NASA Plans To Explore A 10 Quintillion Dollar Asteroid That Could Cause The World's Economy To Collapse

[VerticalDiscussions]

Well, i need to find a way to farm my own asteroids.... i always carry 2 with me tough, ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°).

[HalGameGuru]

The incredible lack of understanding of economics not withstanding, this kind of massive influx of raw material, in space, in say a geosynchronous orbit, would be a heck of a boon for future orbital shipyards.

[SansVarnic]

OP your title is complete click bait. Please adjust it.

 

1 hour ago, FirstArmada said:

If it did, its value would play havoc with commodity prices and destroy the world's economy

Total BS. This would boost economic development in ways that we cannot imagine. You going over board here. The cost just to initiate such an endeavor would be huge. The technology to do this would have to be developed as obviously this would be the first time we have attempted such a thing. Just developing the tech to accomplish all this would be huge economic boon to any industries and the economy world wide. 

In terms of the ores being available and in reference to the commodities I would imagine it would handled as differently, for example, Terran commodities vs Sol space born commodities or such, I am sure someone would come up with a system to differentiate the two so as not to harm the current market. 

[Sauron]

10 minutes ago, Wolther said:

Your not wrong. We can barely even get the energy to bring food, water and shelter to mars

Forget Mars, a good chunk of Earth's own population doesn't have those things.

 

Either way I think it might be possible to give it some calculated nudges to eventually get it into Earth's orbit, where mining it would be significantly more cost effective. Still, it wouldn't be nearly as easy as this sensationalist article would have you believe.

 

The guy they interviewed said NOTHING AT ALL about inflation being the concern, he simply said they currently have no plans to mine it, which makes perfect sense - NASA is a scientific endeavour, not a mining business.

[Belgarathian]

Come on NASA. Build a star base that can process and refine ore and minerals in space for construction.

[Wolther]

28 minutes ago, HalGameGuru said:

The incredible lack of understanding of economics not withstanding, this kind of massive influx of raw material, in space, in say a geosynchronous orbit, would be a heck of a boon for future orbital shipyards.

Did this with very simple math.. But in order to move that asteriod into a velocity high enough to have a geosynchronous orbit with earth, it would take 8.0112 *10^26 joules

The total consumption of energy that the people of Earth have used is 3.89 × 10^20 joules in 2013 Good luck man  

 

Again, might be wrong on some variables, but it should be around that ballpark. Just to give you an idea of how much Energy it takes 

[Tech_Dreamer]

My gawd! Starcraft was right!

 

 

[dalekphalm]

14 minutes ago, Wolther said:

Did this with very simple math.. But in order to move that asteriod into a velocity high enough to have a geosynchronous orbit with earth, it would take 8.0112 *10^26 joules

The total consumption of energy that the people of Earth have used is 3.89 × 10^20 joules. Good luck man  

 

Again, might be wrong on some variables, but it should be around that ballpark. Just to give you an idea of how much Energy it takes 

Did you calculate that with the assumption of a zero starting velocity, or did you account for the velocity that the asteroid orbit already has?

 

Depending on the orbit, all you have to do is give it some nudges now and then. You're not accelerating the asteroid from zero velocity.

[Dabombinable]

Just now, Wolther said:

Did this with very simple math.. But in order to move that asteriod into a velocity high enough to have a geosynchronous orbit with earth, it would take 8.0112 *10^26 joules

The total consumption of energy that the people of Earth have used is 3.89 × 10^20 joules. Good luck man  

But what about the length of time the energy was produced to move it? It would take years but its still possible-especially if fuels can be created using resources from the asteroid.

[Energycore]

23 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Forget Mars, a good chunk of Earth's own population doesn't have those things.

QFT

 

Before turning our megalomanous eyes at glorious projects for humatity, how about we focus on feeding it first. And while we're at it, make sure we don't have a barren wasteland of an Earth by the time we're starting to live elsewhere, a'la Wall-E.

[Wolther]

13 minutes ago, dalekphalm said:

Did you calculate that with the assumption of a zero starting velocity, or did you account for the velocity that the asteroid orbit already has?

 

Depending on the orbit, all you have to do is give it some nudges now and then. You're not accelerating the asteroid from zero velocity.

Was from Zero, now that you mention it though, the asteriod would have to be slowed down. Its average orbital speed is 17.34 km/s. In which if you nudged it towards Earth it would fly (or wrap slightly around then go on a straight path elsewhere) past it unless you reduced its speed to 11 km/s, which is the escape velocity of Earth. 

Given the mass is 2.27×10^19 kg the energy to do that is very high, still. 

I'm sure with very advanced calculations and planning you could use gravity from other bodies of mass to slow it down, it does have to go past mars atleast. I don't feel like looking at its orbit and figuring it out atm though 

[Wolther]

17 minutes ago, Dabombinable said:

But what about the length of time the energy was produced to move it? It would take years but its still possible-especially if fuels can be created using resources from the asteroid.

I haven't been able to find any sources that give me a composition that has fuel that we're able to use. The majority of it is 90% iron, there's no living creatures on it (so obviously no fossil fuels). Geothermal probably not, since the surface is white-colored, so it reflects a lot of the light, therefore it's not really hot 

[MoonSpot]

34 minutes ago, Energycore said:

QFT

 

Before turning our megalomanous eyes at glorious projects for humatity, how about we focus on feeding it first. And while we're at it, make sure we don't have a barren wasteland of an Earth by the time we're starting to live elsewhere, a'la Wall-E.

