From: wlmss@peg.pegasus.oz.au
Newsgroups: aus.general
Subject: Spacemining Economics &tc
Date: 31 Jul 92 03:23:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:peg:993300059:000:6157
Nf-From: peg.pegasus.oz.au!wlmss    Jul 30 22:23:00 1992


   On a light note......
 
 *** Energy Cost-Benefit Analyses Encompassing Wiser Factors Needed! ***
 
  Hi. This is as silly as describing Jumbo Jets in 1902. As futile too?
  Yet this is not of the future but now for real national Impoverishment is
   upon us Ozzie Import Junkies and we better act fast to pay for the habit
   or leave our kids to fiscal ruin.
 
  In "JapanAustraliaRussia Spacemining" on aus.general       I said:
|   Mining and processing within the biosphere is hazardous to
|   the world because of the poisons liberated.  The option is to do
|   this work in space where there are materials in abundance.
  Someone wise said to me:
;   Somehow I suspect that it would cost more in resources and pollution to
;   bring those minerals back. I'd like to see you back up your proposal
;   with an energy cost-benefit analysis.  And it's not only mining and
;   processing that pollute, it's also disposal.
;   I'd prefer the simpler scheme of increasing recycling.
  I respond to he and all:
 
  ****************************************************************************
 
                 Spacemining Speculations
 
   Postings of appropriate cost-benefit analyses invited!
 
  TIME reports it will cost a trillion US dollars to reach Mars. Much of the
  cost is to cover the nuisance value of carrying bulky mammal bodies to &
  fro. Virtually everything in space can be managed virtually from Earth
  much cheaper than that.
 
 New Scientist 18 Feb 89 reviews "Asteroids" by Charles Kowal (Ellis Horwood):
 "While the space super-powers debate whether the Moon or Mars should be
   their next goal in space, they are missing out on some much more
   valuable planetary real estate. According to Kowal even a small
    metallic asteroid -a kilometer across- contains five trillion
     dollars worth of iron, nickel and cobalt. That's certainly
     sufficient justification for hauling it from the asteroid
       belt to Earth orbit....."
   Kowal is discoverer of the sun-orbiting object Chiron and has spent
   twenty years studying asteroids at Mt Palomar.
 
   The book includes a table of the properties of all 3445 asteroids known
   at the time of writing. These chunks of solar flotsam are rich indeed.
   The greatest mineral rush and resource boom ever may soon start for some
   lucky nations. It will enable the Earth to return to it's pristine state
   because environmentalism will be affordable. The wealth generated can
   save the bulk of the world's population from lifelong destitution. And
   beyond the financial incentive there is the practical need to prevent
   asteroids running into our now widely populated planet.
 
   "Hauling" is a misleading word. Solar System Snooker would be better.
   Available technology would deliver the desired impetii to asteroids to
   alter their orbits to arrive finally at a Lagrange point.
 
   The defence implications need also be considered. Nations which can
   move mountains around the solar system can also divert them to strike
   their enemies. A 1 Km asteroid delivers a 100,000 megaton blast which
   would effectively prevent all sorts of human rights abuses.(Joke) The
   ability to do this would certainly reduce the need to maintain large
   standing armies with huge cost savings. The idea is out now! Oh dear.
 
   Heavy lift rockets need not pollute. On Cape York - speculating only -
   there's not only aluminium but a vast untapped tidal power resource to
   smelt alumina and hydrolyse water into rocket fuel -  LOX & LH then the
   only byproduct is steam. East of Bamaga is an ideal site, a beauty.
 
   Recycling is of course vital too. Technologies acquired in a serious
   space effort will assist here. But recycling as well as leaving the
   Earth's surface unmolested will occur only when a basic Law of Human
   Economic Activity is met after this much needed government intiative,
   namely:   "People will usually do what is right provided only that it
   is in their immediate economic interest to do so."
 
   By-products of processing such as silicates could be turned into tiny
   glass beads inset with a megnetic strip. These would lie in Earth
   orbit to act as a  satellite-orientable screen to reduce the amount of
   sunlight reaching the Equator, thus mitigating greenhouse warming and
   making the tropics safer. Since warming waters traverse the Pacific at
   the equator as El Nino develops it might be feasible to mitigate droughts
   and other climatic extremes.
 
   From Earth the ring of reflective particles would fulfil a prophecy
   about flood prevention in the myth of Noah, for this reflective ring
   would appear from Earth as a magnificent rainbow. The author of the idea
   expects an uphill battle with King James getting a copyright on said idea
   but it IS ALL MINE! An aesthetic slave to his follies indeed. Read on.
 
   The trail to an appropriate energy cost-benefit analysis starts with the
   references below. Do take into account the factors touched on above. Can
   we afford to do it? Can we afford not to?
                                                      Lawrie Williams
 
   * * * * * * * * * * refs * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
 
   Title:    Mining Potential of Asteroid Belt
   Authors:  Kryzanowski T; Mardon A
   Journal:  Canadian Mining Journal 1990 v111  n4  p43
 
   Title:    Mining Apollo and Amor Asteroids
   Author:   Oleary B
   Journal:  Science, 1977, v197, n4301, p363-366
 
   Title:    Asteroid Mining and the Moons of Mars
   Author:   Oleary B
   Corporate Source: Inst secur & cooperat outer space 5136 E Karen
             Dr/Scottsdale/AZ/85254
   Journal:  ACTA Astronautica 1988 v17 n4 p457-462
 
   Title:    Congress approves solar power satellites - and asteroid mining
   Author:   Dickson D
   Journal:  Nature 1978 v274 N5666 p3
 
   Title:    Mining Moon and Asteroids and Living in Space
   Author:   Oleary B
   Corporate Source: Princeton Univ/Princeton/NJ/08540
   Journal:  Astronautics & Aeronautics  1978 V16 N3 p21-23
   __________________________________________________________________________
   happy prospe
Newsgroups: aus.general