Tag: Mining

Could we build a real space station

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So I watched this video.

And in the video they mention to build a space station like that in 2001: A Space Odyssey that looks like this:

226363main_2001_station_t_full

That it would take more material than we currently have on the Earth.

And I agree  – we’ve mined pretty much all we can on this planet. But I think before very long we’re going to see robotic mining missions on asteroids. Why? Because there’s a shit ton of asteroids out there that have all gold, iron, bauxite, etc. Not to mention pockets of certain gases like helium, methane, etc.

And because it’s so expensive to travel from Earth to space – instead of building said station on Earth and transporting all of it to low earth orbit or higher, you simply build it in space.

I would dearly love to invest or start the company that first mines the asteroids.

Reading: Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt

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I’m currently reading the book “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt” by Chris Hedges and Joe Sacco. It details what big business and society has done to various peoples and areas in the U.S.

I’m on the chapter now that talks about the coal mining in West Virginia, Kentucky and the like. You  get a strong powerless vibe from the stories he tells.

But I can tell you – mechanized mining requires, wait for it, the internal combustion engine. And if you want to stop mountain top mining you have to get mechanically creative. It can be as simple as dumping a gallon or two of corn syrup in the fuel tank, or what i term creative re-wiring. Disconnect sensors, starters, steal batteries etc. If it’s a gasoline powered vehicle rewire the spark plugs. Switch em’ up some.

Do any of that and you’ll disable the vehicle for a good part of a day. Do it repeatedly – switch up targets to make it difficult.

The rich and big business want to fuck with us, I say we fuck with them. Put it this way – the rich think they’re immune from anything we might do. I think they are sorely mistaken. Just watch the movie The Jackal to get my gist. All it takes is a rifle, a scope and good ammo.

But the other parts of the book so far detail the genocide against the Native Americans and how the government shits all over the Native Americans to this day. Being that I’ve got a few percent Mohawk that one makes my blood boil just a bit.

Then there’s Camden, NJ – a hollowed out manufacturing town.

And now as I mentioned earlier I’m on the chapter about coal mining. One little blurb that emerges in this chapter is that we’ve got maybe 20 years of coal left to mine. After that – done. And then consider half of U.S. electric power comes from coal. It’s scary.

Maybe it’s time to think differently

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I’m not a big fan of fracking – I see it as environmentally too expensive and security destabilizing. Plus there is what we do with those fossil fuels right now as in burn them – releasing tons of CO2 into the air along with all sorts of other nastiness.

And most recently I’ve read that Oklahoma is experiencing an increased number of earthquakes. They suspect it’s due to oil and gas mining operations.

Here’s my proposal. It’s going to sound far fetched but the technology currently exists to do this, if only we diverted say $100 billion or so away from the U.S. Military machine each year.

Build robotic spacecraft to mine Saturn VI aka Titan. It’s a hyrdrocarbon aka Methane world. Suck up the liquid product transport it back to orbit and retro it back to Earth. Only don’t burn it – use it to energize fuel cells – the byproduct of which would be electricity and water. Then if you want burn it. But extract as much as you can out of it before doing so. Imagine spacecraft the size of ocean going ships that currently carry natural gas. Ion propulsion would work too. And with that Ion propulsion the cost of getting it back to Earth would be relatively inexpensive.