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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated
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To: LindyBill who wrote (484192)4/24/2012 10:00:15 AM
From: TideGlider  Read Replies (2) of 793896
 
A nice idea. The water is aa snap. However the energy involved in the space travel, mining, smelting and return of precious metals seems very underestimated. I was just discussing this with my son on the phone yesterday. I don't see the technology making the mining cost effective or even close. If mining were perfected to that degree they would be better off mining Antarctica and the undersea world.

Other asteroids are rocky and metallic. A throng of robotic mining spacecraft could grind up pieces of the asteroid and smelt it to capture precious metals within.

Platinum — which is used for jewelry, electronics components and automobile catalytic converters — fetches about $1,500 an ounce these days, so a single spacecraft would not have to bring back a lot of it for the enterprise to make money. More common metals like iron could perhaps be used as raw materials in space factories, churning out spacecraft and other structures.

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