Asteroid Mining & Orbital Settlements

Asteroids represent a threat to Earth, but in the future they may be a boon, serving as sources of vast wealth and resources, and as orbital settlements and keystones of interplanetary trade.
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Credits:
Asteroid Mining & Orbital Settlements
Science & Futurism with Isaac Arthur
Episode 265; November 19, 2020
Written, Produced & Narrated by Isaac Arthur
Editors:
Jerry Guern
Cover Art:
Jakub Grygier www.artstation...
Graphics:
Bryan Versteeg spacehabs.com
Fishy Tree www.deviantart...
Jeremy Jozwik www.artstation...
Kristijan Tavcar
Sergio Botero www.artstation...
SpaceResourcesCGI
Udo Schroeter
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound epidemicsound.c...

[@littlegravitas9898]

My immediate destiny seems pretty set - mine my fridge for a snack and a drink and settle in to orbit around another awesome SFIA episode

[@nilesbutler8638]

Take care to adjust orbit to the regular mass gains after that. Uncontrolled de-orbiting is such a pain.

[@littlegravitas9898]

@@nilesbutler8638 though it would be more to do with mass distribution, as the mass I brought in snacks/drinks would already be accounted for in the initial orbital equation. I will however be converting that into personal mass, rather than external lol.

[@nilesbutler8638]

@@littlegravitas9898 I was of course considering you would be having regular supply pods delivered via railgun from your fridge. If you only consume what you brought, you are right, of course. Not even - you´d loose mass via carbon outgassing in digestive processes. Only a small percentage can be converted to body mass. But that would probably keep in your life support athmo system.

[@littlegravitas9898]

@@nilesbutler8638 I cant believe i didnt consider refueling! I guess added bonus could be to gain momentum from influng care packs to keep orbital velocity and avoid retrograding?

[@nilesbutler8638]

@@littlegravitas9898 Well done! That would be a sensible use of all that kinetic energy. Your fridge would need stronger station-holding thrusters, though, to compensate. You dont want it to become untethered and crash into the bathroom.

[@Prymolinios]

I'm sure that Prospero lived very happy life with you. Rest in peace sweet furball!

[@ZephLodwick]

Your cat was called Prospero. That's so cute. RIP.

[@richierescue]

(Pwosperwo)

[@ryandommerman9295]

Meow RIP

[@bentuovila5296]

Was he attacked by a wolf?

[@juliovictormanuelschaeffer8370]

Somewhere in the 42nd Millenium... Orks: heh, dose humies wuz amateurz!

[@unintentionallydramatic]

I'd love to see a cooperation between you and Economics Explained on this topic!! 🤩

[@LDProductionsClass]

The idea of humanity sprawled across a million worlds within our solar system rinds me of the Revenger series

[@isogonbackup5361]

I get so happy on Thursdays when I get home and see one of these videos in my notifications :D

[@rickgotner7596]

Has a method been invented to smelt metals in zero, or near-zero gravity? Current smelting methods rely on gravity. Inventing zero-g smelting could make someone incredibly wealthy in the future.

[@animistchannel2983]

You grind everything down to grains or powders in the raw and centrifuge it, and just scoop off the layers one by one. Then if you want you can use lasers to heat the separated powders in a "crucible-steel" type closed container method. A tungsten tube & screw-cap as a crucible won't melt until over 3400°C, so you use that to hold whatever else you want to melt. Or you can do combinations and variations on those. For basic on-site prospecting, you could just do the grind & centrifuge part on location and send sealed containers of each type to market according to whatever's worth sending. The bulk "tailings" of base mineral grains can be formed into construction & shielding blocks of various densities like concrete or foam/sponge material and used or shipped in bulk. Of course, if you send an O'Neill Cylinder mother ship to manage the mining expedition, you can do each process in whatever amount of gravity you want, at your convenience. That also means miners don't have to live in micro-gravity, but come home at the end of each shift to pleasant conditions and family, etc.

[@dsnodgrass4843]

Not to mention that huge amounts of energy are required to generate smelting-level temps. This makes me think they'll need a central smelting operation that they send the ores to. Or even cluster harvested asteroids around. Trying to do it rock-by-rock seems excessive. But that's "The Great Trench" for you.

