One won't happen
>>45301389
>we can't even change our political-economic system to head off global warming
It's too late anyway unless everybody in the world goes back a few centuries in technology.
When there's not money left to be made on Earth the big companies will unveil their trillion dollar space programs.
>>45299294
Faggit we never went to the moon. It is fake. Wake up and smell my shit!
>>45301587
If large corporations have proven anything over the last few decades, it's that they're so short sighted that they can't avoid destroying their business model if it gets in the way of short term profits.
Just look at the financial crisis a few years ago.
>>45299623
nigga fucking wat
>>45301695
You have zero idea about what was involved with the financial crisis of 2008. You have no idea where it came from and why it was so popular.
>>45299443
pity upboat
because national sources of money require money to be spent in their interest, and the first nation to monopolize in space is going to make it evident that space is up for grabs for settling, and nations dont have the ability to enforce their will in space. nations are land based things
>>45299823
>the right cut the NASA budget
nigger whaaat
>>45299623
nsa botnet nsa botnet nsa botnet
>>45299315
a shekel a day keeps the shuttles in bay
>>45299623
![attachment[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/bGnvK6J.jpg "attachment[1].jpg")
test
<embed src:"http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/dank-memes.jpg">
test
>>45299623
<img src="http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/dank-memes.jpg">
>>45302467
what the fuck do you think this is?
[img]http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/dank-memes.jpg[/img]
>>45299294
You might still be able to explore U'ranus
>>45299623
I'm panicking right now.
>mfw starship troopers will happen
Fuck
self-replicating robots that do the heavy lifting of asteroid mining for us
>>45303219
i'll explore uranus
>>45303333
sounds like a good idea
>>45299294
you can explore my butthole. no homo.
Fixed
>>45301011
/thread
>>45299294
>born at the right time to watch the fall of human civilization
>>45303522
>>45303438
Fixed? Pretty sure that isn't a thinkpad.
>>45299294
>mining asteroids
Could we do it? Maybe. Would it turn a profit? HELL no.
>born too early
literally sad, man
>>45299294
To early to enjoy exploring the world and space but I can enjoy all the best litterateur from all history before up to when it went to shit after post modern
>>45303562
thinkpads died when they introduced that clickpad thing
>>45303552
But that's not all!
>>45303626
>>45303612
>>45303593
>>45299692
>92
good single
Because of this shitlord, OP.
>>45299294
The costs don't yet justify the rewards. Platinum is only expensive because of supply and demand. If you go to space a bring back a shitton of platinum you would drive down the price of platinum - and for what gain?
If you want to know what incentives would require a resurgence in space flight, just look at the cost to fly a rocket from Space X, and then look at the number of resources spent globally on some finite resource.
My bet is, only if you found Oil on an asteroid would it be worth to mine it. Too bad Oil is biological byproduct - unlikely to be found on an asteroid. (so you would really have to find something on an asteroid with the same or greater energy density as oil).
Or you would need plans for some space structure that could generate energy.
>>45301389
>goverments spawn ideas
No they don't.
>>45301436
You are retarded. If you go to space and bring back a shitton of copper, and copper is now worthless - you just sunk a shitton of money into space travel for no profit.
>>45303831
copper would only become worthless due to the space travel though
so if copper went too worthless then nobody would bring it back from space meaning copper would be worth a lot
>>45303831
>You are retarded. If you go to midle ist and bring back a shitton of oil, and oil is now worthless - you just sunk a shitton of money into war for no profit.
>>45303968
see
>>45303808
Oil is the only resource currently that has people sinking trillions of dollars to bring back. Show me people starting wars over copper and then the "go to space for minerals" will be a good idea
>>45299294
>Why aren't we in space yet, exploring and mining asteroids?
Because it's not anywhere near cost-effective, for one thing, and there are serious problems with being in a zero- or micro-gravity environment for extended periods of time, that's what. If anything we should be looking at building a base/colony on the Moon, to use as a jumping-off point for such things as colonizing/mining the asteroid belt. But as-is there isn't any promise whatsoever of enough profit in such ventures to make it worthwhile to invest in it. Ask again in about 100 years, assuming we haven't extinguished ourselves.
