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NASA to explore space rock worth so much money it would DESTROY world economy
Daily Star ^ | 16th January 2017 | Peter Truman

Posted on 01/16/2017 4:24:39 PM PST by COBOL2Java

THE American space agency is planning to send a spacecraft to a lump of metal in space worth quadrillions of dollars.

The 200km-wide asteroid is currently orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter.

It is made up of various precious metals such as iron, nickel and gold.

Experts believe the iron alone in the rock would be worth $10,000 quadrillion – enough to cause the world’s economy, worth $73.7 trillion, to promptly collapse altogether.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailystar.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: 201701; asteroid; asteroidmining; asteroids; astronomy; gold; iron; jupiter; mars; metal; nasa; nickel; nickelmining; science; spaceforce
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To: bleach
This? Golden Meteor
81 posted on 01/16/2017 6:58:25 PM PST by pa_dweller (Trump 304, Clinton 227 - The vote heard 'round the world.)
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To: Blue Highway

Boy, you got that right.


82 posted on 01/16/2017 7:01:52 PM PST by Arlis
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To: COBOL2Java

Drill down and build an underground space station. Then build a a giant rail gun that shoots cargo to and fro.


83 posted on 01/16/2017 7:02:27 PM PST by Fhios
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To: COBOL2Java
It won't destroy the word economy, it will add to it.
Or the Solar System's economy, once we get there.

84 posted on 01/16/2017 7:12:10 PM PST by BitWielder1 (I'd rather have Unequal Wealth than Equal Poverty.)
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To: MHGinTN

I.e power on board :-).


85 posted on 01/16/2017 7:14:31 PM PST by Axenolith (Government blows, and that which governs least, blows least...)
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To: Arlis

You wouldn’t USE anything except maybe a few wildly exotic isotopes found there, on earth. You would use that rock as a ready made mine/factory for building stuff out there.


86 posted on 01/16/2017 7:24:05 PM PST by Axenolith (Government blows, and that which governs least, blows least...)
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To: COBOL2Java

Short gold tomorrow. Will be worth $100 by 2117


87 posted on 01/16/2017 7:34:57 PM PST by montag813
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To: COBOL2Java

Delivery cost for the metals currently prohibitive.


88 posted on 01/16/2017 7:38:34 PM PST by Some Fat Guy in L.A. (Still bitterly clinging to rational thought despite it's unfashionability)
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To: al baby

Planetray Resources and Deep Space I dustries are planning on doing exactly that. Right now...


89 posted on 01/16/2017 7:40:54 PM PST by Dead Corpse (A Psalm in napalm...)
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To: from occupied ga

Scale that up/ There’s a billion dollars buried in Antarctica. You have the gps coordinates. All you gotta do is go get it...


90 posted on 01/16/2017 7:43:10 PM PST by Dead Corpse (A Psalm in napalm...)
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To: dr_lew

2025. Possibly sooner if Shawyer’s Em Drive works as adverized...


91 posted on 01/16/2017 7:44:43 PM PST by Dead Corpse (A Psalm in napalm...)
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To: EQAndyBuzz

You’re confusing it with Phobos.


92 posted on 01/16/2017 7:46:55 PM PST by MHGinTN (A dispensational perspective is a powerful tool for spiritual discernment)
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To: Dead Corpse

Can’t scale it up. Should scale it down. Not sure if you’re unaware of the costs or are ignoring the because science fiction appeals to you
Scale it up to a billion but then you have to scale up the cost of getting there to about $100,000,000,000,000


93 posted on 01/16/2017 7:58:42 PM PST by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy)
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To: Dead Corpse
A little economic education:

Cost of the Apollo pgm in today's dollars $110 billion Total weight brought back 861 lb Now that's from the moon our CLOSEST neighbor but it still cost $127,758,420/pound returned. Now multiply that by 1600 distance ratio asteroid to moon and you get $204,413,472,706 per pound transportation cost. Something the space kadets gloss over.

94 posted on 01/16/2017 8:13:57 PM PST by from occupied ga (Your government is your most dangerous enemy)
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To: from occupied ga
Not so sure. The cost of getting of getting a small amount would be too high. But the larger the total amount one is after, the less it will cost per unit with industrious engineering.

I would not go to Antarctica for a single $500 dollar buried gem. But if there were billions of these gems it might at some point be cost effective to get some kind of enterprise going to efficiently find and extract them.

Of course, this presumes a plan to make it cost effective at scale would be conceived and competently implemented...and NASA is a government agency....

95 posted on 01/16/2017 8:23:12 PM PST by AndyTheBear
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To: from occupied ga

In a maned craft, yes. In an unmanned miner robot, much... much... much cheaper.


96 posted on 01/16/2017 8:23:32 PM PST by Dead Corpse (A Psalm in napalm...)
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To: from occupied ga

That’s government doing it. Planetary Resources and DSI are private companies.

You are also thinking in terms of 60’s technology. My iPhone has more computing power than all of the computers used in Apollo combined...

And then there is this...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RF_resonant_cavity_thruster

Game changer...


97 posted on 01/16/2017 8:26:09 PM PST by Dead Corpse (A Psalm in napalm...)
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To: Dead Corpse

Bring it home? the dinosaurs tried that and look how it worked out for them.


98 posted on 01/16/2017 8:32:57 PM PST by oldasrocks (rump)
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To: COBOL2Java


99 posted on 01/16/2017 8:35:45 PM PST by JoeProBono (SOME IMAGES MAY BE DISTURBING VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED;-{)
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To: entropy12

Wow can you imagin the smell! Whew!!


100 posted on 01/16/2017 8:40:09 PM PST by Empireoftheatom48 (God did help the Republic, can we keep it.)
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