Posted on 04/18/2002 9:36:38 AM PDT by RightWhale
The door to space resource development is closed. Open it! Mr. Bush, knock down that wall!
>/tinfoil hat sarcasm and ridicule OFF<
My guess is that a "profitable business model" in outer space will never be developed. This is why governments have to provide funding for space exploration -- if there were even a remote chance of financial success, a company like General Electric would have established a permanent presence on the moon already.
Looks like China will be on the moon within 8 years, and NASA won't. NASA will be concentrating on developing a nuclear interplanetary shuttle, yet another White Elephant to go with its ISS International Orbiting Black Hole.
The government can build initial infrastructure, and license companies to develop resources, but this isn't happening in America. It could happen in China and Russia; England, of course, is famous for licensing commerercial companies to develop resources beyond the border.
For unknown reasons the idea of vast arrays of solar cells on the moon has become popular. Asteroid mining is the way to go as far as I know.
The nuclear interplanetary shuttle has no mission, nor will ever have a mission worth the trouble.
You thought the ANWR was useless scrub land? The moon is even less attractive: a rubble heap, a bombed-out wasteland. But it has something anyway: location.
The rest of the world can pack sand!
Humans use reasources, we try to use the cheaper and more efficient alternatives. If all goes well, we will eventually begin using off-world resources.
The use of the term 'exploit' does not seem well defined in your arguments. To exploit something is to use something. To not exploit it is to not use it.
But they wont. The government doesn't want a lot of people in Space. They especially don't want a lot of people on a far off colony in space. Why? Because such people may, as England learned, declare independance and then the powers on Earth won't be able to control them. Unlike the New World, which is slowly being brought in line with the Old World, space is too vast for that. They may lose power never to regain it again.
No. If the government ever goes into space full throttle, it will be when they are confident of their ability to maintain control over all that happens there. Until then, they will keep throwing us occasional bones via NASA (which is a joke) and try to keep private individuals or companies out of space.
Tuor
Tuor
Pardon me, but you two are in the wrong room, D.U. is the first door on the left. I'll just go a head and flame you guys on your way out...
The moon belongs to those who can get there, claim it and most efficiently utilize the resources they find, you unwashed, commie hippy, tree-sitting socialists!!!!!!!!!!!
If we can get there first, who's going to stop us?
We now return to our regularly scheduled freeping.
You have it backwards. The governments *want* to keep 'messing up world politics' by using things like scarce resources. That is how they maintain their hold on power -- how they show people they are useful and needed. Left to their own devices, we'll never get off the teat of oil and other scarce resources; we'll never develop better alternatives.
Only one thing really keeps us from going to space with impunity: gravity. No, I'm being serious. If we could find a way to overcome Earth's gravity well without as much effort as is currently needed, we could really move out into space. Alas, such a thing appears unworkable with today's physics; perhaps future discoveries in the field will produce a way to at least partially counter the effects of gravity.
Tuor
Easy. The Moon is mine. I own it. Come on, Universe, come and uphold your claim. I'm waiting.... I'm still waiting.... Hmm. No response. I guess the Moon *is* mine.
Wait till I tell everyone!
Tuor
Space is not, and should not be, a new empire to exploit as we will.
It sure is.
The universe belongs to mankind, until some other gang shows up and says otherwise. We will do with it as we please.
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