The Daily Show - Asteroid Mining: Neil deGrasse Tyson reveals whether or not it's bulls**t.

[bananas]

This was pretty funny, Tyson makes a live appearance at the very end.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-april-25-2012/space-innovators

(video)

Wednesday April 25, 2012

Space Innovators

Wealthy "spend-o-nauts" announce plans to mine asteroids for precious minerals, and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson reveals whether or not it's bulls**t.

[JohnnyRingo]

1. Tyson is the Carl Sagan for a new generation.

It takes a special talent to explain astro-physics in a language the average person can understand, and Neil is at the top of the game. I imagine charisma is a rare trait among his peers.

When I bought my Kindle Fire "The Space Chronicles" was the first ebook I downloaded.

[cbayer]

2. Completely agree. He is a prize.

I love his Nova Science Now series. You could be 8 or 80, an artist or a scientist, and still get everything he is saying.

I've not read The Space Chronicles, but will look for it.

[chaska]

3. These guys are ridiculous....

I heard most of 'On Point' on NPR Friday with these guys. This is so stupid. Where are you going to get the energy to do this? If you want to blow the rest of our petroleum resources on this nonsense you'd better think again. I'll stop you.

[teknomanzer]

4. Well if these talking apes will stop with all the greed and violence...

they might just realize that there is a giant fusion reactor sitting right smack dab in the middle of their solar system just waiting to be tapped. Trust this - there is more energy there than the organic goop the monkeys are using now.

Focus monkeys - focus - the future is out there...

[Katashi_itto]

5. You need to read a little more before you start attempting to shoot down asteroid mining before it

"petroleum resources on this nonsense" wow...talk about not know whats out there...

[Katashi_itto]

6. As an Example...Psyche 16 is one of the ten most massive main-belt asteroids. It is...

It is over 200 kilometers in diameter and contains a little less than 1% of the mass of the entire asteroid belt. It is the most massive metallic M-type asteroid.

It alone contains 20 trillion tons of metal ore. At current consumption rates. It could supply Mankind with metal ore for 2 million years, give or take 100,000 years.

As for energy.....

Space happens to be an energy rich environment. Solar power smelters could process the various asteroids. Various byprodcut from the mining can easily supply vast quantities of fuel, water, o2.

There are asteroids out there that are millions of tons of ice..

[bananas]

7. Energy really isn't an issue at all

Even though a rocket is mostly rocket fuel, the fuel is less than 1% of the cost.
Rocket fuel is only needed to get the craft into low earth orbit,
from there they will use solar powered ion drives,
which do not use fossil fuels.

[cbayer]

8. I think we listened to the same program, but I heard a pretty clear

explanation about the energy costs involved and how they would be totally offset by the benefits.

[chaska]

9. These guys are ridiculous.... part 2

Now hear this:

Solar power is fine for heating water for bathing, and other things that require low energy inputs. BUT, solar energy is not concentrated enough to replace fossil fuels. And last time I checked, there are no fossil fuels on other planets/asteroids.

There's enough energy from the sun to power ______ (fill in the blank). Yes. But you'd need a huge number of what I will call concentration devices (mirrors, collectors, etc.) to replace the highly concentrated energy in fossil fuels. You quickly run into all sorts of problems once you start down that path, and that's not to mention the energy required to make solar panels, etc.

What is coal and oil but highly concentrated sunshine? Think about it.

They also mentioned hydrogen - burning hydrogen as an energy source is really just burning fossil fuels since that's what you have to do to get hydrogen.

And nuclear may not really even be an energy source once you take into account the huge energy inputs required before you can extract the first watt of energy from uranium (for example).

The space program, et al, is a joke. We can't be using up our dwindling oil supply in sacrifice to the money-addled brains/egos of the rich. 100 years from now we'll be living like we did 100 years ago. Get used to it.

Too much of science operates on "And then a miracle happens." type of thinking. Whenever you run into a difficult problem in science just apply a heavy dose of "And then a miracle happens.", et voila, problem solved.

[bananas]

10. Solar resources dwarf all non-renewable resources

The estimates of remaining non-renewable worldwide energy resources vary, with the remaining fossil fuels totaling an estimated 0.4 YJ (1 YJ = 1024J) and the available nuclear fuel such as uranium exceeding 2.5 YJ. Fossil fuels range from 0.6 to 3 YJ if estimates of reserves of methane clathrates are accurate and become technically extractable. The total energy flux from the sun is 3.8 YJ/yr, dwarfing all non-renewable resources.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_resources_and_consumption

The area needed to power the world usng solar is small,
here are two different possibilities using different assumptions:
1. http://www.ez2c.de/ml/solar_land_area/
2. http://www.treehugger.com/solar-technology/surface-area-required-to-power-the-whole-world-with-solar-and-wind-power.html
Of course, instead of putting all the solar collectors in those few small dots,
they can be spread out on rooftops etc.

The only real holdup is cost, and cost is coming down quickly.

Solar energy can be stored in various ways, such as batteries, chemical fuel, biofuel.
The US Air Force is already flying jets on biofuel.

When they mentioned hydrogen, they are talking about using solar powered electrolysis to split water from asteroids, the moon, and Mars. This can also provide oxygen for astronauts to breathe.