>>45299823
sigh
>unzips
>>45299412
This here is why Apple still isn't bankrupt. OH MY PLAYLIST HAS VANISHED, INTO THE TRASH IT GOES. Lrn2fix faggot.
>Let's colonize Mars!
Why can't people set more sane goals?
>We should go back to the moon first
>Then should build a permanent moonbase where at least if SHTF Earth is only a short rocket ride away
>Build infrastructure to assemble space ships in Earth orbit, outside of our shitty gravity well
>Maybe then we could think about a manned Mars flyby
>>45299294
We dont have the technology to make it worthwhile to mine asteroids and other planets.
It costs a shitload just to land something like a Rover on the closest planet to us.
Now figure out how much it would cost to land mining equipment (R&D and manufacturing will increase this more as you need to adapt the equipment to a zero or low gravity environment) and to bring back the copious amounts of ore it would take to make it worthwhile. You also have to justify this risky, massive expense to your stockholders.
The reason we don't, the Soviet Union lost the race, so no one (well, governments) cared to keep running.
>>45304802
building on the moon isn't sane
it's just the worst sand ever and nothing else
>>45304802
>just a manned flyby
Wow holy shit that's pathetic. You could do that now easily just use mars gravity to slingshot your ass back to earth with a little extra delta v from your thrusters. The only minor issue is spending that long in space, I'm sure that's fairly easy to solve. (I.e artifical gravity, excersice etc)
>>45300782
I'm not him but even in my country the poor don't have to work, they get enough money from the government to live comfortably, free healthcare etc. Meanwhile I work and pay taxes
>>45299623
I haven't been this excited since a mod posted a dude slapping his thighs with his penis on /co/ a few years back
http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/dank-memes.jpg
>>45299294
Because it was only like a week ago we managed to land something on an asteroid for the first time and that didn't even work as expected.
>>45299294
but we are anon, Japanese sent up a probe that returned samples from an asteroid.
They're launching another one this saturday which will carry a GODDAMN EXPLOSIVELY FORMED PENETRATOR to blow a hole in an asteroid so they can extract fresh samples from beneath the asteroid's surface.
The Japanese are going to bomb a fucking asteroid, how fucking cool is that? Now stop your whining.
>> Platinum is expensive as fuck and could be found on asteroids, lots of money to be made.
we don't know shit about asteroid geology and recent research has shown that mining them could cause avalanches and destabilize them which is why the japanese bombing an asteroid is so fucking cool:
http://www.universetoday.com/103311/avalanche-risk-higher-than-thought-for-asteroid-landings-study/
Second mining platinum on asteroids doesn't really make sense when you take the costs of reentering it into account. However, it does make sense to mine asteroids so we can make large solar panels to provide power to earth
>>45304802
moonbase is impractical too because of gravity
really we need to figure out how to make large space stations (think 1km+ size) that can roll and make their own simulated gravity (ala the spindle in Neuromancer)
once we get that done, then we can just put one above the moon and mars and figure out how to actually colonize the planets themselves
>>45300518
you know why kennedy said that though right? Because the soviets said that. And they said that because they didnt like us and because we said that.
If we want to do cool shit, we need someone who also wants to do cool shit, then we need to hate them, and they need to hate us, and then we can fight over whos gonna do it and eventualy someone does it
We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars, now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt.
Go play Space Engine.
>>45299319
People like you are the reason we lost 100 years of scientific progress.
>>45299623
saged, reported, hidden, called the mods, called moot, called the police, called the FBI, called the CIA, called my mom, called MI6, called interpol, called the NYPD, ths LAPD, called the Navy seals, Called the US Army, the Navy, the Air Force, The Marines called God, Called Yahweh, called Allah, called Buddha, called Krishna, called Zeus, called Odin, called Quetzalcoatl, called Mario, called Doomguy, called the trolls, the spammers, the 1337 h4x0rz, the script kiddies, called Google, called your ISP, called Obama, called Goku, called Al-queda, called ETA, called IRA, called the somali pirates, called the your mom, called your dad, called the SAS, called the British Royal Army, Navy, etc. Called the Chinese army. Called Hitler, called Napoleon, called Atila the Hun, called Genghis Khan, called the Mossad, called the GSG, called the LAPD SWAT team, called the French Army.
