Not sure where to place this thread, so admins feel free to move it to the right spot :-)

News like from the Science Fiction novel, but make your own judgement.

The potential colonization of asteroids is one of the most promising areas of space exploration - even more so than mining them for resources, Russian scientists say. The creation of closed-cycle ecosystems could possibly turn asteroids into space bases...

The whole article here

NI!

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For Science and Shrubberies! Since January 13 2000.

Go live in a hole in a rock that doesn't have any trees or even any other rocks around it? Are people still that desperate to get out of Russia?

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Balin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Dori, Dwalin, Gloin, Nori, Oin & Ori already sign up for the project.

Sadly Thorin, Fili & Kili won't be joining them.

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terencewee*
Sicituradastra.

Check this novel out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2312_%28novel%29

It contains impressive ideas about how asteroids could be used.

The more knowledge we have about them, the better decisions can be made how to best use them.
Let's keep crunching the numbers to help the future explorers and scientists toward utilization of this possible resource.
Personally, I think mining is a silly idea, but they gotta be good for something. :)
I don't know how big it is... but there is one that has an earth orbit...(2010 TK7) It is trapped in a location that causes it to always remain in front of the Earth as both travel around the Sun.



(Yes, someone even has a flag design ready for it.)

In one of his short stories Isaac Asimov has compared asteroids to spaceships - basically: no life possible on the surface, nice, warm, safe place inside. Is this idea really that silly?

Cheers and NI!

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For Science and Shrubberies! Since January 13 2000.

Silly?? I think it borders on... unholy!! Man was made to lay on grass in parks and watch clouds go by, get stung by a bee at least once, smooch his first girl/boyfriend under the bleachers at the ball park, strap slippery boards on his boots and slide down a mountain in the snow, ride huge waves on boards, feel the wind in his hair, jump out of a perfectly good airplane, catch a fish and shoot a goose once in a while. You can't do any of that inside an asteroid. No, never mind the holodeck in STNG, holograms don't work that way and never ever will, not maybe they will if we just try harder to make better ones, I mean never.

I could see me going to one for a year maximum to do the only thing useful with them which is to mine them but not longer than a year and I'd want $10 million and all the perks I mentioned in my previous post. Live there forever? Not bloody likely. Make babies and raise them there? No way and I hope the gods strike dead anybody cruel enough to do that to a child. Same applies to Mars or any of the other planets/moons. If it doesn't have blue skies, rainstorms and trout then men shouldn't live there, just visit then go home.

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I agree branjo,
Asimov had ideas that were hundreds of years ahead of his time.
What I said was "silly",however, was mining them... well.
"Personally, I think mining is a silly idea, but they gotta be good for something."
Unfortunately, that statement was not well thought out.
I was only considering the metals as the object of the mining.
The real mining to be done on an asteroid is for water.
Water makes fuel for propulsion to push spacecraft around the solar system. That is a very useful thing to mine.
Gold and Palladium are going to be the stuff we have to move out of the way to get to the water.

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Huh? Did someone mention gold and palladium? I'm down for some of that but only for a year. As for water for rocket fuel... if you're thinking a solar powered electrolysis to produce hydrogen and oxygen you might want to think again. Electrolysis is bloody slow which is why only about 2% of hydrogen used here on Earth is produced that way. Also, deep space vehicles use hydrazine and its derivatives for fuel and stuff other than LOX for oxidizer. H2 and O2 propellant is used primarily in orbit insertion stages not even for initial stages (liftoff stages) where kerosene and solid boosters are preferred.

Asimov was far ahead but that doesn't mean we should live the way his characters do or even where his characters do. Of course where you live is a matter of personal choice but I doubt life on Mars could ever be as comfortable as life on Earth. I think, subconsciously, people figure it will be like we see in the movies... full of beautiful woman and excitement, everyone packs light sabres and blasters and you can have fun shootouts with aliens everyday. The reality will be much different.

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Dagorath, your opinion is representing extroverts and I don't want to argue with it. But, with probability approaching certainty, I can say that the not-so-small-part of mankind represented by introverts (approximately 25% of us) might replace their miserable lives with extrovert people like you for calm lives inside asteroids, Mars, moons...

Speaking about Asimov. Well, based on your post, you know nothing about his work, so do us a favour: either don't speak about him and his work, or read his opus and than we can continue in our conversation. In my previous post I didn't say a word about "the way his characters do or even where his characters do", neither JumpinJohnny did in his. I just mentioned his comparison of asteroids and spaceships. And this stands.

Do all the things you enjoy doing like feeling a wind in your hair, catching a fish, kissing a girl under the open sky, skiing... but please, do not try never ever to speak as a messiah of the people you know nothing about them. Even if your name is Brian.

Cheers.

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For Science and Shrubberies! Since January 13 2000.

Dagorath, your opinion is representing extroverts and I don't want to argue with it. But, with probability approaching certainty, I can say that the not-so-small-part of mankind represented by introverts (approximately 25% of us) might replace their miserable lives with extrovert people like you for calm lives inside asteroids, Mars, moons...

Lol! The phrase "with probability approaching certainty" followed by "might" is pretty whacked, isn't it? When you boil all the pretentiousness out of it "probability approaching certainty" means "certain", no? Then suddenly you're not so certain and you say "might". Like... "If I go outside today I can say with probability approaching certainty that it might rain" which translates into "it might rain". Why do you need to put all that pretentious "with probability approaching certainty" BS in it?

Apart from that guffaw, I think you assume far too much about what life would be like in those places and I bet it's because you've let movies and TV tell you what life would be like. Artificially created environments on the scale you're talking are very expensive therefore space inside them is at a premium. In other words they're crowded. Take a submarine for example. I doubt introverts would find life in such crowded quartersvery pleasant. In fact, having lived in a few such places myself, my personal observations indicate me that in crowded quarters the introverts are the first to pack it in and go home.

Speaking about Asimov. Well, based on your post, you know nothing about his work,

Based on the fact that you have no idea how many books I've read or which authors I've read, I can say with absolute certainty that you know nothing about what I know about his work.

so do us a favour: either don't speak about him and his work, or read his opus and than we can continue in our conversation.

Why don't you do yourself a big favour and think before you write and be prepared to listen to opinions that don't align with yours. Seems to me all you want to hear in this "conversation" is your own opinion repeated back to you.

In my previous post I didn't say a word about "the way his characters do or even where his characters do", neither JumpinJohnny did in his.

Very astute observation on your part! You didn't say it and I didn't say you did. I said it. So what's your point?

I just mentioned his comparison of asteroids and spaceships. And this stands.

No you didn't say just that. You said it and then solicited opinions about it. So then I gave you my opinion. If you don't want opinions then don't solicit them. If it's just my opinion you don't want then solicit opinions in forums I don't visit.

Do all the things you enjoy doing like feeling a wind in your hair, catching a fish, kissing a girl under the open sky, skiing... but please, do not try never ever to speak as a messiah of the people you know nothing about them.

I've never pictured myself as a messiah. Correct me if I'm wrong but I get the impression you view Asimov as a messiah, right? As for my knowledge of "the people", again you assume too much.

Even if your name is Brian.

Even if your name is George.

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Hey branjo,
Never mind the Trolls. They provoke, then twist your words as self entertainment.
Their arguments are as flawed as their logic is full of holes.
They expend all that effort and energy in the misguided idea that others will not be able to see through them and think readers of their delusional pap will consider them brilliant.
Just let them continue to amuse themselves; don't fall for their baiting.

Unfortunately neither you nor Branjo are able to explain the flaws because if you did you would expose the fact that all you want to hear is your own opinion regurgitated back to you. Whatever.

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