Posted on 06/25/2013 7:02:34 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
An asteroid less than a mile in diameter could hold more than $20 trillion in industrial and precious metals
Resources on Earth are limited. Our planet was born with a fixed amount of water, hydrocarbons, nitrogen, and industrial and precious metals.
And we're collecting, processing, and eventually throwing out those resources at an alarming rate: A United Nations report on resource depletion says that between 1980 and 2008 natural resources per capita declined by 20 percent in the United States, 33 percent in South Africa, 25 percent in Brazil, and 17 percent in China.
For now, only protection and better resource management can safeguard the planet. As we burn through Earth's resources, a wealth of physical resources like metals, water, and hydrocarbons are floating around in asteroids, moons, and other planets, ready to be harvested. If human civilization is to continue to grow and expand over the centuries and millennia to come, hunger for resources is likely to drive us to explore and mine what's way, way out there.
And as wild as it may sound, asteroids in particular could be highly profitable. In 1997 scientists speculated that a relatively small metallic asteroid with a diameter of 0.99 miles contains more than $20 trillion worth of industrial and precious metals.....
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
/johnny
He was a realist, too.
/johnny
Was the mass destroyed?
If they want to be a little more efficient about the whole mining thing, they would just steer it towards Earth from the get go.
I am looking for investors.
My operating plan is to find a suitable Near Earth Asteroid... about 2000’ in diameter and install ion engines to steer it towards Earth...
Landfall would be on Washington D.C., whereupon mining forces would commence digging up the natural resources already located on this continent.
Oh, and we would go right ahead and build Keystone XL while we were at it.
Who’s in?
Isn’t the Earth’s core molten iron? Aren’t deep sea volcanoes depositing near industrial grade metals on the ocean floor?
Wouldn’t remote control deep sea mining gear be easier, safer and cheaper?
But let such a stupid idea slip from Obama’s lips and his sycophants in the media are all agog.
Oh no, the sky is falling, the sky is falling .... give me billions and I will keep it from falling .... I promise .... trust me based upon my past performance....
Using the $20 trillion 1 mile diameter asteroid as an example, and we have a 4.87x10^6 Megaton TnT blast.
Your Inputs:
Distance from Impact: 48.30 km ( = 30.00 miles )
Projectile diameter: 1.61 km ( = 1.00 miles )
Projectile Density: 8000 kg/m3
Impact Velocity: 48.30 km per second ( = 30.00 miles per second )
Impact Angle: 90 degrees
Target Density: 1000 kg/m3
Target Type: Liquid water of depth 30.5 meters ( = 100.0 feet ), over crystalline rock.
Energy:
Energy before atmospheric entry: 2.04 x 1022 Joules = 4.87 x 106 MegaTons TNT
The average interval between impacts of this size somewhere on Earth during the last 4 billion years is 1.6 x 107years
Major Global Changes:
The Earth is not strongly disturbed by the impact and loses negligible mass.
The impact does not make a noticeable change in the tilt of Earth’s axis (< 5 hundreths of a degree).
The impact does not shift the Earth’s orbit noticeably.
Crater Dimensions:
What does this mean?
The crater opened in the water has a diameter of 60.2 km ( = 37.4 miles ).
For the crater formed in the seafloor:
Transient Crater Diameter: 36.8 km ( = 22.8 miles )
Transient Crater Depth: 13 km ( = 8.07 miles )
Final Crater Diameter: 59.1 km ( = 36.7 miles )
Final Crater Depth: 1.01 km ( = 0.627 miles )
The crater formed is a complex crater.
The volume of the target melted or vaporized is 180 km3 = 43.1 miles3
Roughly half the melt remains in the crater, where its average thickness is 169 meters ( = 555 feet ).
Thermal Radiation:
What does this mean?
Time for maximum radiation: 1.13 seconds after impact
Your position is inside the fireball.
The fireball appears 256 times larger than the sun
Thermal Exposure: 4.14 x 109 Joules/m2
Duration of Irradiation: 11.8 minutes
Radiant flux (relative to the sun): 5840
Effects of Thermal Radiation:
Clothing ignites
Much of the body suffers third degree burns
Newspaper ignites
Plywood flames
Deciduous trees ignite
Grass ignites
Seismic Effects:
What does this mean?
The major seismic shaking will arrive approximately 9.66 seconds after impact.
Richter Scale Magnitude: 9.1
Mercalli Scale Intensity at a distance of 48.3 km:
X. Most masonry and frame structures destroyed with their foundations. Some well-built wooden structures and bridges destroyed. Serious damage to dams, dikes, embankments. Large landslides. Water thrown on banks of canals, rivers, lakes, etc. Sand and mud shifted horizontally on beaches and flat land. Rails bent slightly.
XI. As X. Rails bent greatly. Underground pipelines completely out of service.
XII. As X. Damage nearly total. Large rock masses displaced. Lines of sight and level distorted. Objects thrown into the air.
And well all have flying cars, too. Just like the ones they promised us 50 years ago.
............
You’re right that 50 years ago, it was thought that the civilization would be much further along than it is today.
However, I buy the argument that the rate of technological change has been accelerating lately. That the technological changes we’ll see in the next—even 20 years will be much like the big technology changes of 1890-1910.
This doesnt sound practical.
Its like saying that the Sun has all the free energy we need but we just have to go and get it and bring it back.
Hmmm, that was my plan for getting the goods back to earth. Strap a rocket on the stone and point it towards Compton.
Absolute BS! It's all still here on good old planet earth. Where do these idiots think they are "throwing out" the material to?!
Not only is this Malthusian nonsense, but it is multiplied by the idiocy that it would cost less to mine an asteroid. There may come a time when mining asteroids is profitable. But it will first be for materials used in off-earth endeavors. That will cost much less than trying to boost materials from earth.
And the only way mining asteroids will be profitable is if government stays out of it!
I disagree. Leftist ideology has so completely infected scientific thought today that I'm positive that the late 20th - early 21st century will someday be referred to as the Second Dark Ages.
Will they be able to grow food out there?
Don’t be silly. We have too many mouths to feed right here.
Twofers, mostly.
OMG, they’re going to weight Gaya down and drown her. lmbo
Since it will cost $30 trillion to mine $20 trillion in metals... sounds like something Obama would be interested in...
We can’t even get to low earth orbit by ourselves.
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