[@animistchannel2983]

@@dsnodgrass4843 Yah, I agree. That's why I figured you'd want a big Cylinder mother ship refinery on-site to process stuff. At our current tech, it would probably be powered by thorium nuclear. Solar might do to run the lights and vents if you are close enough to the sun, but to melt rocks you need the "oomph!" :)

[@HadzabadZa]

@@dsnodgrass4843 It's likely some places will utilize solar foundries to do that. Why bother if you can blast a metal with a bunch of mirrors?

[@Raether608]

if only someone told me to get a drink and a snack

[@Raether608]

@Incorruptus ok man its just a joke

[@jorenellenbroek]

I'm really liking the episodes of late! Thanks for the inspiring content guys

[@colinsmith1495]

I've been thinking for a while about the possible solution to the Fermi Paradox that's basically: interstellar travel is hard, and why bother when you have a whole galaxy worth of colonizing space and materials in your own back yard if you just look at more than planets.

[@animistchannel2983]

Yah, I've pointed that out before too. The universe is "only" 13 billion years old, and with starlifting technology you can make home stars last for trillions of years. A few exploratory interstellar colonies might form just for the novelty of it, but this channel has already described a ton of reasons why that's problematic. Even if our solar system started feeling dull and you did start a new one on the next star over... now you have another bunch of eternity to fill up there. Given the actual likely time scales like that involved, you wouldn't see a galaxy "getting full" with civilizations for hundreds of billions, even trillions of years in the future. We really are still at the beginning.

[@belmiris1371]

I'm really sorry about the loss of your furry friend.

[@DanDavisHistory]

Excellent video, very thought provoking, thanks.

[@fanuluiciorannr1xd212]

Moving from a rock to another rock. Count me in.

[@buddywhatshisname522]

Sorry for your loss Isaac.

[@DaManBearPig]

Prospero has set sail for the great cosmic beyond. Be in peace my little feline friend.

[@StarBoundFables]

16 psyche, interstellar cycler castles & 1000000 planets 🪐 in our very own solar system. Brilliant episode, Isaac! Thank you 🙏🏽

[@georgesgregorius5752]

The first thing needed for all things on earth and in space is energy, cheap energy and aboundant energy. To move, to mine, to build, to survive, we need energy and here is where we shuld put our money first.

[@schlirf]

Interesting. Which reminds me, after I get rid of my explorer rig its time to do some mining on Elite Dangerous...😎

[@ShawnHall]

That moment when you realize these ambitious projects are so immense in scope and therefore so far in the near future that none of us will get to see it. :(

[@toastedmatt9387]

Every time Isaac says “we already have the technology to make this possible, the only problem is funding” in one of his videos, I die a little inside lol

[@disbeafakename167]

Well, then give them your money! It's a mostly free country.

[@LordEngelbert]

Started writing a novel about this kinda thing, heard about The Expanse, got angry and am now old and bitter

[@FaisalTheSuperGuy]

@Issac Arthur Question: do you still get paid if I click the skip ad button?

[@yoshikhurazi1769]

If you want to support him but don't want to break the bank, do yourself a favour and install Ublock Origin and instead pledge a dollar to his patreon once. That will literally make him more money than you watching hundreds of ads on his videos. Ads are a cancer on society and should never be indulged in if you have the choice to abstain.

[@slowmoe1686]

@@yoshikhurazi1769 I have to agree. They're predatory in general and, on youtube at least, don't even pay anyone well except for KZbin itself.

[@unintentionallydramatic]

Thirded/fourthed. Use referral links or Patreon. Ads suck and pay nada. I got a credit card just for this in fact.

[@michaelpettersson4919]

@@yoshikhurazi1769 Paetron here. Yes go for that.

[@AsmodeusDHare]

@@slowmoe1686 I know. they run hundreds of ads, bait you with a few dollars adn then go "Whoops, a comment someone made on one of your videos was controversial so we're keeping the money." If you don't think they'd be that petty, someone brought out proof of 'Death Threats' someone made in a video... they banned the guy that received the threats for hate speech for a week.

[@KnighteMinistriez]

I do wonder what life will be like when this happens. I hope I live to see the beginnings of this.

[@DevilTravels]

Yup. If we need to get off this rock, we need to make sure we can afford it. And mining the solar system is the most likely way to pay for it. So those robot games need to switch from silly battles to something more functional like mining.