They're not going to eat iron ore, and they're not going to get the jobs they need to feed themselves without economic development.  The kind of development that "glorious projects for humanity" can create.

 

:edit: sorry i didn't get further than your first sentence before snapping a reply (kids & dinner took my attention)

[SansVarnic]

26 minutes ago, Energycore said:

QFT

 

Before turning our megalomanous eyes at glorious projects for humatity, how about we focus on feeding it first. And while we're at it, make sure we don't have a barren wasteland of an Earth by the time we're starting to live elsewhere, a'la Wall-E.

The prospect of a this "glorious projects for humatity" will create the economic boon that will essentially provide the jobs and food required. Hell, look at the Hoover Dam project and what it created, a whole town to provide the industrial base and economic needs to facilitate the work and flow of workers. Panama Cannal, NASA's space race and on and on .... Getting a bit ahead of yourself dont you think? Projects such as this create it own infrastructure because it provides the need for such an infrastructure. The poor an jobless (if they so chose to and this the important part) will flock to such jobs as these.

12 minutes ago, MoonSpot said:

They're not going to eat iron ore, and they're not going to get the jobs they need to feed themselves without economic development.  The kind of development that "glorious projects for humanity" can create.

If i read correctly I agree.

[Energycore]

1 minute ago, SansVarnic said:

The prospect of a this "glorious projects for humatity" will create the economic boon that will essentially provide the jobs and food required. Hell, look at the Hoover Dam project and what it created, a whole town to provide the industrial base and economic needs to facilitate the work and flow of workers. Panama Cannal, NASA's space race and on and on .... Getting a bit ahead of yourself dont you think?

Mining an asteroid for reources to use outside of earth is an enticing idea, and I fully support doing it, but I would rather we solved the problem of feeding, clothing and providing medicine to 7 billion people first, and stopping the population growth while we're at it. If mining this asteroid would help provide for the people, I'm all for that.

[SansVarnic]

1 minute ago, Energycore said:

Mining an asteroid for reources to use outside of earth is an enticing idea, and I fully support doing it, but I would rather we solved the problem of feeding, clothing and providing medicine to 7 billion people first, and stopping the population growth while we're at it. If mining this asteroid would help provide for the people, I'm all for that.

The opportunity such as this would, IMO, provide a what I am going to coin the second space race where humanity begins to have a common presence in space, living and colonizing. The ore alone with provide the ability now to create space stations and ships of proper size and usefulness. We are limited in our ability to make stations of large size because of the difficulty to move the required material to space from earth. The prospect of mining asteroids has been an idea for about 50+ years now.

If the space race initially had not tapered off after the moon landings we would be occupying space now, IMO. 

[Memories4K]

Listen lads idc if it's for the economy or future endeavors in extraterrestrial projects,
I only care about the fact this giant space turd holds value to us and we utilize it's resources for something, if we are able to do so.

[TheRandomness]

40 minutes ago, Energycore said:

QFT

 

Before turning our megalomanous eyes at glorious projects for humatity, how about we focus on feeding it first. And while we're at it, make sure we don't have a barren wasteland of an Earth by the time we're starting to live elsewhere, a'la Wall-E.

It'd be even more useful if we didn't have simultaneous occurrences of obesity and starvation... Back to the asteroid though, why not use KSP to model how everything would work? I mean, some company is using GTA V or whatever to model automated driving

[vanished]

6 minutes ago, TheRandomness said:

It'd be even more useful if we didn't have simultaneous occurrences of obesity and starvation... Back to the asteroid though, why not use KSP to model how everything would work? I mean, some company is using GTA V or whatever to model automated driving

Oh god are they really?  

[TheRandomness]

1 minute ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Oh god are they really?  

Sadly, its true

13313th post... what a nice number. 

This would almost be like bringing that diamond the size of a small moon near earth.. (yes that's a thing). Value of diamonds would go all the way down, but it wouldn't exactly break the economy. 

[vanished]

1 minute ago, TheRandomness said:

Sadly, its true

Well at least they'll be good at offensive defensive driving  

[vanished]

8 minutes ago, TheRandomness said:

 

This would almost be like bringing that diamond the size of a small moon near earth.. (yes that's a thing). Value of diamonds would go all the way down, but it wouldn't exactly break the economy. 

Nah de beers would just buy it and hide it and it wouldn't affect anything 

[ARikozuM]

2 hours ago, EminentSun said:

Depression HYPE!!!!!!!

Either you mean economic depression or collision depression... 

[Sephiroth]

5 hours ago, TheRandomness said:

I mean they could just pull it into orbit and slowly mine it out, giving more metals and such over a much longer period of time whilst keeping it secret, therefore the economy wouldn't die. But hey, what do I know as a 16 yr old?

I mean, when your other options are 1) Leave it be, or 2) slam it into the earth all at once, slowly mining it is likely the way they'd have to go about it, if you really wanted to obtain the resources on that asteroid.

[suits]

Oh more people trying to cause panic. If there was a viable way to bring it back it would probably help the economy. When gas prices go down more people travel, people buy more things, the economy goes up. When gas prices skyrocket everyone stays home and we wonder why the economy sucks. Bring this thing home and we can see prices go down, products become cheaper, people buy a lot more. The economy wins.