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Earth is at risk of losing all of it’s fresh water and rare metals. People have become very accustomed towards the availability of resources at their disposal that they do not realize that very soon these resources will run out. Earth’s most valuable resources are being abused in order to provide for the entire population that it currently holds. This problem needs to be resolved before it is too late. Recently, scientists and astronomers have discovered that these resources are actually located on asteroids all around Earth and are far more abundant. Asteroids have been found to have high amounts of metals, including iron, nickel, and even platinum, and also have large quantities of fresh water. The idea of mining or collecting resources from …show more content…
The European country of Luxembourg, one of the largest satellite manufacturers in the world, has pledged the American asteroid mining companies, such as Deep Space Industries and Planetary Resources, that it will invest two hundred and twenty seven million dollars to help grow the entire industry. The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg also pursue lines of business to revolve more around exploring space and gathering resources from asteroids. The United States government has also started creating bills concerning this issue. The U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, formally the Asteroids Act, protects the rights of anyone or any company extracting resources from space by allowing whoever took the resources has full property over it since nothing is claimed in space. Many different countries’ leaders around the world are starting to discuss these problems at meetings. One in particular, the Off-Earth Mining Forum, is a giant meeting of world leaders, scientists, and engineers which occurred in Australia in the November of 2015. The overall effects of asteroid mining are overwhelmingly positive and almost all the pros outweigh the cons. First off, asteroid mining is super clean and eco-friendly. Since the mining is done in space, there are absolutely no ecosystems being harmed during the process, unlike on Earth where the environment does get harmed through mining. When metals and minerals get processed on Earth, the entire process pollutes the air, water, and soil. However in space there is absolutely nothing that can be polluted or harmed with this process. Through the gathering of space resources, the resources already on Earth can be conserved instead of being abused into
Knowing the impermanence of the Earth, do humans have a moral obligation to find and
The universe is a shooting gallery and earth is the bullseye. The earth is always under threat of a doomesday asteroid that will wipe out civilization. There are over one thousand asteroids traveling toward earth and only three quarters are accounted for. Where are the other one forth? No one knows because the government doesn't fund NASA astrologists enough to cover the astroids. Just one impact could end civilization as we know it. No matter where it hits everything would die, even bacteria. To give an estimate how much is spent on asteroid detection. It is said to be less than the cost to operate a single McDonald's franchise. Total disaster would occur no matter where the asteroid hit. Land, sea it doesn't matter. Ocean impact would create a number of things. First, a Tsunami(tidal wave) would be created on impact. The wave would be hundreds for feet high traveling hundreds of miles per hour. It would start to slow down crashing ashore through all coastal city. Then, finally wash up hundreds for miles inland. " The mid-Atlantic Ocean impact ranging from 400 meters to 5 kilometers in diameter. This would generate a tsunami that would sweep across the upper East Coast of the United States to the Appalachian Mountains."(Gottschalk 1) The blast of the impact would equal a 300 gigaton blast of T.N.T. Also, 2.4 seconds after impact, a small fireball with a temperature of 5000'C would sweep across long island. A land fall strike would cause total divistation. The asteroid would create a earth trembling impact causing earth quakes around the world. The binding flash will show impact and the crater would be twenty miles across. Then, a blanket of dust and debris would blanket the earth and block the sun's light. This would occur for hundreds of years and the climate would be disrupted. Global killer no matter where it hits. The end of the world is only 28 years, 10 months, 19 days, 1 hour, 45 minutes, and 39 seconds away. An asteroid named XF11 is on route to hit earth directly. October is the month and 2038 is the year. Discovered by Jim Scotti on December 6, 1997 while looking at star with the Arizona Spacewatch Group. The asteroid "is predicted to pass at a rather comfortable distance of about 600,000 miles (about 960,000 kilometers) in 2028," "reported Dr. Donald K.
