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"We are all repositories for genetically-encoded information that we're all spreading back and forth amongst each other, all the time. We're just lousy with information."
- Neal Stephenson
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| Asteroid Mine | ||
| The practice of seeking out and mining asteroids for their ore. |
This is a relatively early reference; I'm looking for earlier ones.
| Sofi Jokai had been operating her wildcat uranium mine on a shoestring before Robots Incorporated approached her with their proposition...
Beyond the laboratory, a somewhat larger igloo housed the mine shaft, reduction plant and tipple. A dilapidated tramp freighter sprawled beside the tipple like a foundered whale. |
| Technovelgy from Love Among The Robots,
by Emmett McDowell. Published by Planet Stories in 1946 Additional resources -
|
By the way, a "tipple" is the device used (or sometimes the place) to tip over mining carts to get them to disgorge their contents in a particular place.
Here is another quote from The Mechanical Monarch, a 1958 novel by E.C. Tubb; the speakers on in a Martian colony.
Lars raised himself on one elbow. "As things are now we depend on Earth to buy our asteroid-metal and supply things we can't do without.
Is asteroid mining a useful idea? Think about it this way; in 2004, one billion metric tons of iron ore were mined. Just one M-type asteroid with a mean diameter of one kilometer contains about 2 billion tons of nickel-iron ore.
A significant number of asteroids are believed to be extinct comets. If that is true, mining these 'comet' asteroids would yield significant amounts of water.
Compare to asteroid mining from Edison's Conquest of Mars (1898) by Garrett P. Serviss,
asteroid mining (blasting) from Asteroid of Gold (1932) by Clifford Simak, the
meteor miner from Salvage in Space (1933) by Jack Williamson,
asteroid claim law from Jurisdiction (1941) by Nat Schachner,
space placers from The Day We Celebrate (1941) by Nelson S. Bond, the
asteroid mining robot from Catch That Rabbit (1944) by Isaac Asimov, the coal mole from The Web Between the Worlds (1979) by Charles Sheffield, and
asteroid metal from The Mechanical Monarch (1958) by E.C. Tubb.
"We can get our water from the pole, our food from the yeast vats, our building materials from the oxidized minerals in the sand... We can even fuel the space ships and mine the Asteroid Belt for rare metals..."
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from Love Among The Robots
More Ideas
and Technology by Emmett McDowell
Tech news articles related to Love Among The Robots
Tech news articles related to works by Emmett McDowell
| Reflect Orbital Sunlight On Demand |
| Elon Musk Wants Data Centers In Space |
| ISS Plagued By Leak - Again! |
| Sunbird Pulsar Fusion Like Leinster's Space Tug |
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'It sounds to me as though you had invented a kind of metal earthworm.'
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors that circulate around the satellite, making it habitable.'
'The steel tortoise gave MacKinnon a feeling of Crusoe- like independence.'
'...then back to their work, though little enough it was on these automatic cultivators.'
't came out into plain view. Darkington glimpsed a slim body and six short legs of articulated dull metal.'
'The suit stands up and starts walking, gripping me round the calves and waist, taking the bulk of my weight off my throbbing feet.'
'Internally it’s made up of millions of components, but the most important ones are the thinking and memory parts of the Mind proper.'