>>45306215
>We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars, now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt.
Deep as the mariana trench.
>>45306667
its from Interstellar.
>>45299623
MOOT IS A FAG
>>45305455
I also live in a shithole like that
>>45306646
i see two problems in your interesting post
> called the FBI
> implying everything posted on 4chin isn't passing through FBI filters first
> called the French Army
> implying such thing does exist
>>45299623
>>45299294
>Why aren't we in space yet, exploring and mining asteroids?
Because space travels are expensive as fuck, and space is a pretty large, vast space, m'kay.
>We have the technology
Not really, how will you protect humans against radiation? I guess you could send up autonomous mining drones though.
>We have the incentives. Platinum is expensive as fuck and could be found on asteroids, lots of money to be made.
First of all, I'm pretty sure that the cost of sending something out there, mining stuff and bringing it home is not worth it because of the ridiculously small amounts of precious minerals you are able to actually carry home.
Second of all, introducing more platinum will reduce the price on platinum. I.e. it's expensive because it is rare.
>>45299910
>4. the space shuttle, as cool as it is, was a shitty attempt by dumbasses to force private investment into the space program too early. The SS itself is costly compared to traditional rockets.
Other rockets from the 80s weren't reusable, and the space shuttle had a higher cargo capacity than any of them. You can't say it was more expensive than comparable systems, because there has never been a comparable system. Without it the ISS would have been much more expensive and probably wouldn't have happened, because we wouldn't have been able to launch large modules in one piece. And the point of the space shuttle was not to be cost effective, the point of the space shuttle was to develop reusable spacecraft technology. Private companies are only able to do the same thing cost effectively today because of the research that NASA did back then. Other than that I think you're probably right.
>>45299918
>implying warp drives will exist
nope. the divine order of information and related theorems will never allow this to happen.
>>45299294
Christopher Columbus was a private individual who barely got funding from the Spanish government (largely on the hope that he wouldn't return for his pay). The reasons of the Spanish for being uninterested in exploration are the same as the Americans for being un interested today; they have a lot of other pressing issues to deal with (ironically in both cases it's Muslim invaders) and there isn't any guaranteed obvious benefit. It's a catch 22, You only know what's really out there by going out there
>>45299294
>implying it's cheap and easy to launch probes to mine asteroids, and return them quickly like a RTS
>implying the technology isn't still unrefined and underfunded due to a lack of interest in space travel
>implying it wouldn't just devalue existing resources and whether the mining trip was worthwhile may be hard to justify since it's objectively more dangerous, slow and expensive
Christian Dark Ages.
>>45299623
cool story bro
>>45307979
Cheap? Easy? Who cares?
If it costs less than 10 trillion dollars to mine an asteroid, you're making a profit.
>>45308043
>If it costs less than 10 trillion dollars to mine an asteroid, you're making a profit.
How the hell did you estimate this?
>implying you can find an asteroid with exactly what you're looking for on the first try
>implying you can take home enough quantities for it to be profitable
>>45308043
>implying the cargo gets back in the first place
>implying you can mine everything on the asteroid
>implying it isn't a loss as all metal markets crash
>implying people will buy from you if you monopolize it
>implying God's chosen people will allow you to keep your stockpile and reap all the profits
>>45308055
Asteroids have millions of tonnes of rare earth metals bro.
Iridium, platinum, palladium, gold, Rhodium, Osmium. As well as a shit load of iron if you ever cared about that.
There's gold in space just sitting there. It's heavy but that's not actually a big deal. Heavy things are hard to get out of earth, but very easy to do the opposite. Depending on how intact you want the item that is, but we're talking about ores. You could make a fairly big crater and not really care. Imagine redirecting a tonne of gold down to earth, and just picking it up with a truck. Now a tonne of iridium, a tonne of platinum, a tonne of palladium. Every day for years and years.
