From: gary@ke4zv.uucp (Gary Coffman)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro,talk.politics.space,alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.clinton
Subject: Re: Wealth in Space (Was Re: Clinton and Space Funding)
Date: 30 Sep 92 08:27:23 GMT
Reply-To: gary@ke4zv.UUCP (Gary Coffman)
Organization: Gannett Technologies Group

In article <28SEP199219445933@judy.uh.edu> wingo%cspara.decnet@Fedex.Msfc.Nasa.Gov writes:
>In article <1992Sep28.175027.25554@eng.umd.edu>, sysmgr@king.eng.umd.edu writes
>> 
>>Basic laws of supply and demand. More goods, prices drop. 
>> 
>>I dunno, maybe everyone could have gold-plated fixtures in their bathrooms? :)

>Check out your chemistry books. platinum is one of the best if not the best
>chemical catalyst in existence. We use a little in every Catalytic converter
>on every car in the first world.  A Brinks truck comes into a factory near
>Huntsville every week with a shipment of platinum for the catalytic converters
>made here.  Platinum is used in many industrial processes. (Some smart 
>researcher here should give us a breakdown). It would be wonderful if the
>price of platinum would drop by a factor of 10. Then there would only be
>100 billion dollars worth on the asteriod BUT consumption would go way up and
>some industrial processes would become more efficient due to the new cost
>effectiveness of using the lower cost patinum.  Therefore demand would 
>increase greatly, while lowering the cost of our overall industrial process.

Actually, catalysts aren't consumables by definition. There doesn't really
look like a viable demand for a tenfold increase in catalyst use in the
chemical industry even with a tenfold price decrease.

>If this were an American enterprise, this could put our basic industries
>that rely on platinum based catalytic processes to become more cost 
>competitive on a world basis, which would help ease our balance of payments
>burden and begin to bring terrestrial wealth back into this nation. Not a 
>bad deal actually.

Only going to sell to Americans eh? What about the reduced world demand
for Earth bound supplies of platinum as the US leaves the terrestrial
market? Won't that lower the price for our foreign competitors too?

>What about gold? Well if the price dropped by a factor of ten, there would 
>only be nine billion dollars worth of gold. Well that puts gold at a price
>in the $30-$40 dollar range. This would bring much more demand for gold,
>especially in electronics packaging which is where the majority of gold
>is used today.  This lowering of cost, if an American enterprise would make
>our electronics industry more competitive on a global basis, therefore 
>bringing more wealth into this nation, creating jobs for the educated, and
>providing money for needed social services as well as for the bread and
>circuses crowd in Congress.  Not a bad deal actually.

Same problem. *World* prices drop, no competitive advantage. Meanwhile
all those folks with gold jewelry see their investments dwindle.

>I haven't mentioned the Nickel and Iron that makes up the vast majority of
>the asteroid.  There is probably a couple of trillion tons of smelter grade
>nickel/iron (read steel) available on that one asteriod.  What would this
>do? It would effectively end all iron importation to the United States, 
>(We mine very little these days ourselves). This would help in our
>balance of payments.  

Most imported iron ore comes from our friends to the north. We already
have a trade surplus with them. They might be very unhappy with us and
stop buying our goods.

>Also, the vast quantity of material could be used
>in places where it is not cost effective to do so today, such as in the
>primary structures of bridges and buildings. Stainless steel, which this
>material basically is, would last five hundred years between needed replacement
>on bridges in the Northeastern US and Europe, vastly lowering maintance
>and replacement costs for our interstates. (Remember that a recent estimate
>placed this cost in the 200 billion dollar range in the next 20 years).

2,000 year old stone Roman bridges are still in daily use. It's amazing
how good engineering can make non-stainless steel things last. We use as 
little iron in our bridge designs as we can for the simple reason that other
methods and materials are better. Stainless steel really isn't corrosion
free, nor is it fatigue free. Making bridges from it won't make them
last 500 years unless the entire bridge is *designed* to last 500 years.
We know how to do that now. The *Romans* knew how to do that, and *did* do
that. It's just not cost effective to do it in most cases, even if stainless 
steel were free. Materials cost are a small fraction of construction costs,
and welding stainless is a bitch.

>This of course would free up billions to be used for bread and circuses as
>well as to buy back our country from the Japanese and other foreigners. Not
>a bad deal for ONE asteroid.
>
>Then after all of these goodies, a much larger fraction of the American
>people would have the wealth to buy gold plated bathroom fixtures.
>
>Not a bad deal really

Show us a way to *deliver* the materials of the asteroid to the Earth's
surface in *ready to use* form for less than 109 billion dollars. Those
gold and platinum *estimates* aren't in nice pure lumps. They're spread
throughout that couple of trillion tons of stainless steel ore. Now we're
talking $20 a ton material that will need hundreds of dollars an ounce
worth of processing to get at that platinum and gold. Makes a big difference. 
Don't pull another dinosaur killer in the process.

Gary

PS We already have an asteroid supplying us with nickel iron. It's 
convienently located at Sudbury. You can reach it by *train*. You
can even *walk* to it if you like. No need for expensive "astronaut"
programs. :-)