Fraser Cain is hosting the eighth round of the Carnival of Space, and has some fairly interesting posts lined up including:
- Paul Gilster on Centauri Dreams discusses Modeling Exoplanet Atmospheres and makes an interesting note that the further one travels from our Sol Star, the more water we find.
- Dave Rankin on Tales of the Heliosphere discusses how ingrained the 24 hour cycle is to Earth life, which may make colonizing space a little bit more difficult (than previously thought).
- Fraser Cain from Universe Today analyzes the theory about microscopic black holes buzzing inside Earth (scary if you ask me)
- Amanda Bauer on Astropixie reviews how devastating an asteroid impact would be to planet Earth (with a cool video as well!)
- Louise Riofrio from the ever enlightening A Babe In The Universe talks about the beauty and value of the International Space Station, with an image that makes you wish you were there.
But one of the best posts has to go to Henry Cate of Why Homeschool who discusses the future "gold rush" within our asteroid belt:
(Why Homeschool) When I was fourteen I read a book about asteroids. One of the points in the book has stuck with me over a couple decades. The book said that a small asteroid of about one cubic mile was worth about $50 billion. This was in the 1970s. Nowadays the number would be closer to $300 billion. Scientists have found that asteroids have a greater density. There appears to be a greater concentration of metals when compared to the earth. [...]
Early space development may be largely financed by tourists, at least in the short term. Over the years more people and industry will start to move out into space. Mining the asteroids may prove to be the next gold rush. Stories are told of miners walking along the river banks picking up nuggets of gold. It may be that at some point men in rocket ships will be able to fly to the asteroids and pick up valuable metals.
The asteroid belt could very well be the key towards humanity colonizing our solar system. Although the influx of metals and minerals from asteroids will probably drop the prices due to economics of scale, the availability of these metals will translate into more resources available to colonies and star ships.
Despite the fact that tourism is currently driving humanities quest to the stars, hopefully mining these dancing space rocks can fund our ability to not only conquer our star system, but nearby ones as well.
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You can either visit the stars or watch them from afar.
But if you choose the former, you'll definitely get a better view.
~Darnell Clayton, 2007
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