I’m also including the natural crud that the Earth sweeps up.
[…] which results in an estimated 15,000 tonnes of that material entering the atmosphere each year.
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Yeah, it’s important to protect that environment out there in space. We sure don’t want to pollute all that pristine natural vacuum.
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But the companies and people that make the robots don’t.
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We are on the verge of trapping ourselves here by polluting near-Earth space.
/https://public-media.si-cdn.com/filer/20110520102401LEO1280.jpg)
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I’m on board with not screwing up Earth. It’s unique as far as we know.
But it’s hubris to even think we could screw up space. What are we going to do, make it uninhabitable? Mess with the aesthetics that only we can appreciate anyways? At best we can shuffle some rocks and gas around our own solar system. The rest of the universe is safe from us. And over geologic time, our own solar system will barely even register our existence no matter how much we try. Same is true on Earth, but might as well not live in a shithole while we are here.
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Some say the same about the planet. The issue was/is never about fucking up the planet, it’s about screwing ourselves over. We could very well make ourselves extinct by continuing to ignore our environmental destruction.
I’d suggest looking at the image above your comment there. As @aLynHall notes, it’s about us screwing up low earth orbit, more than anything else.
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And as I hinted in my other post above, it’s also about how we will treat the people who usher in this grand era of plenty. We might want to figure out how to treat workers before we let the Musks of the future send our grandchildren out there to mine for us.
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Agreed. Just generally, we need to get our collective house in order before we start to seriously considered expanded off planet in any capacity.
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I don’t see the downside.
But that sounds like a challenge and we don’t do challenges anymore.
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Maybe some entirely new political system is needed for that. Unrestrained capitalism is failing everyone but rich now (it will fail the rich too sooner or later, due to it’s proritization of short term goals).
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Don’t forget: Atomic Power will make electricity so cheap it won’t be cost effective to meter it!
Sure, but we have challenges here that will kill us off if not addressed.
These are the people who are going to benefit from these sorts of schemes, not any of the rest of us.
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But their children or granchildren may be screwed too, due to lack of mitigation of global warming. It’s a bit like running the companies with short term stock valuation goals, burdening it with debt due to stock buybacks, and ultimately bankrupting it.
But… SHORT TERM PROFITS!!! /s I’m sure they believe they’ll magically fix shit before that happens… or at the very least have an alternative place to have their children and grandchildren live by then (the moon, mars).
That seems to be the norm now, so… 
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Yes, and the change is desperately needed. Not so long ago, many things were considered normal that are unconscionable now, due to efforts of generations of activists. I hope that the fight over introducing necessary changes will be won before it’s too late.
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Meet George Jetson.
Diamonds are pretty common, and the price for diamond gemstones is supported by propaganda.
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How will asteroid mining change the world? Tim Curry will have to find a new home, for one thing!
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I assume because asteroids are by their nature smaller and (because they’re being mined) quite possibly unstable and volatile. I guess if you can move big mobile refineries (a la the Nostromo) then it would matter less, but I wager putting your refinery on the surface of an asteroid is pretty risky vs a permanent location on the moon.
Also, from the video, it seemed like bringing back the right asteroid would be years and years of mining, so at that point fuel cost is probably a concern just to move the material back-and-forth vs if it’s reachable from a nearby moonbase?
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