Xref: utzoo sci.astro:13695 sci.electronics:20820 sci.physics:20151 sci.research:1724 sci.aeronautics:2261 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!mips!spool.mu.edu!agate!bionet!raven.alaska.edu!hayes.ims.alaska.edu!acad2.alaska.edu!asldh From: asldh@acad2.alaska.edu Newsgroups: sci.astro,sci.electronics,sci.physics,sci.research,sci.aeronautics Subject: Re: Excavating (minig) gold in the space by NASA. Message-ID: <1991Jun11.122417.1@acad2.alaska.edu> Date: 11 Jun 91 16:24:17 GMT References: Sender: usenet@ims.alaska.edu (J Random USENET) Organization: University of Alaska Lines: 67 Nntp-Posting-Host: acad2.alaska.edu In article , sehari@iastate.edu (Sehari Babak) writes: > This article originally was posted in misc.invest. I thought it might be > interesting for this news group too. > > In <1991Jun11.055227.2611@nas.nasa.gov> crayfe@nas.nasa.gov (Cray Hardware Support) writes: > >>I recently came across this article in sci.elctronics and thought it >>might be of interest since the recent discussion of where the price >>of gold might be going. Anybody care to comment? > >>In article <7Fs532w164w@spocom.guild.org> >>luns@spocom.guild.org (Luns Tee) writes: >>>> > >>>Today's Washington Post reports that an asteroid has been found orbiting the >>>Sun at a distance of about 20 million miles from Earth (closest point). It >>>apparently contains 10000 tons of gold and 100000 tons of platinum, as well >>>as 10 billion tons of iron and 1 billion tons of nickel. Its estimated >>>worth was put at around 1 trillion dollars. > > This might be one of the first real applications of Space technology. I say > NASA should issue stocks to built a space craft to go and bring that thing Why NASA? Why not a private concern? Just a quick thought... > down. This could open up another very lucrative investment, a side from > satellites. The technology we gain could help us mine other~r > space too. Then, boldly going were no man has gone before makes business > sense to. > Unfortunately, the prices of gold and platinum are driven largely by the laws of supply and demand. Drag these quantities of them to Earth, and their prices will plunge. Not that I find this to be a disturbing prospect, necessarilly. As Heinlein notes in _The Door Into Summer_, gold (and, I beleive, platinum also), is very important in engineering, and cheap gold and platinum would open up a brave new world of electronic engineering. I would certainly invest in such a venture -- so long as the folks involved have a clear understanding that they are not likely to get *current* market value for the gold & platinum. On the other hand, is there anyone out there with easy access to the figures for world gold and platinum production levels today? Are these quantities large enough to distort the market, or am I blowing a false alarm? > I assume this could be possible if the price of gold goes much higher. let us > forget about mars and concentrate on this, for now. After all, who needs cheap > marsian dart. It's not the dirt we need, but the acreage... But that is unlikely to become a reality anytime soon... > > With highest regards, > Babak Sehari. -- @#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%! # % @ % Lars D. Hedbor ! The enduring and uninfringed freedom of # ! USAF, Inc. @ humanity is among the very few things % @ Student at # worth devoting your entire life to. ! # UAA % @ % asldh@acad2a.anc.alaska.edu ! -Me, just this moment. # ! @ % @#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%!@#%! SysOp of the Observatory, (907) 277-3508, 3/12/24/9600, 8N1, Opus 1.14 These opinions are not necessarily even mine!