But then they have to come all the way back to Sacramento to assay and file their gold claim before they can mine it.
Naysayers can go back to the Flat Earth Society meetings.
They claim they are going to mine water from asteroids to turn it into fuel (presumably hydrogen and oxygen) but where are they going to get the fuel for electrolysis?
It was reported that one asteroid would have enough platinum to equal all that has ever been mined by man up to this time. That would be quite the discovery.
Precious metals definitely high on the list, but the rare earths (and possibly other things too rare to be economically feasible to process here on earth) could be the real gold here.
pagine mr Lister! Mr Dave Lister! please pick up the white courtesy phone! NO, THE WHITE ONE YOU SMEG HEAD!!
Ah yea, it sounds great until you get the feds into the act. Not to mention the EPA! Forget it Jake, it’s planet earth and it’s bureaucrats and despots that inhabit it that is the greatest obstacle.
A good (if somewhat dated) read is “The Third Industrial Revolution” by B. Harry Stine. There are all sorts of things which can be done very profitably in space.
von Braun looked to the sky and stated that if a 1 mile diameter metallic asteroid were mined for its iron ore and nickle ore you would have a 500 year supply of stainless steel.
He and Dr Gerald O'Neil a Princeton Phycist formed the Nation Space Society and Dr O"Neils book "The High Frontier" said that if a proper space program were formed the profit would be out of this world.
That "little" computer that NASA ordered for the Apollo program was put on the shelf when the Apollo program was cancelled by those heads up their butts Congress Critters.
The two Steves bought the computer chip for $550.00 and made the first Apple computer. What resulted was the Greates Jobs program of the 20th century, (get it Jobs= jobs~) How many of the 100 million + people working is the US have jobs resulting form this electronic miracle my guess is 25 - 35 million people.
I say go get that asteroid.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1523385/posts
I said it before and it's still Ad Astra!
About time! I’ve been waiting for this to happen since I started reading science fiction in the early 60’s (at 6 years old).
Maybe if the ra$$holes were not so closed minded an partisan, they would have supported New Gingrich after his Florida speech.
Obama and Romney lack vision, or worse, second term Obama’s dark vision is pushing him to destroy freedom and liberty.