Ben Bova by unknow

Author:unknow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-12-17T14:07:14+00:00

Page 5

We live on a finite planet. We are already beginning, to see the consequences of overpopulation and over consumption of this planet’s natural resources. Sooner or later, we must begin to draw our resources from other worlds.

We have already “imported” some minerals from the moon. The cost for a few hundred pounds of rocks was astronomically high: more than $20 billion. Clearly, more efficient modes of transportation must be found, and scientists and engineers are at work on them now.

It is interesting to realize that the actual cost of the

energy it takes to send an average-sized man to the moon and back-if you bought the energy from your local electric utility-is less than $200. There is much room for improvement in our space transportation systems.

Improvements are coming. Engineers are now building the Space Shuttle, which will be a reusable

“bus” for shuttling cargo and people into orbit. Fusion energy itself will someday propel spacecraft.

Scientists are working on very high-powered lasers that could boost spacecraft into orbit. And the eventual payoff of the esoteric investigations into subatomic physics might well be an insight into the basic forces of nature, an insight that may someday give us some control over gravity.

There is an entire solar system of natural resources waiting for us, once we have achieved economical means of operating in deep space. Many science fiction stories have speculated on the possibilities of

“mining” the asteroids, that belt of stone and metal fragments in orbit between Mars and Jupiter.

There are thousands upon thousands of asteroids out there. A single 10-kilometer chunk of the nickel iron variety (which is common) would contain approximately 20 million million tons of high-grade iron.

That’s 2 X 10‘3 tons. Considering that world steel production in 1973 was a bit less than a thousand million tons (109), this one asteroid could satisfy our need for steel for about ten thousand years!

The resources are there. And eventually much of our industrial operations will themselves move into space: into orbit around Earth initially, and then farther out, to the areas where the resources are.

There are excellent reasons for doing so. Industrial operations have traditionally been sited as close as possible to the source of raw material. This is why Pittsburgh is near the Pennsylvania coal fields, and not far from the iron-ore deposits further west. It is cheaper to transport finished manufactured products than haul bulky raw materials.

The very nature of space offers advantages for many industrial processes. The high vacuum, low gravity, and virtually free solar energy of the space environment will be irresistible attractions to designers of future industrial operations. Also, the problems of handling waste products and pollution emissions will be easier in space than on Earth.

The pressures of social history will push industry off-planet. We cannot afford to cover the Earth with factories. Yet the alternative is a cessation of economic growth-as long as industrial operations are limited to our finite planet.

Although studies such as the MIT/Club of Rome’s “Limits to Growth” have urged a stabilized society, Page

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