>>45308102
>Asteroids have millions of tonnes of rare earth metals bro.
Depends on the size, and no. The frequency found in any single asteroid would be the same as the frequency found on earth. Do you know why? Because the earth and the asteroids are made of the same stuff (see: Heavy bombardment period).
Also, 70% asteroids aren't even solid, just piles of rock and metal and ice held together by gravity. You can't really just ram a rocket into it and expect it to be solid.
Then to my points:
1) The amount you are able to transport back to Earth is minimal.
2) The chance that you hit an asteroid that has the desired composition on the first try is also minimal. Yes, some asteroids might have shitloads of gold, but most of them are just rock and ice.
3) Rare earth minerals are valuable because they are rare. Bringing home large quantities of it will destroy the market for them, and you will end up with e.g. a inflation of gold.
>>45306857
that's not moot you disrespectful shitlord
>>45301012
This is really simple, anon. It's an efficiency problem; if you don't break even doing a thing, it doesn't make sense to do it. You're thinking in terms of dollars when you ought to be thinking in terms of materials. There's no way we could get more materials than we would use in a space mining operation. When we can do it efficiently, someone will do it. You can be sure there's research going on to this end right now.
>>45300072
The idea that we could ever explore space on the scale of a human lifetime is completely naive. The idea that we would ever do this with manned ships is also naive. The only way we explore space with what we currently know is by sending out probes with nanomachine payloads, biological seed material, a method of cloning, and a massive DNA library. Even then the success rate wouldn't be ideal, but it reduces the scale of the mission in terms of materials and energy cost by several orders of magnitude, making it plausible.
>>45299623
wut
>>45308242
>You can't really just ram a rocket into it and expect it to be solid.
Course not. This is why you send out many smaller probes to find an asteroid that has the right composition. Or use the traditional method and just go for the densest one you can find. We can measure roughly how dense an asteroid is remotely already.
We've landed on a comet already. Send a few Philae to a bunch of asteroids. Yes this is a colossal task but it's set on precedent. You might also get funding from government agencies for science and shit.
> The amount you are able to transport back to Earth is minimal.
Depending on how much you find or even if you find loads?
I'll assume the latter: I disagree. You don't need to move it fast. A small rocket and lots of patience can eventually redirect the asteroid to earth, assuming that the asteroid is in orbit around the sun. And the mass is known (yeah this is the hard part). This is actually a tricky problem but being the first to do it would be good science anyway.
2) Covered earlier in the post
3) China has the same problem. They get around it by not selling it all at once. And hell, I'm not suggesting you take an entire asteroid and bring all the gold to earth at once. Mine it bit by bit, send small parts at a time. You could be selling a couple thousand tonnes of gold every year. Or something like that.
China goes a bit further and actually restricts supply to send the prices up where they dump a load all at once. Sending the prices down but that's when they restrict supply again.
<img src="http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/dank-memes.jpg">
>>45308432
The only way you'd look stupider is if you'd used [img] tags.
>>45308374
So you want to crash a giant asteroid in to the Earth?
Yes, speed and mass does matter. You need a certain speed and angle for re-entry. The larger the rocket you send up the more fuel you need (and the heavier it becomes). There is a point where you can't really send a rocket up because the force needed for it to escape is greater than what you can achieve with current rockets and fuel.
Not to mention the kinetic energy upon return.
>>45308432
reported for attempted hacking
>>45308531
Well firstly, the type of asteroid I'm talking about mining are Near Earth Objects, and secondly, F = ma. Keep a low and you don't need much force.
What I'd propose is to actually grab the asteroid and move it so it orbits the earth, or perhaps more easily, have it so it's on the same orbit as earth at the same speed so it's always nearby.
you can slow something down way before it gets to the planet, and since the planet isn't static anyway, you can do a creative manoeuvre to get things down to earth without much kinetic energy on landing.
No, what I was thinking was to take chunks of valuables out of the asteroid and move those smaller chunks to earth.
It's not impossible, and it's very lucrative. It's a matter of time. Instead of going it can't be done, it should be tried.
>>45299623
fuck is going on here?
