The "Does This Exist?" Thread

[hobbsyoyo]

Like has been said, other than oil (which I truly hope people will stop trying to drill within 50 years) there's absolutely nothing worth going after down there (That I know of). And yeah, it's about as easy to build stuff in the deep ocean as it is on the surface of Venus.

Except you have to get to Venus first. And deal with temps that can melt lead. lol

 

[Cutlass]

Like has been said, other than oil (which I truly hope people will stop trying to drill within 50 years) there's absolutely nothing worth going after down there (That I know of). And yeah, it's about as easy to build stuff in the deep ocean as it is on the surface of Venus.

There are plans for seafloor mining. You have to sift through a lot of material, but there are metals of all kinds in abundance. It is going to take a lot more R&D before it's economically viable though.

 

[Algeroth]

Like has been said, other than oil (which I truly hope people will stop trying to drill within 50 years) there's absolutely nothing worth going after down there (That I know of). And yeah, it's about as easy to build stuff in the deep ocean as it is on the surface of Venus.

Not only oil, seabed is rich in ice-like methane and is full of polymetallic concretions. Plenty of reasons going down there when the logistics is way much easier than outer space.

 

[Save_Ferris]

Is mayonnaise an instrument?

 

[SouthernKing]

I stand corrected then.

 

[History_Buff]

Brazil is commissioning the first underwater mine. Its going to be gold mine, but that means they'll help develop technologies to make the mining of other underwater veins of less valuable resources more cost effective.

Link? Sounds cool.

Harder than outer space..? I don't see that at all. If widespread space flight is in the cards, ocean exploitation is a no brainer.

Like others have said, space is indeed way, way easier. From a structural point of view, navigational point of view, exploratory point of view, and so many more ways probably.

I don't doubt that there's a lot of wealth down there, but oil (and natural gas) are the only ones that are relatively easy to get (owing to their fluid form).

 

[hobbsyoyo]

While we're on the subject....has anyone heard of these guys?
http://www.planetaryresources.com/

I've always told ppl when I grow up that I want to mine asteroids. Now I can say it with some back up.

Edit:

Like others have said, space is indeed way, way easier

Not to forget that it's also way cooler.

 

[Algeroth]

Link? Sounds cool.

I don't doubt that there's a lot of wealth down there, but oil (and natural gas) are the only ones that are relatively easy to get (owing to their fluid form).

Aehm. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manganese_nodule

 

[peter grimes]

Does anyone have anything similar to this? Big-picture, extremely long view stuff on either extraterrestrial life or the distant future of humanity. From a literary side, I know Asimov's Last Question and I'm looking for things in that vein as well.

Oh man! I forgot all about the Great Filter! I think I first came across the idea in the mid 1990's (is that possible?) - it really quelled my youthful enthusiasm and confidence about the success of SETI. But as I got older I forgot all about it. Just spent my lunchbreak re-reading that.... now I has a sad

There was someone who mentioned that one potential avenue for SETI is looking for space-waste. Empty hulks of discarded ships and stuff. Physical waste, jettisoned. I don't recall who was going on about it (could have been a TED talk), but The Great Filter sheds light on why we might not see any.

Also, this paper talked about how upcoming research on Dark Matter would help flesh out aspects of the implications - I wonder what the current thinking is.

 

[SouthernKing]

The thing is, outer space missions are easier with current technology, but take longer and are more expensive. Outer space, even as close to the moon, is by far a better option despite its higher cost, due to the fact that they have better resources for a post-fossil fuel economy. One example is helium-3, which once the technology comes around is a GREAT source of fusion, and is found in abundance on the moon and in asteroids.

The ocean has wealth and resources, but it is mostly fossil fuels - and it is my opinion that we should try to stop wasting money on continuing to feed a fossil fuel-based economy.

 

[Synobun]

The ocean has wealth and resources, but it is mostly fossil fuels - and it is my opinion that we should try to stop wasting money on continuing to feed a fossil fuel-based economy.

Preaching to the choir on that one. It's still too profitable for the big corporations.

 

[SouthernKing]

Preaching to the choir on that one. It's still too profitable for the big corporations.

Which is exactly what the main problem is.

 

[Algeroth]

Ok, link from Wiki didn't help. Would link from nature convince you that there are other things of interests besides carbohydrates under the ocean?

 

[SouthernKing]

Ok, link from Wiki didn't help. Would link from nature convince you that there are other things of interests besides carbohydrates under the ocean?

Sorry, I missed your post.
I'm convinced now

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Ok, link from Wiki didn't help. Would link from nature convince you that there are other things of interests besides carbohydrates under the ocean?

There are other things down there. But space has more. And is cooler

 

[Monsterzuma]

Can we please have some concrete examples of really cool resources worth blasting off into space there and back for? Helium-3 scarcely qualifies until we figure out how to do fusion in the first place, which isn't even guaranteed ever to happen.

 

[SouthernKing]

Can we please have some concrete examples of really cool resources worth blasting off into space there and back for? Helium-3 scarcely qualifies until we figure out how to do fusion in the first place, which isn't even guaranteed ever to happen.

Generally, any object that has water ice is really useful for creating fuel for a spacecraft on-site. Fuel is generally the most expensive and heaviest component of a spacecraft. This drastically reduces the costs of space missions. The Moon, Mars, and some asteroids are good for this purpose.
See here
Some asteroids have an abundance of precious metals, much more than on Earth, because they don't have a strong enough gravity to drive the more dense metals deep, and there are a lot on the surface.
See here

I found those after about 5 minutes of searching, if you want more I can look around more.

 

[History_Buff]

Can we please have some concrete examples of really cool resources worth blasting off into space there and back for? Helium-3 scarcely qualifies until we figure out how to do fusion in the first place, which isn't even guaranteed ever to happen.

Hydrogen? Oxygen? Water? Iron? Aluminum? Plus rare earths.

But the point of finding these things isn't to bring them back to the Earth's surface necessarily. While we could certainly bring the rare earths back, a kilo of water in space is super valuable, since you don't have to lift it from Earth. Once you've got that stuff up there, you use it to build space stations, and space ships, and manufacture fuel, and go to cool places (mostly Mars probably).

 

[hobbsyoyo]

There are enough previous metals on a given asteroid to crash the market for them on earth if fully exploited. On phone now so linking is difficult. Google it or follow the link to the site of the planetary resources website I posted earlier. It is a company with the goal of mining asteroids.

 

[Agarwaen]

Actually, there are a lot of resources at the bottom of the ocean. In Brazil we are calling it "Blue Amazon" now, and there are talks about exploring (besides oil and natural gas) gold, diamond, coal, potassium, copper, and whatever more they find down there. But I don't know how far we are to actually commercially mine all this. I think it is still in the a stage of exploration, improving technology and creating new laws.