[@garmmermibe5397]

Rest in peace, Prospero. I'm really sad now. I'm so sorry, Issac. I think I should name one of my pet chickens after Prospero now. I have almost 70 and haven't named them all yet.

[@matthewhalo1799]

My boyfriend was playing Minecraft and I thought the music was on the video And now I’m slightly disappointed XD

[@paulwalsh2344]

Next week's episode is "Life As a Space Colonist". What about, "Life As a Space Refugee" ? What happens if we have to bail on Earth while a man made or even natural disaster is being mitigated and the refugees have to negotiate with preexisting settlements in the rest of the Solar System ?

[@r.connor9280]

A Dustball planet in where the original colony just keeps adding or lassoing new asteroids to add to both wealth and real estate for new colonists and accompanying industry

[@EliasMheart]

Great video, as usual :) It is often said, that asteroids are "more like a loose collection of gravel." Does this mean, that they don't have a rigid surface? Is asteroid mining actually asteroid sifting? In pictures they often look like one big rock, so I am confused and would greatly apprechiate clarification on this :) Requiescat in pace, Prospero

[@AsmodeusDHare]

basically it's tightly fit gravel with dust and dirt filling in the gaps and coating the surface to make it look like one solid rock. Very few are even remotely singular structures.

[@Usual_User]

Amazing video

[@utetrahemicon]

It's good to hear you, Have you ever read Sir Fred Hoyle's Book - Diseases from Space? Comet Encke was mentioned as a possible source of the Spanish flue.

[@VulcanOnWheels]

22:07 Was Prospero your cat? If so, my condolences.

[@nicholasryanscroggs8761]

You should put the audio on the different podcast apps.

[@mcconkeyb]

Just think about this for a minute. We have many national space agencies who have done hundreds if not thousands of hours of research about living in space. We have had US, Russian, and Chinese low Earth orbital space stations, going back over 30 years. But yet we have not ever attempted to build and do research on spin stabilized space stations. I've asked why to many people involved with the space programs of several countries, and all I've ever gotten in reply, was a nice politically correct redirect of my questions. Like we are working towards understanding how the human body deals with zero gravity. The only direct answer I've ever gotten was that designing and building a spinning space station was too expensive and would not provide the economically viable political influence that the current zero gravity stations provide. So I've got to conclude that unless we get an economic solution and a commercial company (maybe Space-X, maybe someone else) humanity will be stuck to the Earth for the foreseeable future. These essays are always interesting, and thought provoking, but they remain mostly fictional, given the current state of affairs for the human race. Keep up the good work Isaac!

[@935Demon]

Thanks for the upload! Your ideas in the Upward Bound and in this series are really thought provoking and I've been following for over a year now! Watching this episode I was wondering the entire time where would the conies get fuel for their rockets. Even if it's as common as liquid methane and oxygen that SpaceX uses, would you still need to go down to a large planet with an atmosphere to refuel every so often?

[@mllhild]

So im very worried about the looming Painite price collapse from Asteroid mining and the recent attacks on Orbital Settlements

[@macrumpton]

Would it make sense to nudge an asteroid to a close loop around the sun to melt it and seperate the different metals? I figure if you spin it the heavier elements would end up on the outside after it is a molten mass. The scifi author Glenn Hendrix proposed using giant mirrors to focus the suns rays on an asteroid to melt it, and then inserting a tube and inflating the molten mass into a stone bubble which could be used to make a ship or habitat.

[@ProperLogicalDebate]

Might be interesting to compare population growth on Earth to population transfer to space.

[@michaelpettersson4919]

It is probably impossible to keep up. There is no way that people can leave earth faster then more are born short of some kind of disaster gutting the population numbers.

[@animistchannel2983]

@@michaelpettersson4919 Yah, earth will just bleed a steady flow of young adventurers and retiring seniors into space for their various reasons, the way the countryside once had a flow of people into cities looking to make their fortune, or the way the old world had a flow of people to the Americas. Eventually, space will have more people and make more people, but there will still be room for anyone to join them. Hopefully, the home population on earth will then feel more like keeping itself in ecological sustainability with the planet, so their descendants can see the best version of earth life possible. No raw material will be rare & valuable enough to be worth screwing up an area to get at, when you can just order any amount of it down from space for cheap.