>>45308619
You realize that most of those small chunks are going to burn up or explode, and have a 70% chance of landing in the ocean, where recovery is kind of an issue?
>>45299433
nuclear bomb explosions can already push a craft to 3.3% the speed of light. we could reach the nearest star in only 133 years.
>>45308740
This is a problem that can be overcome.
For example, ablative material covering the gold block. There's a reason you don't touch meteorites right away when they land, and that's because they're really cold. The heat isn't transferred to the core, it's ablated away.
If you combine ablation with maybe a parachute, you could slow the descent.
>asteroid mining
Mining of helium-3 from the moon for future generation fusion reactors will happen before that.
Ideally need a new cold war to push forward progress and increase R&D budgets, shouldn't be far off.
>>45308883
One problem with that is that we use rare earth metals now. What we don't use now is helium-3. And we won't for the foreseeable future.
>>45308911
Energy production given the expected population growth is by far a greater concern, the next 15-25 years will determine the feasibility of several fusion projects and if successful will create the need for 2nd generation fuels (helium-3) to phase out tritium use, which would be required for large scale deployment.
>>45308756
>using deprecated technology
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fission-fragment_rocket
>>45308984
Of course it's a large concern, my point is that fusion has been 20 years away since 1950.
>>45299294
The technology that worked in the 60s and 70s doesn't work today for some reason.
>>45308999
That's your mp3 files suffering from rotational velocidensity
>>45299623
smoee WEED everyday xD
>>45308822
I don't think refining metals in space and building entry vehicles for them is efficient at all. It's not that gathering resources from space is a bad idea; it's that there's a huge ramp-up to get to that point and we haven't even started. We'd need, at the very least, several facilities built on the moon before we could start harvesting resources from space.
>>45308911
>we don't need helium-3
We've created break-even fusion reactions and you don't think we'll need fusion materials in the foreseeable future? Besides, the only reason the aforementioned moon bases would be built is for gathering helium. We ARE running out of helium on Earth, after all.
>>45299319
kek'd
Imagine the space Pussy brehs
>>45309007
Right, because of predictions at that point which shouldn't have been made. The field has moved on considerably since that point and is now on the cusp of becoming a reality.
>>45309037
>>we don't need helium-3
I like how you used the quote function to then go on to not quote me at all.
>What we don't use now is helium-3.
This is what I said. What you did is the same as if I'd said
>I do not like Hitler
And then you cut out 'not'
>I do like Hitler
And made me out to be a nazi
>>45299294
Hey.
If you really, really want to do some adventurous exploring, there's actually a pretty easy way to make it happen. If you study linguistics a bit, you'll probably be able to get funding to go document languages in New Guinea. Very few people dare go in there and do fieldwork, and there are tons of languages in there that we know very little about.
Come on, it'll be an adventure.
>>45309107
Isn't there more than a slight risk of being killed and eaten?
>>45309119
It wouldn't be much of an adventure otherwise, now would it?
>>45309064
Lol, you're such an asshole. Must be a riot at parties.
If you want to ignore my entire post and attempt to red herring, go for it, but I'm not as stupid as you are. Peace, shit head.
>Why aren't we in space yet, exploring and mining asteroids?
Profit incentive. Think of it this way, you're a person of Jewish decent, and your mind is stuck on using natural resources to make your billions. Rare earth metals aren't going to run out anytime in your own lifetime, and probably not your children's lifetime. In invest in mining on earth, and you're guarenteed to make a profit. You'd need to invest billions into R&D and infrastructure, before you'd start seeing profit from asteroid mining.
The shits already here. The amount of money you put into getting rare earth metals from magic space rock, would be better spent on tech that already exists
>We have the technology.
Actually, we don't
>>45308999
>hdd platters cut into cylinder of radioactive tofu.jpg
>>45299294
>Why aren't we in space yet, exploring and mining asteroids?
We are in space. We are about to mine them.
>We have the technology. We had it in the 60s and 70s already when we went to the moon.
There is nothing on the moon for the political race these days. Or really for profit.
