Intergalactic Travel And Asteroid Mining

Asteroid mining is the exploitation of raw materials from asteroids and other minor planets, including near-Earth objects. Based on known terrestrial reserves, and growing consumption in both developed and developing countries, key elements needed for modern industry and food production could be exhausted on Earth within 50 to 60 years. In response, it has been suggested that platinum, cobalt and other valuable elements from asteroids may be mined and sent to Earth for profit, used to build solar-power satellites and space habitats, and water processed from ice to refuel orbiting propellant depots. Looking beyond the Milky Way, there are at least 2 trillion other galaxies in the observable universe. Space colonization can roughly be said to be possible when the necessary methods of space colonization become cheap enough to meet the cumulative funds that have been gathered for the purpose, in addition to estimated profits from commercial use of space. Intergalactic travel would either have to involve voyages lasting millions of years, or a possible faster than light propulsion method based on speculative physics, such as the Alcubierre drive. There are, however, no scientific reasons for stating that intergalactic travel is impossible in principle. Uploaded human minds or AI may be transmitted to other galaxies in the hope some intelligence there would receive and activate them.

Not since man set foot on the moon over four decades ago has there been such passion and excitement about space exploration. This enthusiasm and eagerness has been spurred on by the fact that for the first time since the very beginning of the space age, space travel is no longer limited to an elite group of highly trained and well-disciplined military officers and test pilots. Instead, we must understand that the possibility of commercial space travel is already on our horizon and that it comes with a number of significant practical and moral challenges. Our level of scientific development and ability to influence international affairs and policy confers upon us an obligation to study the ethical, legal and social considerations associated with space exploration and understanding the potential consequences from the beginning is critical. This volume provides the first comprehensive and unifying analysis concerning the rise of private space exploration, with a view toward developing policy that may influence real-world decision making. The plethora of questions demanding serious attention - privatisation and commercialisation, the impact on the environment, health futures, risk assessment, responsibility and governance - are directly addressed in this scholarly work.

A unique, wide-ranging examination of asteroid exploration and our future in space Human travel into space is an enormously expensive and unforgiving endeavor. So why go? In this accessible and authoritative book, astrophysicist Martin Elvis argues that the answer is asteroid exploration, for the strong motives of love, fear, and greed. Elvis’s personal motivation is one of scientific love—asteroid investigations may teach us about the composition of the solar system and the origins of life. A more compelling reason may be fear—of a dinosaur killer–sized asteroid hitting our planet. Finally, Elvis maintains, we should consider greed: asteroids likely hold vast riches, such as large platinum deposits, and mining them could provide both a new industry and a funding source for bolder space exploration. Elvis explains how each motive can be satisfied, and how they help one another. From the origins of life, to “space billiards,” and space sports, Elvis looks at how asteroids may be used in the not-so-distant future.

LOOMING DESTRUCTION FROM SPACE! It's the beginning of a new golden age of space exploration. Finally, humanity is taking the commercialization of space to the next level—mining asteroids. The new gold rush of the commercial space era has begun. Another commercial venture, an attempt to put a hotel on the Moon, is seeking the space tourism gold of the ultra wealthy. And it seems as if the dream of finally sending people to Mars is finally going to happen using a ship propelled by a powerful nuclear rocket. But space travel isn’t cut and dry, and there is nothing routine about it. In order to mine an asteroid the goal is to bring it closer to Earth, but orbital mechanics are tricky and close to Earth proves to be far too close for comfort—with looming destruction from space about to become a grim reality. Now astronauts, scientists, engineers, and people in all the burgeoning space businesses must team together to stop the asteroid before it is too late for humanity and the planet it calls home. At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). About Travis S. Taylor: “[E]xplodes with inventive action.”—Publishers Weekly on Travis S. Taylor’s The Quantum Connection. “[Warp Speed] reads like Doc Smith writing Robert Ludlum. . .You won’t want to put it down.”—John Ringo About Rescue Mode by Ben Bova and Les Johnson: "... a suspenseful and compelling narrative of the first human spaceflight to Mars."—Booklist

This book produces convincing evidence that exploiting the potential of space could help solve many environmental and social issues affecting our planet, such as pollution, overcrowding, resource depletion and conflicts, economic inequality, social unrest, economic instability and unemployment. It also touches on the legal problems that will be encountered with the implementation of the new technologies and new laws that will need to be enacted and new organizations that will need to be formed to deal with these changes. This proposition for a space economy is not science fiction, but well within the remit of current or under development technologies. Numerous technologies are described and put together to form a coherent and feasible road map that, if implemented, could lead humankind towards a brighter future.

What Is Asteroid Mining The extraction of resources from asteroids and other small planets, such as those that are in close proximity to the earth, is the concept behind the term "asteroid mining." How You Will Benefit (I) Insights, and validations about the following topics: Chapter 1: Asteroid mining Chapter 2: Asteroid Chapter 3: Interplanetary spaceflight Chapter 4: Space colonization Chapter 5: Space habitat Chapter 6: Outer Space Treaty Chapter 7: Space law Chapter 8: Colonization of the Moon Chapter 9: Moon Treaty Chapter 10: Space manufacturing Chapter 11: Extraterrestrial real estate Chapter 12: Commercial use of space Chapter 13: In situ resource utilization Chapter 14: Extraterrestrial materials Chapter 15: Politics of outer space Chapter 16: Asteroid capture Chapter 17: Planetary Resources Chapter 18: Deep Space Industries Chapter 19: Atmospheric mining Chapter 20: Resource Prospector (rover) Chapter 21: Lunar resources (II) Answering the public top questions about asteroid mining. (III) Real world examples for the usage of asteroid mining in many fields. (IV) 17 appendices to explain, briefly, 266 emerging technologies in each industry to have 360-degree full understanding of asteroid mining' technologies. Who This Book Is For Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of asteroid mining.

Dreams, schemes and opportunity as space opens for tourism and commerce. Twentieth century space exploration may have belonged to state-funded giants such as NASA, but there is a parallel history which has set the template for the future. Even before Apollo 11 landed on the Moon, private companies were exploiting space via communication satellites - a sector that is seeing exponential growth in the internet age. In human spaceflight, too, commercialisation is making itself felt. Billionaire entrepreneurs Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson have long trumpeted plans to make space travel a possibility for ordinary people and those ideas are inching ever closer to reality. At the same time, other companies plan to mine the Moon for helium-3, or asteroids for precious metals. Science writer Andrew May takes an entertaining, in-depth look at the triumphs and heroic failures of our quixotic quest to commercialise the final frontier.