FUCK AND YES.
April 23, 2012 - 8:36 pm
Irradiated by Stingray
Irradiated by Stingray
Dear Federal Government,
Lick the private sector’s taint.
Sincerely,
Everybody who wants off this asshole-choked rock (and the less misanthropic group who just think space exploration is really really cool)
Private space-mining possible by 2025? I could drive railroad spikes with this erection.
April 24th, 2012 at 6:08 am
I’ll believe it when I see it hasn’t been taxed and regulated to death. :/
April 24th, 2012 at 7:45 am
I think the group would be clever enough to put their operations somewhere beyond the reach of Leviathan. Plenty of equatorial countries where they’d be welcome.
April 24th, 2012 at 7:52 am
And, when platinum sells for $35/lb, we stock up on a truckload of the stuff and take it back in time for a profit. Woo!
April 24th, 2012 at 9:32 am
Oh hells yes! … Please?
April 24th, 2012 at 11:12 am
I love when you get this happy in your pants, Stingray.
April 24th, 2012 at 11:45 am
I pray that it happens. If it does, there will be pushback from environmentalists. So what will be required in that case is pushback against the pushback. As hard as is necessary.
That might all sound a bit dramatic, but I just finished re-reading Fallen Angels, so maybe I’m a little bit hepped up. I can’t see allowing environmentalism, as currently constituted, to win this one.
April 24th, 2012 at 12:50 pm
Be interesting to see how they plan on making this profitable, considering the cost of getting something into orbit and beyond.
April 24th, 2012 at 2:03 pm
What can environmentalists possibly object to? They are irrelevant.
April 24th, 2012 at 2:39 pm
They had a little something to say about nuclear power, I think. ANWR. All sorts of other domestic energy resources. Farms which depend on the Central Valley Project for water are vulnerable to having their supply reduced or cut off because of environmental regulations.
Environmental groups have won some pretty important victories for themselves over the past three or four decades, and it doesn’t seem to me as if they will pass up the opportunity to flex their muscle, given the chance. If I am not mistaken, some of these outfits are amply blessed with funding, and political clout.
Some of the comments at the link Stingray provided are illuminating. Lots of them in favor (hurrah), but some that are butt-rashingly stupid.
And all of the above doesn’t even take into account actions by environmental terrorist organizations.
I hope the environmentalists are irrelevant.
April 24th, 2012 at 7:22 pm
Yay! I am all for this. It’s not like the asteroids have blue people and dragons on them.
April 24th, 2012 at 9:51 pm
FTMFW!
April 24th, 2012 at 10:29 pm
I’d have loved to see the look on Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s face when he found out about this.
April 25th, 2012 at 9:02 am
Mike, I don’t think any of us are unaware of the environmentalists’ war on civilization here in the U.S. or in the Western world generally. I think the question is how an environmentalist can complain about industrial activities that are taking place far outside the environment. I mean, sure, these guys might decide to defend deep space, but they’re going to be hard-pressed to make a case to their donors, don’t you think?
Unless there’s some sort of endangered deep-space owl or asteroid-dwelling bunny rabbits, in which case all bets are off.
April 25th, 2012 at 4:01 pm
Well, there’s always the “don’t bomb the moon” folks who can be guaranteed to raise a fuss. More rationally, I’m given to understand that the combustion products of rocket fuel + oxidizer are often pretty nasty, so if PRI’s planning to get to orbit with chemical rockets they might run into trouble that way.
April 28th, 2012 at 6:39 am
And nobody sees the irony of James Cameron backing the project of space exploration?
April 28th, 2012 at 6:41 am
…I meant, space resources exploration?
imperialism on a galactic scale? robbing poor defenseless asteroids of their water? of their core metals? what would blue-face creatures say?
April 28th, 2012 at 5:33 pm
That got me thinking… I kind of hope Ridley Scott gets involved.
April 29th, 2012 at 12:00 am
I lol’d hard, Blunt.