[ExI] Mining the Sky SL Talk I gave today

[Adrian Tymes]

--- On Tue, 4/27/10, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
> I see little
> justification for dropping down into the gravity well to
> collect interest on
> it, instead of going straight to the solar sails now.

Because very few people want solar sails now.  But lots of
people want platinum down in the gravity well now.

Again, it's not like there is a severely limited supply of
it out there.  There is a larger supply than can be used
in the next century - by which time, we will hopefully
have access to an even larger supply (Kuiper Belt/Oort
Cloud) - which means we can act as if there is an infinite
supply in practice.  Dropping platinum into the gravity
well does not prevent grabbing another asteroid and making
solar sails out of it.

It is true that at any given time, only a finite amount of
platinum will have been harvested.  Those that do the
harvesting have first say in how it gets used, by how and
where they give it to others.  Presently, that means this
will be dictated by those who fund the operation.  Which
of these is easier: finding someone who will fund
harvesting asteroids for solar sails, or finding someone
who will fund harvesting asteroids for use on Earth?

It is a lot harder to fund the former than the latter,
and not just the "if something is worth doing" type of
"harder".  Instead, funding the former is practically
impossible at the present time, while the latter is at
least potentially possible currently, and the latter can
eventually make the former possible.  More importantly,
the latter is the only means that has been identified so
far to make the former possible.  Therefore, insisting
on the former exclusively - insisting that nothing must
come back down the gravity well - has the practical
effect of insisting that space industrialization never
happen.

In other words, by insisting that the platinum stay
outside the gravity well, you are in effect insisting
that no one ever be able to make use of it - which is
the exact opposite of the reason you claim to want to
keep it up there.

I have presented a way by which some (indeed, most) of
the platinum can eventually be used in space.  It's
just that we have to start by sending some down the
gravity well.