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He’s getting a well deserved thrashing in the Examiner’s comments.

But he has a point when it comes to who pays.

There is money, lots of it, to be made in space.

Mining and manufacturing in space is the way of the future.

For environmental reasons as well as technological reasons, it is doable right now, and with present technology.

I really hate to think the Chinese will beat us to this. It is the Third Industrial Revolution and Americans should be on the frontier, leading the way.

One average-sized near Earth asteroid rich in platinum group metals (PGMs, or PeGgyMays) is equal to the entire annual gross product of the world!

We could pay off our national debts very quickly and cause an industrial and technological boom, all at the same time.

The initial start-up will be expensive because so much would have to brought up from Earth. But once a mining/smelting combine is built and materials begin to be delivered to orbiting robotic smelting and manufacturing complexes, the material supply chain starts in earnest and will expand to accommodate demand. It will pay for itself many times over.

That has always been the problem with space exploration: how to make it pay for itself.

I envision a station on the Moon, using a mag-lev launcher utilizing solar power to move cargo between the base and orbiting stations. The U.S.Navy uses rail guns to launch missiles; so can a Moon station launch cargo vessels using one that is larger.

There are materials that can be created in the zero gravity vacuum of space which could revolutionize electronics.

Earth gravity affects the crystal formation when refining metals; this will not occur in space. Very thin panels can be manufactured, as well as metal whiskers one molecule in diameter.

Asteroids contain iron and nickel as well as PeGgyMays. It will be possible to build a Moon station with materials from asteroids and there is sufficient water on the Moon for a group to survive. Energy from the Sun or nuclear can make the whole operation possible. Due to conditions on the Moon’s surface I believe the station will be mostly underground.

Today we have the technology to exploit space without having to maintain human colonies. Drones have proven that, and robotic manufacturing is far more sophisticated than in the past.

I believe it is something the U.S. should be doing.
Its all a question who spreads out into the frontier of space takes advantage of its potential.

“We can’t afford it...” is true, as the nation is presently run by crazed socialists!

Once the dollar is no longer the international reserve currency the SHTF - assuredly.

But the Muslim fools who caused 9/11 expected the U.S.A. to crumble. We did not oblige them by doing so.

Everyone seems to underate us. Europeans never expected the U.S. to make it after the Civil War, but we fought a war with Spain, then with China, then WWI and came out stronger than ever.

During the Depression we were hit with a debilitating environmental catastrophe causing a “dust bowl” in the Midwest, and all while paying very high taxes. Then came the attack on Pearl Harbor and WWII. Still, we came out stronger.

As you probably guess, I don’t see this as necessarily a bad situation but an opportunity.

We should chuck the United Nations off our shores, for starters, and the IMF after them. Hey, they won’t need our dollars anymore, now will they?

I do not support isolationism, but I know this nation can be energy independent.

I know we can feed ourselves and export any leftovers.
I know we have technological know-how. Hell, that’s why the Chinese are always stealing ideas from us!

Are there people who will riot? Sure, but they’re probably the same folks who riot after football and basketball games. So what!

Right now we need some time to get ourselves reorganized along Constitutional constructs and change to a tax system, either Flat or Fair, which will generate more jobs and revenue.

We must bring our military home from policing the rest of the world. I’m sure you’ve noticed the rest of the world really doesn’t appreciate our efforts.

Screw ‘em.

We can launch the Third Industrial Revolution without the rest of the world. We’ve had the technology for thirty years. Then laugh hysterically watching other nations try to catch up from their failed experiment in the socialist utopia known as ‘Globalism’.”

Five hundred years ago the most sophisticated and powerful political players in the world were the Ottomans (in modern Turkey) and the Chinese (Ming: 1368-1644). No one living then would have expected the 20th century to be industrially developed and dominated by what was then a rustic Europe and a wilderness in North America.

And yes, the market for space fabricated parts would be Earth, at first.

No, I do not believe it is fanciful thinking. The my first paragraph above demonstrates that it is not.

And private investment, just as it was in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries in North America, will be funding this endeavor. The promise of fantastic monetary return and the thrill of risk will be the driving impetus, just as it always has been in the past.

As you can tell, I’m kind of enthusiastic about this subject!