That DAWN may be starting with a secret destination…
Can you say “California Gold Rush”?
Cloaked in secrecy, asteroid mining forerunner, AstroForge, won’t be doing anything flashy to get to its secret destination. In fact and in order to save money, it “will hitch a ride alongside the Nova-C IM-2 lunar landing mission by Intuitive Machines. The Odin mission (previously Brokkr-2)”…will ride a ways with the IM-1, then depart for Asteroids Unknown.
In fact, IM-1 launched successfully yesterday (February 15, 2024)! Has the era of asteroid mining now begun? Maybe!
OK – I need to take a deep breath. Odin WON’T be landing on any asteroid, but will be doing flybys of not ONLY Secret Asteroid #1, but perhaps others along the way.
At any rate, while I’d love to think that Humanity is looking to the planets again out of the sheer joy of exploring our Solar System, the thrust is also being driven by some of my least favorite philosophical activists – the Climate Change lobby is slowly getting behind the idea of mining moving off of the rock that has a breathable atmosphere that’s already been polluted and trashed by a few hundred years of Human abuse.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t doubt that our activities have had an impact on the planet’s atmosphere. BUT I also don’t think that our tiny scratches on the surface have somehow magically DESTROYED the ecosphere. Just the air on Earth weighs some “5.5 quadrillion tons, or roughly one millionth of Earth's mass.” Humanity as a whole “390 million metric tons, which is slightly less than the weight of domesticated cattle at 420 million metric tons.” So…COWS weigh more than we all do.
I think it’s an adventure in hubris to claim that stuff that is two orders of magnitude LESS has an Earth-DESTROYING force. But if it makes people feel better and more powerful, then that’s fine with me.
But, our Green Friends may have some power in driving the mining of asteroids – in fact, now that I think of it, maybe their time would be better spent going door-to-door to collect money for asteroid mining companies like AstroForge rather than spraying the glass boxes that protect priceless works of art and documents like the US Constitution (the documents the right they have to spray the document with damaging red dust in a really vain attempt to stop Anthropogenic Global Warming…which they contributed to by driving to the exhibit in order to spray it) with red dust… ( https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/02/15/watch-climate-punks-dump-on-the-constitution-national-archives-rotunda-in-dc-evacuated-after-climate-activists-dump-pink-powder-on-case-holding-us-constitution/ )
I dunno. I’m wondering if the Climate Folks and the Asteroid Mining Folks shouldn’t get together and coordinate their efforts and get mining off Earth faster? At any rate, AstroForge – and other companies – are actually making the move to change science fiction into not only science fact, but FINANCIAL fact. They’ve initiated exactly what the first gold miners had to do in order to stake a claim – they had to do a SURVEY of the land. And isn’t that what AstroForge is ON THE WAY TO DOING?
Next time - “Should Private Companies Reveal Their Space Activities? What Does Space Law Say?”
New Source: https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/astroforge-space-mining-company-headed-for-asteroid-but-wont-say-which-one#:~:text=AstroForge%20is%20a%20private%20asteroid,aren't%20telling%20which%20one. ; https://www.mining.com/asteroid-mining-startup-to-launch-mission-in-early-2024/ ; https://cowboystatedaily.com/2024/01/06/wyoming-could-be-a-space-pioneer-when-not-if-we-start-mining-asteroids/ ; https://www.milkenreview.org/articles/mining-in-space-is-coming ;
IM-1 Mission Nova-C Lunar Lander Successfully Enroute to the Moon Following SpaceX Launch, https://www.intuitivemachines.com/im-1 Surveying for Gold: https://blogs.loc.gov/law/2013/05/homestead-and-mining-claims-in-19th-century-america/
Fundamental Resource: (A general Wikipedia post detailing what the authors currently know about asteroid mining: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteroid_mining)
Noted Resources:
https://www.britannica.com/story/how-much-does-earths-atmosphere-weigh#:~:text=While%20mass%20and%20weight%20are,one%20millionth%20of%20Earth's%20mass. ; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_asteroid_close_approaches_to_Earth, https://www.pharostribune.com/news/local_news/article_7fcd3ea5-3c14-533f-a8d5-9bf629922f34.html, https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/04/29/like-asteroid-mining-be-careful-what-you-wish-for/, https://www.nps.gov/wrbr/learn/historyculture/theroadtothefirstflight.htm, https://hackaday.com/2019/03/27/extraterrestrial-excavation-digging-holes-on-other-worlds/, https://www.planetary.org/space-missions/every-small-worlds-mission Image: https://everydayastronaut.com/wp-content/uploads/Post-Launch-Reviews/CNSA/Long-March-2C_Xinhua-1200x800.jpeg
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