Resolved: The United States Federal Government should mine astoids.

I would also like to say that some of his links are broken and if he would be so kind as to fix them for us that would be fantastic! Contention 1: Here on EarthThe costs of mining on Earth are constantly rising and are soon expected to fall bellow the cost of mining asteroids. The International Space Developement Confrence has found that recovery and payback from current Earth mining is risky and we cannot expect full payback, but from the costs of mining in space are already starting to rival that of mining here on Earth. (. http://abundantplanet.org...) Harvard agrees with this evidence as they find that mining in space will become more cost efficent and we will get a greater payback and save more money then mining here on Earth. (. http://abundantplanet.org...) Mining in the Ocean is slightly different, but is still terrible. It will destroy an already trashed ocean plagued by overfishing and oil leaks. We don't know enough about the biodiversity and our effects on them to fully understand what will happen here. (. http://www.theguardian.com...) The mining of the Ocean floor has known to create leaks and radioactivity with harms the biodiveristy and the ocean life in the area if we preform this plan we will destory biodiversity. (. http://news.thomasnet.com...) Contention 2: CostsAs shown in my last Contention, costs of mining are starting to become cheeper than that of mining on Earth. As for the technology we are getting closer and closer with our technology. Scientists are already showing that humans can currently mine asteroids with existing technology and have said that the Engineering factors are not difficult. (. http://www.scienceclarified.com...) Man has already begun to start mining asteroids as technology has started to have been done and brought back inexpensively as JAXA brought back samples for a very minisuel amount and the US has also done so with Stardust. (. http://web.ebscohost.com...) Current technology can suffices as we could use STPUs (Solar-Thermal Purpulsion Units) to move around and to mine the asteroids and they dock with it to mine. They can also use the water from the astoid, which I showed in my preivious round, to also be used for their purplusion. (Optimal Architecture for an Asteroid Mining Mission: System Components and Project Execution. , January 30th 2007) As for the starcraft's they have a method of returning. Simply by flying a tangent across the plane and dropping it into the Earth's atmosphere. This theory has been done and tested and has shown a positive success rating of 1,000 to 1. This is all by using the water on the asteroid for fuel. (. http://bigthink.com...) and [same source as the last one])Contention 3: Better Space OptionsMy opponent states that we can go to the moon, but asteroids are by far the better selection. Why's that you may ask? There is a great amount of LEO and delta-V asteroids that are way more accessable than the moon. Plus the moon contains a violitile surface which is metal poor. The Telsa Oribital Space Settlement and BITS have both done the math and have configured that no matter what that the costs of mining on the moon will not ever become cheeper than that of mining on Earth, however, they have found that because of the accessability of asteroids they will soon become way more cheeper then mining on Earth. (. http://www.spacearchitect.org...) Another reason is that on the moon and on Ceres the gravity is much less than that of Earth's and because of that it is much harder and requires more energy to get more metals off of the surface. Not to mention that the Moon's resources are way spread out and deep undergound making it overly expensive. We can see that asteroids would be a better alternative and starting point to mining the moon or Ceres. (Science Clarified, How will humans mine asteroids and comets, 04-13-11) Scientists have found over 100,000 NEA and the numbers are increasing. (The Solar System beckons with resources unimaginable on Earth. Ad Astra, Volume 18 Number 2, Summer 2006)