>We have the incentives. Platinum is expensive as fuck and could be found on asteroids, lots of money to be made.
Yep.
>What went wrong?
Nothing. It got a bit slow but it is still going. You just stopped paying attention since no one is reporting on it outside themed sources.
And thats it.
>>45306607
>Taking the obvious b8.
How ironic, retard.
>>45299623
>>45299623
the fuck is this shit
>>45309193
>Actually, we don't
name me one piece of tech needed to mine asteroids that we dont currently posses
>>45299433
The nearest star is only 8.1 lightminutes away. That's not hard to reach.
Fuck that, I have a better idea.
We all become fucking machines, and make molecular assemblers. Then we build a dyson sphere and enjoy our huge amount of power.
THEN we go outside the solar system, since we will have solved the whole time thing.
>>45310281
Nearest to what?
>>45310496
Earth?
>>45310237
The massive, powerful engines required to be able to change the trajectory of an asteroid. Moving an asteroid isn't as easy as just strapping a rocket to it. You need to take into consideration how fast these things are hurtling through space, and how much energy is required to change that trajectory.
>>45310281
If it's so easy, I'm surprised there's only one object is in interstellar space.
Unless, of course, it wasn't easy.
>>45310237
Asteroid drills and asteroid landers, plus, nothing we know about asteroids makes the returned materials financially worth the cost to get them, the market for asteroid paperweights isnt large enough to sustain the cost of materials and manhours involved.
>>45299320
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y98otfH9X8
>>45310555
we have drill and unmanned landers have landed on asteroids before
>>45310554
current nuclear bombs are powerful enough to get a craft to the asteroid belt.
next!
>>45311189
Yeah and chemical engines got voyager 1 to heliopause. You actually need to transport several tonnes of material back to earth. Which currently, you can't do
>>45299294
Born just in time to browse dank memes
>>45305262
>(I.e artifical gravity, excersice etc)
Yeah lets completely ignore radiation.
>>45299623
mods are fags
>>45305760
>a week ago we managed to land something on an asteroid for the first time
You're literally wrong tho.
And you:
>>45311171
>>45311189
You don't know shit about what you think you're talking about, so just shut the fuck up.
>>45299294
Back in the 60s, we didn't care if our rocket scientists started out building ballistic missiles for Adolf Hitler. Today we care more about his choice of shirt than his knowldege of spaceflight.
Which approach do you think is going to get more rockets into space?
>>45311819
>Back in the 60s, we didn't care if our rocket scientists started out building ballistic missiles for Adolf Hitler. Today we care more about his choice of shirt than his knowldege of spaceflight.
This comment, man.
[/thread]
I wish I could shake your hand, sir/maam.
>>45299623
tcnolg
>>45299623
please don't hack me
>>45299623
Hey. I just want to thank the moderation for doing their jobs and keeping /g/ high quality and whatnot.
Thanks swaglord. You're really helping this place out. Maybe you should post this in one of the consumerism threads or perhaps one of the many threads ignoring the sticky?
I'm sure it's already been said, but space flights are expensive. Building rockets is expensive. We've apparently decided that our financial priorities should be in other areas for the time being. That, and there's that whole stupid war in the Middle East.
It would be hard to rally support for new space programs, bearing in mind the only way to fund them would be to hike taxes for everybody. Maybe if a majority of the population were actually interested in the idea.
<img src="http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/dank-memes.jpg">
Only the elite become explorers.
You were born too lazy.
>>45299623
CALL THE POLICE
>>45308259
nice to see someone using my OC
>>45299386
I read expensive as explosive, which is also true
>>45299795
>the robots arrive before they left because they discovered FTL space travel
>they desperately kill us before we can ever create them
>As a result, they no longer exist
>movie ends
>Everyone leaves the theater wondering what these sentient robots saw that made them so desperate to kill themselves
>>45299294
If we get a ton of platinum from space mining, assuming it's even successfully carrier out, we'll crash the market with a influx of materials. Our society, people, and sadly technology can't handle this well (it'll be awhile before there's 'cheap' rockets and space vehicles for such a venture).
>>45299294
Born just in time to browse dank memes.
