🚀 go-pugleaf

>  In <1991Jun11.055227.2611@nas.nasa.gov> crayfe@nas.nasa.gov (Cray Hardware
>Support) writes:

>  Today's Washington Post reports that an asteroid has been found orbiting the
>Sun at a distance of about 20 million miles from Earth (closest point).  It
>apparently contains 10000 tons of gold and 100000 tons of platinum, as well as
>10 billion tons of iron and 1 billion tons of nickel.  Its estimated worth was
>put at around 1 trillion dollars.

>  This might be one of the first real applications of Space technology. I say
>NASA should issue stocks to built a space craft to go and bring that thing
>down.  This could open up another very lucrative investment, a side from
>satellites.  The technology we gain could help us mine other things in the
>space too.  Then, boldly going were no man has gone before makes business sense
>to. 

G E Derylo replies:

>    I'm no economist, but wouldn't the introduction of that much gold and
>platinum into the market *drastically* decrease its value, making this a
>questionable financial venture? Sure, I know these materials also have crutial
>industrial applications, so we're not just dealing with jewelry here. 

This is just one of many posts that come to the same conclusion about
the financial viability of a venture to mine (you wouldn't bring the
whole thing back) that asteriod.  I think it's a bit short sighted to
assume that you would want to bring that stuff back to earth so that
you could sell it on the open market.  Hell, it's damn expensive to
get that stuff up there in the first place, both in terms of energy
and money.  There are some things that can only be manufactured in
microgravity, but in any manufacturing process you need raw materials
- it's nice to know there's lots up there, not too far away.

If anyone is seriously considering going out to fetch it, "Have I got
a solar sail for you!" :-)  It's the perfect thing, it's smart
(semi-automatic, adaptive control), never needs refueling, will
shuttle back and forth from the asteriod in practical time frames, and
if you're serious, we can have one ready for you in two to three years
(or less - best estimates are ten weeks to actually build one, but the
design is still underway).  "Guess what?", I'm not kidding.  Oh yes,
the price, say $40M for the first one, much less for subsequent ones
(but that's just a rough guess on my part, you can't hold me to it
because I'm not in charge - I'm just working on the structural
dynamics of the beast - the powers that be probably want to make a
profit, besides, I'm just posting for fun - this is not an ad).  Of
course, that price is without launch.

Cheers,

Davin
--
          .oO tuohtiw esoht fo noitanigami eht ot gnihton evael Oo.
      Davin Yap, University Engineering Department, Cambridge, England
                       -->  dscy@eng.cam.ac.uk  <--