[@mrfxm55]

They always show an astronaut in a spacesuit. I think that's just not practical. Better is robotic assisted enclosure for a person. With tools and other changeable assisted capabilities. Safer for the people. Since most of this mining would involve very sharp hard or hazardous materials. The spacesuit is obsolete.

[@simonsays6954]

Whats this "Orth" you keep talking about?

[@plazmoidialsoup2211]

So if your jump height is 1.5 ft and you jumped on a 1.5% earth gravity astroid would you jump 100ft?

[@JustABill02]

You didn't mention radiation. Would 1 meter of rock be sufficient shielding for humans living long term outside the earths magnetic field?

[@dagon99]

Nice

[@makisekurisu4674]

I am sad that the Artemis program is getting delayed.

[@stefanblack3909]

My question about all this is who will colonize these places by the millions? Who would want to? Living in a completely synthetic environment, away from our natural earth habitat? If we are mining these asteroids its assumed it will put us in a post scarcity world. If our current trend is anything to go by, the more affluent we become the fewer kids we desire - who, in a post scarcity world is having all these children, and who among them would willingly move away from earth to an objectively inferior environment? I think the vast majority of this mining would be done by AI/automation, with the odd rough neck schmuck with no other options doing the job of putting out maintenance fires on 1-2 year shifts.

[@animistchannel2983]

Read around. For one, lots of people would be happy to work in those environments, rather than in a wild system with earthquakes, blizzards, pollution, crime in the streets, etc. For another, look at the O'Neill Cylinder. That can be a nicer life than life on earth, practically idealized and tailored to specification of gravity, humidity, temperature, and so on.

[@stefanblack3909]

@@animistchannel2983 Im familiar with o'neil cylinders and all that stuff, but im not convinced your average person would want to live in them or on a mining asteroid. I think its easy to imagine that we would like to live there, because they seem so fantastic to us, but humans have a capacity for normalizing almost anything. Take modern day airline flight. The first dozen or so times you do it its amazing - then it eventually gets routine, and even annoying. Earth would still be the most desirable place to live in a post scarcity world for most people. Its where most of the action is, most of the culture, most of the leisure activities. The only reason I see something like an o'neil cylinder being more desirable is if the future was mostly dystopian, in which case there is a good chance that o'neil cylinders and the like would also be a far from perfect place to live.

[@hklamb5687]

Oye Beltalowda !

[@Sophie-kg7mf]

Broer wy dont we us the em katapult together of earth

[@edwardp5748]

i cannot see how humans can maintain their mental health off this particular rock. everything you say about what is possible physically makes sense to me, but i feel mental health is often ignored when talking futurism. other than "madness" as an abstract fictiony way.

[@animistchannel2983]

What mental health threat do you see from being in space? Just... being there? People adapt to all kinds of environments. People even work on submarines for their whole career. In particular, life on an O'Neill Cylinder would actually be easier and more stable than life on earth. Everyone knows cats don't like vacuum cleaners. It freaks them out. However, I had a friend with a car detail shop who adopted a stray wild kitten that came wandering in. The shop was its home, was what it knew. It would happily climb in and play around in the foot wells while he was vacuuming the interior right there. The vacuum was just a normal part of its everyday world, and someone there running it meant that someone was there to be company. Life adapts. Life finds a way.

[@Zonkotron]

An orbital cycler that big has me a bit uneasy. What if somebody miscalculates a gravity assist or some tidal force and the orbit to earth starts getting closer on it's own - kinda the reverse of the moon slowly ejecting......not good

[@animistchannel2983]

That sort of thing would get noticed as soon as it was a minute late for a scheduled fly-by or a tiny bit off course for a meetup. It wouldn't have a chance to drift out of control over a bunch of repetitions.

[@Zonkotron]

@@animistchannel2983 Riight. I simply forgot to add the second part of my post, not sure why :P. What if somebody miscalculated it to a degree that the deviation per cycle is greater than what the mass drivers or stardrives can compensate. That was my concern.But unless you actually try to do a gravity slingshot off earth - which would be about as insane as what we are currently doing to our biosphere - the distances are probably way too far for any such thing anyways. Would be a bad cycler if it got completely flung out of the target orbit in the first encounter.....

