So, let’s say, “We can do it!” (Make sure you wear ruby slippers and click your heels together with your eyes closed...)
We’ve heard lots of talk about mining the asteroids with robots. Seems to be a great idea! Sound thinking! Cheap labor, no cost in Human life, an no need for pesky things like air, food, water, and living quarters.
Seems like a no-brainer, right?
OK – first question: how many successful off-Earth, robotic mining ventures have there been? Answer = none
OK – let’s make it easier: how many successful ON-Earth, robotic mining ventures have there been? There it is! March 15, 2022!!! Robotic gold mining in Australia! Obviously a success story that will give us a jumping off base for creating an effective off-Earth robotic mining program!
Oops…it’s a “proof of concept”. A slow scan of articles touting robotic, surface mining bring up…um…nothing. (https://www.zdnet.com/article/giant-robot-trucks-are-now-mining-gold/)
OK – how about the bottom of the ocean? According to one source (see below, May 2013), approximately $150 TRILLION in metals are waiting to be mined from the ocean floor. Great! Show me where to sign up! When’s the bonanza expected to start?
Uh…perhaps in this case “hold your horses” should be amended to “at a glacial pace”… The USGS is pretty clear on this: “To date, there is no mining of deep-sea minerals. In Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, any marine mining is governed by the International Seabed Authority, which is currently drafting exploitation regulations. The Global Marine Mineral Resources project has provided scientific advice to the U.S. State Department and has served as a member of the U.S. delegation to the International Seabed Authority as an Observer Nation for the last 20 years. Japan completed equipment testing offshore of Okinawa in the fall of 2017, recovering 4 tons of metal sulfide. For comparison, it has been suggested that an economic seafloor massive sulfide (SMS) mine would recover on the order of 1 million tons of metal sulfide minerals. There is one permitted mine for copper, gold, and silver offshore Papua New Guinea, on 0.1 square kilometer of seafloor; and the Cook Islands are revising regulations for manganese nodules mining.”
Um….so…well then…
“Mitch Hunter-Scullion is describing a six-legged robot called Scar-e, the Space Capable Asteroid Robotic Explorer, which he aims to send to an asteroid to drill for precious metals such as iron, nickel and platinum.
“As well as being increasingly essential for phones, laptops and cars, some metals like platinum will also be needed to help produce hydrogen as we transition to greener energy.
“With only a finite supply of them on earth - people are increasingly looking to space to meet this increased demand. That's where Scar-e comes in. Its powerful claw, designed in partnership with Tohoku University in Japan, should grip on to an asteroid in space to stop it from floating away. It has been inspired by the way tarantulas hang on to walls.”
Nice…so, when will we begin launching the rockets to land the spiders to start picking up stuff from asteroids?
People have, as usual, leaped over the technological concerns – which, by the way seem (to me at least) insurmountable based on the fact that thus far, Humans haven’t used robots to mine ANYTHING ANYWHERE! Yet plans are proposed, touted, and trumpeted far an near that we’re well on our way to mining the asteroids with robots…
As far as I can tell, we also don’t have a true Artificial Intelligence yet. This article (https://spectrum.ieee.org/artificial-intelligence-index) starts off well, assessing various challenges face and aspects of progress toward true AI. But as for looking at the SCIENCE? Not so much.
Plateaus in computer vision, logical reasoning accuracy in this article are the only science aspects that it’s concerned with. It begins by looking at investments, international relations, and patent law, shifting to AI law, the number of college students taking computer science advanced degrees (really??? Have they asked these graduate students if the main reason they got their degree is to design computer games or become a really rich YouTuber??? My grandson doesn’t think he needs to go to college – he’s going to be a YouTuber! How many of them are interested in the uses of AI in advancing space exploration? I’d be HAPPY to bet that that number is a big fat ZERO! Really!); segues into women and POC in the field, , and concludes with climate change.
I am not encouraged about our ability to mine the asteroids with robots if we can’t even mine the AUSTRALIAN outback with retrofitted vehicles that ALREADY mine gold…
Ya know, I started this Slice of PIE with high spirits, expecting to find lots to hope for and I’ve reached a point now where I’m not even sure we’ll be able to mine our OWN planet for all of its resources! In fact, when I think about the shrill whining by the “Save The Earth” groups, I realize abruptly that they’re not particularly concerned about saving the PLANET…they just want to save the part that they live on – and not even to be sarcastic, but the total surface area of Earth that HUMANS live on is actually miniscule…
I figured that this would be an easy number to look up, but it’s INCREDIBLE how many websites go all squooshy about it! Not one has a straight-up answer. Here’s what I mean: “14.6% of the world's land area has been modified by humans, according to research.” (https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/10/human-impact-earth-planet-change-development/) So WHAT exactly does that mean?
