-you can for practical purposes , "mine" almost anything from seawater or Rocky Mountain granite by the part per million than you can from outer space-- and ocean bottom mining would beat that by orders of magnitude---
--those proposing such should enlighten themselves about the principles of physics vis-a vis energy expenditure---
“those proposing such should enlighten themselves about the principles of physics vis-a vis energy “
And how much is the cost of energy sources for rockets (hydrogen, kerosene, oxygen) versus the price of gold, platinum, gemstones like peridot, etc? Because that’s what you’re trading: cheap propellants for incredibly valuable returns.
“you can for practical purposes , “mine” almost anything from seawater or Rocky Mountain granite by the part per million than you can from outer space”
The concentrations of precious metals on a good asteroid are several times better than you find in the best mines on Earth. With zero overburden (the expensive part in mining is often removing overburden). Pre-crushed for you. With little energy required to lift it off the surface. Some steroids are also laced all the way through with peridot.
Of course you don’t even need to consider that because just the value of asteroid material alone is huge. The worst quality, rusted, un-aesthetic iron asteroid samples on Earth go for about $1000 a pound. Good stuff goes for thousands to millions of times more. And there’s a huge market for it.
There’s potential. Let’s go for it.