The Astronomy Thread

iannis

iannis

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Tuco said:
Technologically? No. Politically? Yes.

Thing about asteroid mining is that it's most valuable when you mine resources that can be utilized in space. In today's environment one can imagine parking a 10 ton brick of ice outside the ISS and scraping off ice cubes to sell like a cosmic lemonade stand.


But if NASA had the means to park a kiloton meteor of rare earth metals into the US and then sell it to private investors, yeah we'd make a lot of money. The cost of getting that kiloton meteor with our current resources would be more expensive than selling it at current prices though.
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And wars would start on the ground for at least three very good reasons, before you even set off your first asteroid moving nuke.

So sadly, not yet. You can see though that within a few generations... Yeah, maybe. It takes either more centralized political power or less. Our current level is incondusive.
 
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Denamian

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zombiewizardhawk said:
I thought astronomy was the zodiac signs or whatever that people did their horoscopes and shit with... why is this thread all about space?
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65681579.jpg
 
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Oldbased

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khorum said:
lol fucking asteroid mining again. Listen we can agree on one thing:

The minute SOMEONE drags a positive multiple of their return on investment into orbit---they don't even need to recover it on the surface---EVERYONE will want drag rocks into orbit.

It's the Columbus effect. Europeans knew there was a whole other continent there. The Church had assigned a fucking bishop to the viking colony on Greenland 300 years before Columbus arrived! But the moment Columbus came back with slaves and sugar and stories of easy pussy as far as the eye can see... we were off to the fucking races.
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The costs would dramatically go down once we had the means to build a ship capable of doing it or even drone ships. Once you get past that hurdle and have one built that can leave orbit and bring back minerals it would greatly reduce the operating cost. I would imagine it would have to travel just past mars to where it is plentiful so it would be 15-20 months to go get and return back. Then you have the issue with bringing a planet killing size rock back to our orbit that people would lose their shit over so technically you would probably have to retrieve it back to the moon. It all just becomes a clusterfuck of cost and liability. Once rare resources start vanishing though you'll see attitudes change very rapidly over such thoughts and ideas.

What I expect will happen first is we build ships to go get space pets and bring them back. You know the ones in every Scifi show, they sit on your shoulder and look pretty and lick you with acid tongues. That too will go to hell once they bring back a space herpe though.

Before either of those however we need a moon base and a Mars monitoring base. Also is it Moon or moon? Technically our moon is called Moon but it also represents other moons. I'm sure our moon has a real name but damned if I ever heard people use it.
Also why am I still up again at 3am. What the hell.
 
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Tuco

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Olebass said:
The costs would dramatically go down once we had the means to build a ship capable of doing it or even drone ships. Once you get past that hurdle and have one built that can leave orbit and bring back minerals it would greatly reduce the operating cost. I would imagine it would have to travel just past mars to where it is plentiful so it would be 15-20 months to go get and return back. Then you have the issue with bringing a planet killing size rock back to our orbit that people would lose their shit over so technically you would probably have to retrieve it back to the moon. It all just becomes a clusterfuck of cost and liability. Once rare resources start vanishing though you'll see attitudes change very rapidly over such thoughts and ideas.

What I expect will happen first is we build ships to go get space pets and bring them back. You know the ones in every Scifi show, they sit on your shoulder and look pretty and lick you with acid tongues. That too will go to hell once they bring back a space herpe though.

Before either of those however we need a moon base and a Mars monitoring base. Also is it Moon or moon? Technically our moon is called Moon but it also represents other moons. I'm sure our moon has a real name but damned if I ever heard people use it.
Also why am I still up again at 3am. What the hell.
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Unless we get a helium 3 using drive I don't see what a moon base does for us except create a resource sink to maintain.
 
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Abefroman

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A moon base would be a great place to process asteroids and build ships and satelites.
 
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Oldbased

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Abefroman said:
A moon base would be a great place to process asteroids and build ships and satelites.
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Yes exactly. Refueling stations, maintenance, remote sex dungeons and more. Moon base is required for any deep space activities. That or a real space station. My friend Darth says moon is better though.
 