Earths land area (just straight up, not “modified”, not “habitable”, not “arable”. Just. Land. That number: 196,900,000 million square miles (Wikipedia “Earth” It’s right there) So, if that is true: there are going to be 8 billion people by the end of this year. (https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/world-population-projections/)
So: simple math can calculate, how many Humans are there on land? 196,900,000 / 8,000,000,000 = 4 people per square mile. OK – makes us look terrifically insignificant. But that doesn’t serve the agenda of doomsayers, so we won’ think of that because climate change is caused primarily by the extremely wealthy. Ten percent of the world has nothing to do with destroying the planet, in fact, about 60 percent of the world has less than $10000 to use each year.
But that also has nothing to do with mining the asteroids.
It DOES have something to do with how Humans think: mining the asteroids with robots is “right around the corner”, though we haven’t actually DONE anything to demonstrate that it’s possible (except scooped up a couple of ounces of Moon, Mars, and (but I may be mistaken) Venus, and a bit more from various asteroids (that we actually retrieved).
There are, in fact, only 4 Humans per square mile of LAND. THAT’S NOT COUNTING THE OCEANS.
So, when you talk about Earthy habitation and robotic mining of the asteroids, it looks like it’s probably not going to happen any time soon – at least not until we can mine our own land or the bottom of the ocean…
Of course, we CAN live in space for extended periods and we CAN reach asteroids with our technology. Have we MINED a space body? Not yet – but in my THOUGHTFUL opinion, we’re closer to a Human mining an asteroid than a ROBOT mining an asteroid…
RECENT: May 2022 – https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-61421787
Ocean floor mining: https://worldoceanreview.com/en/wor-1/energy/marine-minerals/; May 2013 – https://www.theneweconomy.com/energy/deep-sea-mining-could-provide-access-to-a-wealth-of-valuable-minerals, June 2022 – https://www.usgs.gov/centers/pcmsc/science/global-marine-mineral-resources
Resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroid_close_approaches_to_Earth, https://www.pharostribune.com/news/local_news/article_7fcd3ea5-3c14-533f-a8d5-9bf629922f34.html, https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/04/29/like-asteroid-mining-be-careful-what-you-wish-for/, https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/learn/historyculture/theroadtothefirstflight.htm, https://hackaday.com/2019/03/27/extraterrestrial-excavation-digging-holes-on-other-worlds/, https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/every-small-worlds-mission
Image: https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/A2D5/production/_114558614_hls-eva-apr2020.jpg
We’ve heard lots of talk about mining the asteroids with robots. Seems to be a great idea! Sound thinking! Cheap labor, no cost in Human life, an no need for pesky things like air, food, water, and living quarters.
Seems like a no-brainer, right?
OK – first question: how many successful off-Earth, robotic mining ventures have there been? Answer = none
OK – let’s make it easier: how many successful ON-Earth, robotic mining ventures have there been? There it is! March 15, 2022!!! Robotic gold mining in Australia! Obviously a success story that will give us a jumping off base for creating an effective off-Earth robotic mining program!
Oops…it’s a “proof of concept”. A slow scan of articles touting robotic, surface mining bring up…um…nothing. (https://www.zdnet.com/article/giant-robot-trucks-are-now-mining-gold/)
OK – how about the bottom of the ocean? According to one source (see below, May 2013), approximately $150 TRILLION in metals are waiting to be mined from the ocean floor. Great! Show me where to sign up! When’s the bonanza expected to start?
Uh…perhaps in this case “hold your horses” should be amended to “at a glacial pace”… The USGS is pretty clear on this: “To date, there is no mining of deep-sea minerals. In Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction, any marine mining is governed by the International Seabed Authority, which is currently drafting exploitation regulations. The Global Marine Mineral Resources project has provided scientific advice to the U.S. State Department and has served as a member of the U.S. delegation to the International Seabed Authority as an Observer Nation for the last 20 years. Japan completed equipment testing offshore of Okinawa in the fall of 2017, recovering 4 tons of metal sulfide. For comparison, it has been suggested that an economic seafloor massive sulfide (SMS) mine would recover on the order of 1 million tons of metal sulfide minerals. There is one permitted mine for copper, gold, and silver offshore Papua New Guinea, on 0.1 square kilometer of seafloor; and the Cook Islands are revising regulations for manganese nodules mining.”
Um….so…well then…
“Mitch Hunter-Scullion is describing a six-legged robot called Scar-e, the Space Capable Asteroid Robotic Explorer, which he aims to send to an asteroid to drill for precious metals such as iron, nickel and platinum.
“As well as being increasingly essential for phones, laptops and cars, some metals like platinum will also be needed to help produce hydrogen as we transition to greener energy.