The “gold rush” could soon become the “asteroid rush”. Mining space is something that has never been conducted behind NASA, but behind private companies this is a new venture that can be explored. Although, the technical aspects still need to be worked out and the thought of mining asteroids is ludicrous, this is a very feasible option. Many companies have already constructed a plan on how they could mine these asteroids. In an interview with Elon Musk, he discusses how mining asteroids will one day be able to sustain the space economy. When Musk refers to the space economy he is referencing his idea and plan of one day colonizing Mars along with constant interplanetary travel. “Others [asteroids] are substantial and potentially packed full of water and various important minerals, such as nickel, cobalt, and iron. One day, advocates believe, those objects will be tapped by variations on the equipment used in the coal mines of Kentucky or in the diamond mines of Africa. And for immense gain: According to industry experts, the contents of a single asteroid could be worth trillions of dollars” (Shaer). The thought of wiping out the entire United States debt with one or two successful excavations of an asteroids should be enough to gain public support of privately funded space programs. Although private, these companies will need immense public support. In order to gain billionaire investors and find people willing to risk their life to pioneer space, people want a plan. Private companies such as Blue Origin and SpaceX have provided the world with numerous plans on how we can commercialize space on our journey to discover more of the vast
Since the dawn of civilization, pre-historic societies have practiced the technique of mining in order to obtain minerals from the earth that could be used for the production of weapons, ornamentation, and building of structures. As society has progressed in technology and the many uses of Earth’s resources are continually developing, mining still plays a major rule in the industry of many countries. By definition, mining is described as the extraction of minerals, precious metals, and other valuable materials from the Earth; in addition, these supplies are things that lack the ability of being produced by agriculture, or artificial manufacturing in laboratories or factories, thus rendering these resources unrenewable. Therefore, a broad definition of mining is the removal of a non-renewable resource from the earth which includes: base metals, uranium, iron, limestone, coal, rock salt, potash, diamonds, precious metal, petroleum, natural gas, and even water. Although the practice of mining is as archaic as the civilizations that first utilized the practice, modern mining greatly differs from the techniques of the past. Because of the advancement of modern technology and a higher demand for these non-renewable resources, present day mining is tremendously more evasive than its prehistoric form and with the vast increase in the world’s population greater amounts of materials are extracted from the earth in comparison to the amounts used by early civilizations.
As a country we need to start investing more money and research into space technology. Programs currently exist for this effort, but the potential for research and progress is limited by a lack of funding; compared to other government funded programs, aerospace funding is pitiful. Continued research in space technology is a necessary step in our growth and development not just as a country but also as entire human race. If we are to achieve this goal, it is necessary to increase funding for space research and technology and consider the possibility of colonizing outer space. If we limit our existence to the planet Earth, and continue to drain the resources on this planet, we will destroy the only home we have.
Asteroid Mining). Whether all of these minerals are or are not used, Diamandis and other asteroid mining entrepreneurs have the ability to sell these minerals to other countries for a great profit. This profit could then be used to better humanity in multiple fields ranging from medical all the way through technological. The benefits of asteroid mining do not stop there
Rather, many asteroids come in and out of earth’s orbit. As mining infrastructure grows, mining could expand to include passing asteroids or capturing smaller asteroids, pulling them into earth’s orbit and then storing them for later consumption. In conjunction with time frame comes delta v, the most costly aspect of any prospective asteroid. The higher the difference in velocity the more costly it will be to catch up to and mine asteroids. Suggestions to reduce this cost include using planetary assists to gain speed and intercept asteroids (O’Leary).
Modern societies rely on mining, minerals and metals to function. Nearly everything in the built environment – from buildings to roads to computers and trains – contains materials extracted from the Earth’s surface.
I would like to add that as the contamination of space continues to grow it will increase the risk of collisions that cause damage to the spacecraft. With the existing technologies it is a difficult task of improving the state of the space environment but any reasonable step to preserve space for the future generations will involve steps to reduce pollution.
Heart pounding, I was powerless as I watched the fleet fly right into an asteroid field. Asteroids aren't much of a problem if you know where they are, but if they take you by surprise without your shields raised, they can do a lot of damage. One ship went down, all hands lost. I jolted awake, covered in a cold sweat. Would the horror of that fatal mistake on my map always haunt me?
Space exploration can lead to the possibility to find useful resources throughout the galaxy for human gain. Many severe problems on earth could be solved through space exploration such as world hunger, overpopulation, and dwindling fuel sources. Things such as fuel could be harvested from planets for power generation and propulsion technology, and land to cultivate for growing food, as well as land for building living areas for the growing population. These potential resources...
Observations by NASA, have shown that asteroid AG5 could hit Earth in 2040. Though there is only a 1 in 500 chance the asteroid will hit Earth, scientists, are not certain of this calculation due to their lack of knowledge of the asteroid’s mass, orbit, and material composition. Therefore, astronomers and agencies, such as the UN, are already taking action. In fact, the UN has even suggested using nuclear weapons against the asteroid.
In our days, mining for resources is inevitable. The resources we need are valuable in everyday life. Such resources mined up are coal, copper, gold, silver, and sand. However, mining poses environmental risks that can degrade the quality of soil and water, which can end up effecting us humans if not taken care of and many of the damages are irreversible once they have occurred.
Space exploration is very beneficial to humankind because it creates new technologies, it brings different countries together, and gives people a better understanding of our Earth.
Mining is the process or industry of obtaining minerals from the earth. Topics in this paper I’ll be specifically discussing are pros and cons of mining, structures of a mine, mining in general, California gold rush, diamonds in Africa, and comparison of diamond and gold mines.