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AT: Asteroid Mining Not Profitable
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AT: Asteroid Mining Not Profitable[____] [____] [____] Extraplanetary mining would contribute enormously to the global economy. Michael D. Campbell, Vice President and Chief Geologist/Hydrogeologist at I2M Associates, 6/9/2009, Developing Industrial Minerals, Nuclear Minerals and Commodities of Interest via Off-World Exploration and Mining” The potential rewards in terms of developing new mineral resources with large-scale, off-world mining operations would contribute to the world economy on an unprecedented level making the immense industrial investment worthwhile (after Schmitt, 2006). Identifying and mining nickel, cobalt, and a variety of other commodities that are in short supply on Earth, or those that could be mined, produced, and delivered more cheaply in space than on Earth could contribute to and drive the world’s technology and associated economy to a scale never before contemplated. This is based, of course, on the assumption that the economics are favorable. Large multi-national, quasi-governmental industrial groups are likely to develop over the next few decades to handle projects of such magnitude, if they haven’t already begun to assemble. In the beginning, the economics would likely be underwritten by governmental support, perhaps by a group of governments cooperating in funding and technology but followed later by some governments funding programs to accommodate their own particular self-interests AT: Asteroid Mining Not Profitable[____] [____] Asteroid mining allows limitless growth. John S. Lewis, Professor of planetary science at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetory Laboratory, 1996, Rain of Iron and Ice, p. 183-222) Thus we come to our final, and most startling, discovers the stick that threatens Earth is also a carrot. Every negative incentive we have to master the impact hazard has a corresponding positive incentive to reap the bounty of mineral wealth in the would-be impactors by crushing them and bringing them back in tiny, safe packages, a few hundred metric tons at a time, for use both in space and on Earth. Remember that we will almost certainly have hundreds to thousands of years of warning time before a threatening global-scale impact. We need not be driven lo rash and risky actions taken precipitously under threat of death. We will almost certainly have plenty of time to deal with the problem. This approach obviates the hazards of unauthorized deflections, since that technology would be developed only under the very improbable circumstance that a threatening object is discovered onlv a few decades before impact. Then, and only then, should the technology for deflection be developed) for the sufficient purpose of forestalling imminent global disaster. Dealing with near-Earth objects should not be viewed grudgingly as a necessary expense: it is an enormously profitable investment in a limitless future: a liberation from resource shortages and limits to growth; an open door into the solar system—and beyond. Solvency – Deflection Successful[____] [____] We have the technology to deflect asteroids, but an early detection system is essential to give us time to prepare. Nancy Atkinson, , Universe Today staff writer, 1/22/2010, “Asteroid Detection, Defection Needs More Money, Report Says” , http://www.universetoday.com/51811/asteroid-detection-deflection-needs-more-money-report-says/ “We have the technology today to move an asteroid,” Schweikart said. “We just need time. It doesn’t take a huge spacecraft to do the job of altering an asteroid’s course. It just takes time. And the earlier we could send a spacecraft to either move or hit an asteroid, the less it will cost. We could spend a few hundred million dollars to avoid a $4 billion impact.” But the report put out by the NRC stresses the methods for asteroid/comet defense are new and still immature. The committee agreed that with sufficient warning, a suite of four types of mitigation is adequate to meet the threat from all NEOs, except the most [____] [____] Only effective detection provides enough lead-time to deflect the asteroid. Donald K. Yeomans, Manager of the NEO program office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 11/8/2007, “Near-Earth Objects (NEOS) – Status of the Survey Program and Review of NASA’s 2007 Report to Congress,” http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=110_house_hearings&docid=f:38057.pdf] A number of existing technologies can deflect an Earth-threatening asteroid if there is time. The primary goal of the potentially hazardous asteroid survey programs is to discover them early and provide the necessary time. An asteroid that is predicted to hit Earth would require a change in its velocity of only three millimeters per second, if this impulse were applied 20 years in advance of the impact itself. The key to a successful deflection is having sufficient time to carry it out, whether it is a slow, gentle drag of a gravity tractor, or the more impulsive shove from an impacting spacecraft or explosive device. In either case, the verification process will be required to ensure the deflection maneuver was successful, and to ensure the object’s subsequent motion would not put it on yet another Earth-impacting trajectory. While suitable deflection technologies exist, none of them can be effective if we are taken by surprise. It is the aggressive survey efforts and robust radar systems that must ensure that the vast majority of potentially hazardous objects are discovered and tracked well in advance of any Earth-threatening encounters Directory: wp-content -> uploads -> 2011 2011 -> Voices of the Old Sea Norman Lewis 2011 -> Malevil Robert Merle 2011 -> The Elephant Keeper’s Children Peter Hoeg 2011 -> Jv packet •Mars Colonization Affirmative •Mars Colonization Negative 2011 -> Registration Form (Rev. 8-86) omb no. 1024-0018 2011 -> All America Looks Up to Virginia;” Virginia and the Declaration of Independence 2011 -> Rao bulletin 2011 -> Christopher Columbus was born between 25 August and 31 October 1451 in 2011 -> The Battle of Frenchtown (1855), Washington Territory: the Political and Demographic Context rev 9/4/11 2011 -> The harmony society Download 2.75 Mb. Share with your friends:
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