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Aaron

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Don't underestimate the psychological factor of having a permanent lunar base, even if it is only a small one and most work is done in space stations. It would mean we have taken the first steps to becoming a true multi-planetoid species. Hell, if it's only a couple of dudes out there digging for moon rocks and servicing a lunar observatory, it would make me so fucking proud. It's been too long since man set foot there. We should have had cities over there by now god damn it!!! :/
 
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Ukerric

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Aaron said:
Hell, if it's only a couple of dudes out there digging for moon rocks and servicing a lunar observatory, it would make me so fucking proud.
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Lunar telescope is currently the best "use case" for a Moon Base. The Moon is basically a best-of combo for the advantages of a space telescope (no atmospheric distortion, no infrared/ultraviolet frequencies attenuation) with a ground telescope (build from parts, maintenability, upgrades, no refueling).

The only problems of the Lunar Telescope is that the best location for one is a polar crater, which means you need two to cover the entire sky while a James Webb-type space telescope can orient and look at any part of the sky based on its position in orbit.

(a nearside telescope has the problem of the bright blue thing in the sky all the time, a farside telescope has the problem of lunar day/moon cycle. Polar craters offer permanent shade)
 
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Tuco

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Abefroman said:
A moon base would be a great place to process asteroids and build ships and satelites.
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What advantages would the moon base have to offset the disadvantages of having to safely bring mass into a gravity well and then move it out of the gravity well?
 
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Abefroman

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Tuco said:
What advantages would the moon base have to offset the disadvantages of having to safely bring mass into a gravity well and then move it out of the gravity well?
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It would have gravity that would assist in processing materials and in construction of ships and or equipment. It has water that can be made into fuel. It's simply easier to construct things under gravity then in zero g. It also has a very small amount of gravity that launching things from the moon would be a tremendous cost savings compared to earth. Space elevators would be easier to construct on the moon and safer then would be on earth.

Making automated equipment that can simply roll on a surface then having to manuever in 3 dimensions would also be faster and cheaper to produce. It's also close to earth so supply runs would be fast and possibley automated.
 
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Tuco

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Abefroman said:
It would have gravity that would assist in processing materials and in construction of ships and or equipment. It has water that can be made into fuel. It's simply easier to construct things under gravity then in zero g. It also has a very small amount of gravity that launching things from the moon would be a tremendous cost savings compared to earth. Space elevators would be easier to construct on the moon and safer then would be on earth.

Making automated equipment that can simply roll on a surface then having to manuever in 3 dimensions would also be faster and cheaper to produce. It's also close to earth so supply runs would be fast and possibley automated.
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Where is the tech at with moon water harvesting? Do we have an idea of how much energy, raw materials and machinery we would need to extract a litre of water from the moon?
 
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Abefroman

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Tuco said:
Where is the tech at with moon water harvesting? Do we have an idea of how much energy, raw materials and machinery we would need to extract a litre of water from the moon?
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Resource Prospector
Moon Has a Hundred Times More Water Than Thought

No clue on how much it will cost or how many materials it will take to get it going but the tech is already there. Energy wont be a problem it's getting everything there that will. It would be mined on the dark side of the moon and processed on the light side where they would be able to use solar.

I don't see this happening in our life time or ever honestly. We sure as fuck could do it if this planet would get it's shit together.
 
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Tuco

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Abefroman said:
Resource Prospector
Moon Has a Hundred Times More Water Than Thought

No clue on how much it will cost or how many materials it will take to get it going but the tech is already there. Energy wont be a problem it's getting everything there that will. It would be mined on the dark side of the moon and processed on the light side where they would be able to use solar.

I don't see this happening in our life time or ever honestly. We sure as fuck could do it if this planet would get it's shit together.
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I think if we can harvest helium-3 and water from the moon it becomes much more attractive.

But before that tech exists I don't see the value in creating and supplying a moon base. And that's something that's on the table for the next 10-20 years.
 
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Abefroman

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Tuco said:
I think if we can harvest helium-3 and water from the moon it becomes much more attractive.

But before that tech exists I don't see the value in creating and supplying a moon base. And that's something that's on the table for the next 10-20 years.
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I agree with that. Untill we can actually have automated manufacturing on the moon or anything close to it, there isn't much point. We still need to figure how the fuck we are going to not only get heavy equipment there or even mars, but heavy equipment that can work in those enviorments to actually do more then drill 1 inch holes.

pharmakos said:
uh
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Great fucking addition to the conversation.
 
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pharmakos

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was hoping i wouldn't have to say much for you to realize.

there is no dark side of the moon.
 
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