Well, I suspect we’ve got enough copper for the next 50 years, so… good timing.
And, you don’t start with a Manhattan sized rock, you practice with little ones just big enough to survive re-entry and work your way up. The key is learning to operate long term with “rock moving tech” in solar orbit. We’re not there, which is why we should have started 50 years ago…
Well, that’s a big component: how efficient / environmentally destructive is the mining?
Also, as electricity consumption in areas like China, India, Africa increases, they’re going to start needing big multiples of the amount of copper used in the US/Europe/ANZ to-date.
There’s also the idea of crashing a metallic asteroid somewhere convenient, like the Outback.
Yeah, that ain’t happening for the next 50 years. The amount of logistics and technology required for that is beyond immense, never mind risks
Well, I suspect we’ve got enough copper for the next 50 years, so… good timing.
And, you don’t start with a Manhattan sized rock, you practice with little ones just big enough to survive re-entry and work your way up. The key is learning to operate long term with “rock moving tech” in solar orbit. We’re not there, which is why we should have started 50 years ago…
We have enough copper for a lot more than that, depending on how far and deep we want to go
Well, that’s a big component: how efficient / environmentally destructive is the mining?
Also, as electricity consumption in areas like China, India, Africa increases, they’re going to start needing big multiples of the amount of copper used in the US/Europe/ANZ to-date.