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Luxembourg expands its space resources vision
Étienne Schneider, deputy prime minister of Luxembourg, frequently tells the story of how he got interested in building a space resources industry in the country. His efforts to diversify the country's economy several years ago led to a meeting with Pete Worden, at the time the director of NASA's Ames Research Center and a proponent of many far-reaching space concepts. During an Oct. 22 panel discussion at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Washington, he recalled Worden advocating for commercial space: "Why shouldn't you go for space mining activities?"
"When he explained all this to me, I thought two things," Schneider said. "First of all, what did the guy smoke before coming into the office? And second, how do I get him out of here?"
He eventually bought into Worden's vision, starting a space resources initiative that attracted companies to the country while enacting a space resources law like that in the United States. By the beginning of 2019, though, it looked like it might all be a bad trip. The two major startups in that industry, Deep Space Industries and Planetary Resources, had been acquired by other companies with no interest in space resources. Worse, the Planetary Resources deal wiped out an investment of 12 million euros Luxembourg made in the startup.
Schneider is undaunted by those setbacks as he continues work to make Luxembourg a hotbed of entrepreneurial space, a scope that has expanded beyond, but has not abandoned, space resources. During the IAC, the country's year-old space agency signed an agreement with NASA to explore potential cooperation, building on an agreement Luxembourg signed with the U.S. Commerce Department in May. Just before the conference, Luxembourg announced it would partner with the European Space Agency on a space resources center in the country.
The article includes an interview with Schneider.
Previously: Luxembourg Announces Investment in Asteroid Mining
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(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday December 09 2019, @06:11AM (6 children)
Why? We speculate about the future all the time: weather, insurance, raising kids, planning events and trips, good and bad possibilities, etc. And once we've speculated, we can then begin to determine how those consequences could affect us and possibly plan for or insure against those consequences. Or gamble like a grandma on a Vegas hot streak. The future happens, might as well be prepared for it.
Here, early stage space mining really doesn't impact us directly on Earth. If those sexy dreams happen on a large scale, then you could end up with some interesting stuff like gold-plated plumbing. But you'll have plumbing anyway. What's more likely is that a large economy off of Earth, will help boost the Earth-side economy to some degree. So somewhat more jobs, wealth, etc than there would be otherwise. And maybe some cool stories and knowledge from all that space activity for those who care about such things.
OTOH, for those trying to do such things or responsible for evaluating such things (or other dependent secondary activities), speculation is necessary. Here, a politician is proposing to spend a lot of public money on space industry and commerce (appears to be more than just mining). The Luxembourg public at the least has a responsibility to evaluate the likelihood those expenditures will be worth the cost. Thus, the need to speculate on the consequences of those expenditures and funded activity naturally occurs.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Monday December 09 2019, @09:16AM (4 children)
Plenty of people smoke cigarettes (me included), it doesn't make from smoking a rationally good choice.
(In other words, I'm not accepting the "zillions can't be wrong" as a valid argument)
While projecting makes sense for one or two technology advances ahead, further than that is like intellectual masturbation - pleasurable as it may be, it's likely a waste of time and/or brain power.
Or a con game.
[citation needed]
In the same sense, spending resources to curb or lower the carbon emissions doesn't impact us, and yet you are constantly crying about waste of resources better used in ... whatevs you think is worth more.
Gold-plated plumbing brings no extra benefit to using not gold plated one.
Solving the treatment of pig waste [wikipedia.org] in NC [theguardian.com] and 11 other states [scientificamerican.com] is just one example of things that are more important than gold-plated plumbing (be it for the reason that antibiotic loaded pig waste is a perfect ground to select bugs capable of eating a human alive).
You know, the kind of problems on which the extra cost of inefficient asteroid mining will irrationaly drain from the funds available.
Feasibility studies aren't speculation. Yes, they include an element of projection, but I don't accept the term of speculation as appropriate for it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday December 09 2019, @02:47PM
Ok. So what? We have a zillion working examples that even rudimentary planning for the future works better than not doing it.
Because?
Corrosion resistance for starters.
That's quite true. Luxembourg hasn't solved the problem of pig waste in North Carolina. What's up with that? Well, ignoring also that pig waste is a solved problem and that it's not Luxembourg's job to do so, should one decide to solve it, that is.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday December 09 2019, @03:32PM
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday December 09 2019, @04:09PM (1 child)
>Plenty of people smoke cigarettes (me included), it doesn't make from smoking a rationally good choice.
Do you also not save for retirement? I assume you didn't go to school - no value there unless you're speculating about the future. Heck, not much point in budgeting so that you'll be able to pay rent next month, why speculate on the future, right? There's no guarantee you'll even be alive by then.
Almost everyone speculates on the future all the time. The only real question is whether you include developing technology (and politics, etc) in you speculation, in which case you'll likely be wrong, or if you assume everything will keep on mostly like it has been, in which case you'll *definitely* be wrong.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday December 09 2019, @10:23PM
'zillions do it' is not an rational argument to do something. Turns out that other rational decisions for doing or not doing something also exist.
I have a bunch many other real questions actually exist. But if thinking that's the only real question makes you feel better, by all means, go ahead.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday December 09 2019, @11:24AM
c0lo does not require gold-plated plumbing. He is preparing to be a future midsection participant in a human centipede.
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