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Asteroid Mining Could Begin in 10-20 Years

posted by martyb on Thursday November 09 2017, @08:03PM   
from the it's-over-your-head dept.

takyon writes:

One expert... in the field of asteroid mining, has predicted that asteroid mining could begin in 10-20 years:

"Asteroid mining on a regular basis, such as terrestrial mining takes place today, with an established industry and an ecosystem of supporting services businesses for the mining companies, could start anywhere from 20 to 50 years is my personal opinion. But any industry must start somewhere, and I think we will see the first asteroid being mined 10 to 20 years from now, at which point the surrounding ecosystem will begin to grow," [J.L.] Galache said.

However, in order to successfully start asteroid mining, a few obstacles must first be overcome. One of these is insufficient knowledge about certain types of asteroids. Although our understanding of asteroids as a whole is advanced enough, gaining a better understanding of the nature of various types of near-Earth objects could be a critical factor in terms of success. Galache underlined that mining techniques will have to be tailored to specific types of asteroids. "For example, you will not send the same equipment to mine an iron-nickel asteroid as you would a carbonaceous asteroid, and you will not send the same equipment to mine a fine regolith-covered asteroid as a rubble pile. I do believe we have figured out what all the unknowns are and it is just a matter of finding answers and solutions to those unknowns," he noted.

NASA's Psyche mission will visit 16 Psyche, the most massive metallic M-type asteroid in the asteroid belt.

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Original Submission

• Dick Bathroom Stall-Man GNU Utopia Dick Bathroom Stall-Man GNU Utopia (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 09 2017, @09:48PM (1 child)

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 09 2017, @09:48PM (#594861)

  In the long run, making programs free is a step toward the postscarcity world, where nobody will have to work very hard just to make a living. People will be free to devote themselves to activities that are fun, such as programming, after spending the necessary ten hours a week on required tasks such as legislation, family counseling, robot repair and asteroid prospecting. There will be no need to be able to make a living from programming.

  http://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.html [gnu.org]

  Richard Motherfucker Stallman really did a number on me. I went to school to earn a master's degree in computer science so I could be a Free Software programmer, and I coded my portfolio of free open source software, and it never ever got me a job in the "tech" industry. Open source IS SHIT. Free software is TOTALLY FUCKING WORTHLESS. I have no job, and I have no prospects. I can't make a living anywhere, because I am a programmer. I wasted my life for absolutely zero return on investment.

  The GNU Manifesto is called a Manifesto for good reason, because it's completely fucking stupid Communist BULLSHIT.

  I've seen Motherfucker Stallman speak, and he's no visionary; he's a fucking dick.

  FUCK RMS, FUCK GNU, FUCK LINUX, and FUCK YOU.

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• Re:Dick Bathroom Stall-Man GNU Utopia (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 09 2017, @10:19PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 09 2017, @10:19PM (#594875)

  Lol, you're doing it wrong. Or, by the seething anger you seem to hold probably every interviewer sees the psychotic break ready to happen in your eyes and thinks "No thanks, I don't wanna be murdered by a disgruntled dev."

  Or perhaps you're such a special fucking snowflake that you won't take a job that is "beneath you" and thus you prevent yourself from developing a career.

  Parent