“With only a finite supply of them on earth - people are increasingly looking to space to meet this increased demand. That's where Scar-e comes in. Its powerful claw, designed in partnership with Tohoku University in Japan, should grip on to an asteroid in space to stop it from floating away. It has been inspired by the way tarantulas hang on to walls.”
Nice…so, when will we begin launching the rockets to land the spiders to start picking up stuff from asteroids?
People have, as usual, leaped over the technological concerns – which, by the way seem (to me at least) insurmountable based on the fact that thus far, Humans haven’t used robots to mine ANYTHING ANYWHERE! Yet plans are proposed, touted, and trumpeted far an near that we’re well on our way to mining the asteroids with robots…
As far as I can tell, we also don’t have a true Artificial Intelligence yet. This article (https://spectrum.ieee.org/artificial-intelligence-index) starts off well, assessing various challenges face and aspects of progress toward true AI. But as for looking at the SCIENCE? Not so much.
Plateaus in computer vision, logical reasoning accuracy in this article are the only science aspects that it’s concerned with. It begins by looking at investments, international relations, and patent law, shifting to AI law, the number of college students taking computer science advanced degrees (really??? Have they asked these graduate students if the main reason they got their degree is to design computer games or become a really rich YouTuber??? My grandson doesn’t think he needs to go to college – he’s going to be a YouTuber! How many of them are interested in the uses of AI in advancing space exploration? I’d be HAPPY to bet that that number is a big fat ZERO! Really!); segues into women and POC in the field, , and concludes with climate change.
I am not encouraged about our ability to mine the asteroids with robots if we can’t even mine the AUSTRALIAN outback with retrofitted vehicles that ALREADY mine gold…
Ya know, I started this Slice of PIE with high spirits, expecting to find lots to hope for and I’ve reached a point now where I’m not even sure we’ll be able to mine our OWN planet for all of its resources! In fact, when I think about the shrill whining by the “Save The Earth” groups, I realize abruptly that they’re not particularly concerned about saving the PLANET…they just want to save the part that they live on – and not even to be sarcastic, but the total surface area of Earth that HUMANS live on is actually miniscule…
I figured that this would be an easy number to look up, but it’s INCREDIBLE how many websites go all squooshy about it! Not one has a straight-up answer. Here’s what I mean: “14.6% of the world's land area has been modified by humans, according to research.” (https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/10/human-impact-earth-planet-change-development/) So WHAT exactly does that mean?
Earths land area (just straight up, not “modified”, not “habitable”, not “arable”. Just. Land. That number: 196,900,000 million square miles (Wikipedia “Earth” It’s right there) So, if that is true: there are going to be 8 billion people by the end of this year. (https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/world-population-projections/)
So: simple math can calculate, how many Humans are there on land? 196,900,000 / 8,000,000,000 = 4 people per square mile. OK – makes us look terrifically insignificant. But that doesn’t serve the agenda of doomsayers, so we won’ think of that because climate change is caused primarily by the extremely wealthy. Ten percent of the world has nothing to do with destroying the planet, in fact, about 60 percent of the world has less than $10000 to use each year.
But that also has nothing to do with mining the asteroids.
It DOES have something to do with how Humans think: mining the asteroids with robots is “right around the corner”, though we haven’t actually DONE anything to demonstrate that it’s possible (except scooped up a couple of ounces of Moon, Mars, and (but I may be mistaken) Venus, and a bit more from various asteroids (that we actually retrieved).
There are, in fact, only 4 Humans per square mile of LAND. THAT’S NOT COUNTING THE OCEANS.
So, when you talk about Earthy habitation and robotic mining of the asteroids, it looks like it’s probably not going to happen any time soon – at least not until we can mine our own land or the bottom of the ocean…
Of course, we CAN live in space for extended periods and we CAN reach asteroids with our technology. Have we MINED a space body? Not yet – but in my THOUGHTFUL opinion, we’re closer to a Human mining an asteroid than a ROBOT mining an asteroid…
RECENT: May 2022 – https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-61421787
Ocean floor mining: https://worldoceanreview.com/en/wor-1/energy/marine-minerals/; May 2013 – https://www.theneweconomy.com/energy/deep-sea-mining-could-provide-access-to-a-wealth-of-valuable-minerals, June 2022 – https://www.usgs.gov/centers/pcmsc/science/global-marine-mineral-resources
Resources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroid_close_approaches_to_Earth, https://www.pharostribune.com/news/local_news/article_7fcd3ea5-3c14-533f-a8d5-9bf629922f34.html, https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/04/29/like-asteroid-mining-be-careful-what-you-wish-for/, https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/learn/historyculture/theroadtothefirstflight.htm, https://hackaday.com/2019/03/27/extraterrestrial-excavation-digging-holes-on-other-worlds/, https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/every-small-worlds-mission
Image: https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/A2D5/production/_114558614_hls-eva-apr2020.jpg
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