[Spaceships] Million Merchant Marathon

[Witchking]

Originally Posted by scc

Yep, the idea that there will be any great push to mine the asteroids doesn't scan. But where possible I reckon things will still be ground based, building factories in 0G that don't need to be generally doesn't make (economic) sense. And in this case it's a jobs program, so things are Earth-side.

Economic sense says that boosting miners, factory workers, seeds etc into Orbital Habitats and Lunar or Belt Mines out of Earth's Gravity once is cheaper; than boosting decades of their finished products out of that same gravity well.

That is what has kept space from being anything but an expensive showpiece, research project; the cost of boosting everything out of Earth's Gravity.

Even after that problem is greatly reduced it will still be cheaper to mine and make what you need out there than to ship it all up.

Imagine how the colonization of North America would have gone if every tool, every horseshoe, every plank needed was shipped from Europe rather than made locally. That will give a bit of the idea of the scope of the problem.

If it is a job program cool! Give 'em a raise for being Astro-Miners or Zero-G Riggers and congratulate them for 'meeting' the rigorous requirements (no matter what they actually are or even if there ARE no standards).

Then ship them to orbit ONCE, with a free return trip upon retirement. Make it as homey as possible, bring families up, make it easy to send pay dirtside to support extended family.

Every time you have to fight gravity you are upping your costs, significantly. So don't do it.

My $0.02.