Space Colonization

[Myroria]

Would the RP Council have a problem with me getting resources from space colonies?

[Gulliver]

Yes, or at least me. Future technology, icky, messy, arguments abound...

[Myroria]

Not really. I mean, NASA plans to mine space by like, 2040 so it's not drastically future tech that's completely beyond modern understanding.

[Bustos]

First, actual evidence to back your claims of such future mining operations would go a long way.

Second, what resources in particular are being gained?  (Cost effectiveness vs current availibility)

[Myroria]

Check page 8 of the resource thread.

Why not? Moons provide resources, mostly iron, iridium, and other space based products. If moon colonies won't be included in this, then it's biased.

Space mining refers to the future practice of mining asteroids, meteorites, the Moon and planets - any astronomical object beyond the orbit of the Earth.

The first objects likely to be mined are Near-Earth asteroids. Likely initial products include precious metals, which may be sold on Earth, and water and iron, which could be sold in Earth orbit if/when a sufficient demand develops. Another possible product is Helium 3, which is present in the Moon's regolith and could prove economical to ship to Earth as a fuel if fusion power plants become viable.

Economic concerns are likely to lead to settlements being created near mines and processing centers, or near the poles where a continuous source of solar energy can be harnessed. While it would be relatively easy to resupply a lunar base from Earth, in comparison to a Martian base, the Moon is likely to play a large role in the development of long-duration closed-loop life support systems. Duplicating the ecology of Earth so that wastes can be recycled is essential to any long term effort of space exploration. The wealth and knowledge gained by extracting and refining resources on the Moon would positively affect efforts to build colonies elsewhere in the Solar System.

In 2004, the world production of iron ore exceeded 1,000 million metric tons[1]. In comparison, a comparatively small M-type asteroid with a mean diameter of 1 km could contain more than 2,000 million metric tons of iron-nickel ore[2], or two to three times the annual production for 2004. The asteroid 16 Psyche is believed to contain 1.7×1019 kg of iron-nickel, which could supply the 2004 world production requirement for several million years. A small portion of the extracted material would also contain precious metals, although these would likely be more difficult to extract.

[1]World Produces 1.05 Billion Tonnes of Steel in 2004
[2]John S. Lewis, "Mining the Sky: Untold Riches from the Asteroids, Comets, and Planets", 1997, ISBN 0-201-32819-4

More stuff:

The Future of Space Mining
Mining Economics and Risk Control in the Development of Near Earth Asteroid Resources - I'm including this because moons and asteroids share many of the same elements.

I will be mining silicon and iron, both of which are in far huger quantities on the moon than on the planet.

[Bustos]

Second, what resources in particular are being gained?  (Cost effectiveness vs current availibility)

[Myroria]

I will be mining silicon and iron, both of which are in far huger quantities on the moon than on the planet.

[Gulliver]

2040? This is 2007. If Taijitu is still around in 33 years, go for it. But that's future tech, and I think that there is more or less a concensus to limit the stuff this time around, if not all out ban it. A space colony is certainly just too large a scale to justify.

[Myroria]

2040 is the future, but not future tech. Are people in 2040 going to be living radically different than we are now?

[Myroria]

I wouldn't even care if it was like the whole power armor thing ("you can have this many space colonies"), since apparently power armor is more feasible than a space colony (?)

[Bustos]

I do not support the use of PA this time around for this RP, just for the record.

The first objects likely to be mined are Near-Earth asteroids. Likely initial products include precious metals, which may be sold on Earth, and water and iron, which could be sold in Earth orbit if/when a sufficient demand develops.

10 out of 19 nations (that have listed their resources) have access to iron in Taitiju.  Iron would be cheaper for you to import than ship from the moon, thus there isnt "a sufficient demand" for iron.

[Myroria]

There's so much iron that I would sell it at a cheaper price than the iron producing nations, therefore making a profit because everyone will buy it from me.

[Gulliver]

Right now, the only pieces of Power Armor around in RP are less than twenty in number, trudging through the Mor'osi boondocks and soon to run out of power for all time. That's a far cry from what you're proposing, a massive space colony shipping tons of ores and such over vast distances.

If not on the matter of  technology, then I will agree with Bustos on the matter of economics. The costs involved would bankrupt any such attempt, short of you buying out/destroying all of your terrestial competitors.

[Myroria]

If it is run by the official space program, then a trip up like, twice a year to pick up the ore would not bankrupt me. And it's not like it's a huge amount of ore at once anyway. I'm not gonna be picking up the entire world's iron production at once, but I'll be able to sell it for cheaper because you can always get more.

And even Yale Colony isn't a vastly huge place; it's only 10 kilometers across.

[Gulliver]

Sell for cheaper? I doubt that. Where as your terrestial competitors just have to blow up and dig into a few rocks, load it up onto some boats and trains, you have to do all of that plus launch shuttles, land shuttles, and launch even more shuttles to maintain the entire operation.

As Bustos said, iron is so readily available here on Taijitu that the costs of digging it out of the ground would be far less than blasting up in rockets.