Special Interest, Our Solar System

[sol_1]

What makes our solar system so special, sure theres life but beyond that what? Are there any special features, minerals, rare asronomical objects?

 

[absolutezero]

Sol_1,<br /><br />Our solar system for sure has some very plentiful special resources all over the place! This is why the private space industry is going to be the biggest industry this world has ever known! It will make the medical and tech industry be about as big as the neighbors lemonade stand!<br /><br />Look at some of these reasons to get up there as quickly as possible and why you would want to be the person doing it.<br /><br />The Moon- Our closet neighbor may harbor about a million tons of helium-3—a potential energy source that could be worth $7 billion a ton! This is part of the reason China wants to get up there so bad! Yes there is a lot to go around, but with any valuable resource, you can never rule out war over it. Russia, China and the United States are all eying that money! Should be interesting!<br /><br />Asteroid mining- Asteroids contain cobalt, gold, iron, magnesium, nickel, platinum & silver. All these metals, very rare on Earth, can be found in raw form and in multi-trillion dollar quantities in just the 3,000 near earth asteroids floating next to Earth! Even better then the raw materials is the ice that is found in asteroids! Everyone up in space is going to need fuel! By mining the ice, hydrogen and oxygen can be extracted to make fuel for ships in space! Making this ice as valuable as $10,000 per pound! Wouldn't it be nice to the be company mining that asteroid?<br /><br />One really popular asteroid is 3554 Amun. This guy contains $8 trillion worth of iron and nickel, $6 trillion of cobalt and $6 trillion in platinum like metals! Whoever owns this rock would be 450 times wealthier then Bill Gates if it were mined today! Again, big reason why an aerospace company would want to get into space as quickly as possible! If it took $10 billion in investments, who cares! Its a drop in the bucket for that price!<br /><br />All this doesn't necessarily make our solar system unique, because this crap is probably all over the place in the universe, bu

 

[sol_1]

SO if what your saying is true then is it possible to have "PLANET STARBUCKS", in the"CHEVERON - TEXICO" minor galaxy? What I'm saying is if space is worth that much then can only major companies put forth the finacial might to conquer space? If we sold our souls to travel thru space..... ?<br />I liked your reply <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" />

 

[bonzelite]

awesome reply <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />

 

[maxtheknife]

I agree w/ Bonz... That post was a breath of fresh air! <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />

 

[absolutezero]

The fact that all the raw material is up there is true, the value of the material is true. There are many companies trying as quickly as they can do make this stuff happen. Here are some companies working to get into space right this instance. By 2007-2008 you will actually begin to see some stuff happen with the first privitization of space.<br /><br />Pioneer Astronautics<br />Dynamac<br />Cisco Systems<br />Scaled Composites<br />Interorbital Systems<br />Trans Lunar Research<br />Xcor Aerospace<br />Orbital Science<br /><br />All working on different projects due out by the end of this decade. Keep in mind, NASA has a $400 billion dollar budget for their return to the Moon alone! A ton of money to be made here! Study real hard and maybe you too could get a piece of that pie. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />

 

[mikeemmert]

Dear sol_1;<br /><br />I got a completely different take on your question when I first read it than the other posters did. I enjoyed their answers, like everybody else, but you asked,<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p> What makes our solar system so special, sure theres life but beyond that what? Are there any special features, minerals, rare asronomical objects?<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote>The sun is a large, bright star compared to most other stars. However, there are much larger and brighter stars than the sun, so most astronomical literature tends to describe the sun as more modest than it is. Most stars are red dwarfs and are considerably dimmer than the Sun.<br /><br />The Sun is "metal rich" compared to most other stars it's age. In astronomical usage, a "metal" is any element heavier than hydrogen and helium, which were produced at the beginning of the history of the universe (a little lithium 6 was also produced, but most lithium today was produced by cosmic rays bombarding the interstellar medium). All other elements were produced in stars at a later date, except for a tiny amount produced by cosmic ray bombardment.<br /><br />When extrasolar planets were discovered, it was found that most of them were in elliptical orbits. It appears these systems were dynamically unstable, with some planets being thrown out of the system entirely and others having long, looping, cigar shaped orbits. However, there is an observational bias towards such large planets, so at this time this is unresolved. From what we <i>know</i> at this moment, solar systems with stable circular orbits are rare compared to a chaotic mess. Neither I nor anybody else knows why this should be so.<br /><br />There appears to be a somewhat different mix of elements in our solar system, specifically there is more uranium and thorium. Many astronomers believe that the solar nebula was initially compressed by one or several shock waves from Type II supernovae for that reason. This

 

[CalliArcale]

I gotta agree with the others -- a very nice post. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /> I believe we have to move beyond this planet if we are to succeed as a species. And I believe if we do so, we will be doing it not just on behalf of our own species but on behalf of all Earthly life.<br /><br />The one problem with the asteroid mining concept is that once a profitable mining technique is developed, it is likely to depress the price of those ores. (Metals more than anything else typify the supply-and-demand model of macroeconomics.) On the other hand, if the capability to extract the ore grows at a relatively slow pace, and the demand also grows as these elements become more available and thus more practical for many applications, it could work out very well indeed.<br /><br />Quick question: does anybody know whether much copper is expected to be found in the asteroids? I've heard about precious metals out there, of course, but copper is a far more limited resource on Earth than we like to think. It's already reached the point where even in developed countries it is profitable to steal copper wire and sell it for scrap, even considering risk of arrest or, in some cases, electrocution. I suspect that the first thing we should look for out there is copper, because the demand for it already outstrips the Earth's capacity to meet it, and the demand is likely to grow exponentially as more and more of the world becomes wired. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><font color="#666699"><em>"People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it's more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly . . . timey wimey . . . stuff."</em>  -- The Tenth Doctor, "Blink"</font></p> </div>

 

[aaron38]

Calli,<br /><br />All I could find was some sites saying that asteroids do contain copper, about the same amount as silver and gold.<br />But much less than the amount of platinum it seems.

 

[robnissen]

Great Post. I would add one other point. The solar system is in a very quiet part of the galaxy between two of the spiral arms. That is a huge advantage for life for at least three reasons. First, the orbits of the planets are not disturbed by passing stars (in the worst case, the Earth gets flung out of the solar system). Second, much less likely to have major bombardment of the inner solar systems because a passing star perturbs the Oort cloud. Third, because there are few stars in the neighborhood, it is unlikely that any star in the vicinity will go Super Nova and destroy all life on earth.<br /><br />BTW, it always annoys me when the sun is described as as an average star. For the reasons you stated, it is about the perfect star for life: high metal content, small enough to burn for a long time so that life can evolve, large enough that the liquid water zone is not so close to the sun that planets in the liquid water zone get tidally locked.

 

[absolutezero]

I would have to say that Earth itself is the special interest in our solar system. Considering if it was just a smidge closer or a smidge farther out from its current orbit, life wouldn't be here at all. The book Rare Earth really provides a lot of facts on how unique our planet really is given its perfect placement in the solar system.