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Re: RE: RE: starship-design: YES, we might do it.
In a message dated 10/12/98 9:02:08 AM, david@playlink.com wrote:
>> ----------
>> From: KellySt@aol.com[SMTP:KellySt@aol.com]
>> Sent: Friday, October 09, 1998 8:33 PM
>> Subject: Re: RE: starship-design: YES, we might do it.
>>
>> >2005: Private companies offering sub-orbital space tourism.
>> >2010: Private companies offering orbital space tourism.
>> >2025: Private space stations, for tourism and experimental research
>> into
>> >materials and pharmeceuticals manufacturing.
>> >2040: Light private industry in orbit, first tourism on the moon,
>> >experimental private industry research into asteroid mining.
>> >2050: Medium private industry in orbit, early lunar tourism, first
>> >asteroid mining.
>>
>> Plausable. The big problem is figuring out a way to land ore cheaply
>> enough.
>> I mean most ore goes for dime to dollars per pound, even the cost of
>> launching
>> an empty lander blows those costs. (An issue I'ld really like to
>> think of a
>> way around.)
>>
>>
>>
>I'm assuming that early mining experiments would be performed by
>industry already in orbit and that by 2050 space mining will still be
>operating at a loss, with predictions for large profit in the future.
>
>Also, perhaps by the time space mining really takes off the biggest
>customers might not be on the Earth.
>------------------------------------------------------
>David Levine
Problem is unless there is some short term profit, there will be no long term
investments. Also the without a large scale market, mining would not be
economical in space, and there be no economy to support the major space
colonization that would support something like our starship project.
Zero G manufacturing might havesupported such mines, but interest in it has
droped a lot in the last decade.
Kelly
Kelly