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Old 11-19-2020, 01:49 PM   #31
Anthony
 
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Default Re: Asteroids vs Planetary Mines

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Originally Posted by David Johnston2 View Post
And if the Federation is imposing environmental regulations created for planets with populations in the billions on start-up colonies, I suspect the colonists are going going to be pretty damn disgruntled.
Unless alien life proves to be super common, I suspect viable alien ecosystems will be protected (other than maybe vacation homes for the wealthy) and colonization will be limited to dead or terraformed worlds. Dead worlds probably don't much have to worry about pollution, terraformed (or in the process of being terraformed) will restrict anything that would interfere with the process, which might well be rather fragile.
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Old 11-19-2020, 03:21 PM   #32
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Default Re: Asteroids vs Planetary Mines

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The high cost of drugs is often more closely related to the cost of developing them
Promotion and marketing costs two to four times as much as R&D. The high price of drugs is an artifact of their being patented.
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Old 11-19-2020, 05:51 PM   #33
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Default Re: Asteroids vs Planetary Mines

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In general, it seems that every +1/-1 change in RVM would roughly correspond to a quadrupling/quartering of the mass of an asteroid belt relative to our Main Belt. Within our own system, this would mean that, if the Main Belt was a RVM 0, the NEAs would be a -4, the Hilda Asteroids a -3, the Centaurs a -2, the Jupiter Trojans a -1, the Neptunian Trojans a +2, and the Kuiper Belt a +3. We have already found examples of +5.
I think you need to consider density as well as mass. The Kuiper Belt might be huge, but it's also extremely spread out, making moving from one resource node (lump or rock or ice) to another time consuming and expensive. That reduces its value as a source of resources.

As for our belt(s) being 'puny', consider that extra-solar belts aren't that easy to spot, so we'll be seeing the densest of them - the sample is skewed, so while ours might by puny it might also be the norm, or even bigger than the norm.
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Old 11-19-2020, 06:22 PM   #34
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Default Re: Asteroids vs Planetary Mines

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You can probably find them okay in space, but they might not be worth sending planetside. And it's possible the concentrations will be lower due to lack of hydrological activity.
Also, a lack of biological activity - phosphates tend to come from deposits left from biological activity - bat and bird crap, in other words.
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Old 11-19-2020, 07:24 PM   #35
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Default Re: Asteroids vs Planetary Mines

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Also, a lack of biological activity - phosphates tend to come from deposits left from biological activity - bat and bird crap, in other words.
Guano is a source of phosphates and historically important, but a lot of it - the vast majority of the modern supply I think - comes from mineral sources.
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Old 11-19-2020, 09:16 PM   #36
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Default Re: Asteroids vs Planetary Mines

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Guano is a source of phosphates and historically important, but a lot of it - the vast majority of the modern supply I think - comes from mineral sources.
Well, sort of. It tends to come from sedimentary rocks (water cycle) and a significant portion of the phosphates in those rocks are originally from biological sources.
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