Asteroids vs Planetary Mines

khorboth · 11-18-2020, 10:41 PM

Something often forgotten in these anslyses is the human factor. Even at TL10, living on a planet is much nicer than living in space. And mining is a process that, barring an aggressive AI track, requires a bunch of humans. Personal costs could easily be 100x as high for an asteroid mine. The company has to pay workers for the inconvenience and provide facilities. Planetside, it's just labor.

Then there's environmental regulations. In one of Peter F Hamilton's books, he had "industrial planets" where mines and factories polluted with little oversight and everyone needed masks just to go outside. These fed the needs of more "clean" planets where very tight environmental regulations ruled. In this universe, interstellar transport was fast and easy, but any robust trade scheme could support that dichotomy. And human nature certainly does.

11-18-2020, 10:41 PM	#20
khorboth Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Denver, CO	Re: Asteroids vs Planetary Mines Something often forgotten in these anslyses is the human factor. Even at TL10, living on a planet is much nicer than living in space. And mining is a process that, barring an aggressive AI track, requires a bunch of humans. Personal costs could easily be 100x as high for an asteroid mine. The company has to pay workers for the inconvenience and provide facilities. Planetside, it's just labor. Then there's environmental regulations. In one of Peter F Hamilton's books, he had "industrial planets" where mines and factories polluted with little oversight and everyone needed masks just to go outside. These fed the needs of more "clean" planets where very tight environmental regulations ruled. In this universe, interstellar transport was fast and easy, but any robust trade scheme could support that dichotomy. And human nature certainly does.