It's mine. It's my asteroid!
If NASA goes there, claim it for the US. Forget that BS about it for everyone. Same with the moon. we go back, claim it. Not one inch for the Chinese.
DIBS! I saw if first! I claim, ‘The Law of the High Seas’ or some other obscure time/space/oceanic law that applies! Space is basically one big ocean, Right?
I’m calling Saul. *SMIRK*
Maybe the Russians will give us a ride.
Wouldn’t it merely depress the price of those metals?
Why not just hollow it out and make a space dock, build ships there.With all that alloy you can do anything.
Space rock? Like Alan Parsons Project?
Free air and rainwater haven’t destroyed the world economy yet. I don’t see how free iron and nickel would.
Transport costs prevent the materials from being sent by the literal ton to Earth. Most likely use would be construction in the asteroid belt ... which is decades off if not longer.
Yes, just like the steam engine, coal mining, electricity, frozen food, the automobile, ...
PROPAGANDA. Makes it look like Obama struck it rich for America.
The author wrote this two hours later....
WW3 THREAT: Putin’s latest weapon will blow US missiles out of sky
No, a windfall return does not collapse the economy. It causes dislocations, but those are paired with so much opportunity that it's hard for most people to mind. I'll take those minerals happily and without fear (even if some of my property loses value).
I doubt the economics analysis included the cost of going there, processing the ore (space habitat, personnel, supply ships, technology) and getting it back to Earth.
It would take 50 years of development to be able to start to do it, which when factored in, might yield a different result.
NASA is a propaganda agency, nothing more.
Gold is running just below $1,200/oz.
Cost of mining gold from that asteroid would be 2 to 3 times that, at a minimum.
Same would be true of all metals.
Fake News.
And, of course, the costs to mine such resources are minimal, right? Dumb premise in this article.
If finding something of immense value to space exploration destroys your world’s economy then there is something wrong with your economy. But we already knew this.
Its only worth quadrillions if you can mine it and market it more cheaply than ore on earth.
Still, wouldn’t it be fun to drop a couple of landers on it and extract some core samples?