[@animistchannel2983]

@@Zonkotron ...and fortunately(?), from this age forward, there will always be a million smartasses on the internet looking over your shoulder, checking your calculations, and telling you what you missed. Hey, maybe in the future we can get some use out of the little trolls as backup safety checks after all :)

[@Zonkotron]

hahahaha ;)

[@jimmyjames5960]

Sorry to hear about Prospero

[@aurex8937]

I'm psyched about Psyche's colonization.

[@stefanr8232]

Psycho! :P

[@acerba]

You're a real psycho

[@andrea-t-pagano]

and I'm nuts for planet Marbles

[@DocWolph]

@@acerba And that is what inhabitants of Psyche will be called in the future.

[@acerba]

@@DocWolph are we sure they won't be called psychonauts?

[@kerbaman5125]

RIP Prospero, we should name a space colony after the fellow

[@abnegazher]

It will be the name of the Planet of Sorcerers

[@vincentcleaver1925]

Prospero and the Prosperans

[@NickFisherman]

There's a fictional planet in my stories called Prosperina, with the inhabitants known as Prospers, though it's named after the goddess, Proserpina.

[@lololman]

RIP Prospero.

[@levigriffin5553]

I claim this feeble rock in the sovereign name of Marvin the Martian, our one true king!

[@animistchannel2983]

All hail!

[@unf3z4nt]

Too bad the little rock is a kingdom of one.

[@richardgreen7225]

Marvin's mom says leave the rock where it is and wash your hands before coming to the table.

[@Ag3nt0fCha0s]

All hail Marvin!

[@jimmywrangles]

There should have been an Earth shattering Kaboom.

[@PeetaProduction]

Thank you for the upload Issac! SFIA is the only thing getting me through my online College learning because of Covid! I also used a few of your Upward Bound series as resources and inspiration in writing a paper on the future of Space Colonisation.

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

Glad to hear it on both counts :)

[@crappycomputer77t1]

I have used Isaac's show as a resource as well in school and in conversation with people. When you hit people with some of this info (even teachers) they just light up it's the coolest thing and that's how we feel when we watch his show.

[@kenshy10]

Man this makes me think of a future where the earth has rings that are made of orbital settlements!

[@stefanr8232]

L5 will be full when the moon is waning.

[@yoshikhurazi1769]

Think once things get sufficiently saturated in cislunar space, we might even opt to construct a topopolis that stretches around Earth's orbital path and links up to the L points for the Earth - Sun partnership. The future of travel in such areas might literally be interplanetary trains.

[@Rose_Harmonic]

I think you might have no idea how wild Earth orbits are going to get

[@kenshy10]

@House of El probably no giant mechs in our future though. I do imagine something with hands to manipulate large objects for construction projects in space but those darn engineers always like pointing out how inefficient a giant robot actually is for combat.

[@RCAvhstape]

@@kenshy10 Maybe, but I do think we will at least get cool Ellen Ripley style power loaders.

[@khaccanhle1930]

Looking for random "belter" comments from the Expanse.

[@69Kazeshini]

Remember the cant

[@deanlawson6880]

Oye Beltalowda..

[@palfers1]

Don't be a wellwallah eh?

[@RCAvhstape]

"What about Venus? Want to go to Venus?" - Miller, saving Earth

[@josephreagan9545]

I do not understand the reference, but what I do know is that one day a man will marry a woman from one of the belts and he (while she rolls her eyes) will introduce her to everyone as his "Belter half."

[@aurex8937]

I wonder what kind of cultural differences will arise in the belters population and if they will live such different lives they'll want independence.

[@twenty-fifth420]

“We are creatures of space.” Camina Drummer In short, probably THE manufacturer and mining center of the galaxy largely due to empty space and vast resources. Another thing the Expanse does well is the implication of water and air, while not rare per se, is rarer and more valuable for the belters then the Inners. I would imagine a quick way to get a belter to love you is getting them some water and maybe some air while buying finished products from them At least that is my guess

[@scottkelbell5003]

TANSTAFL!

[@michaelpettersson4919]

Tax someone enough and they will feel motivated to demand independence. Then, they have to wait for the expeditionary force to arrive from Earth. The belters can produced faulty signaling devices while they wait for them.

[@richardgreen7225]

Suppose each habitat (or group) has a self-sufficient ecology. Since communication is cheap and free, dominance by information control seems futile. In such a situation, what sort of "dependence" would "independence" be about? Hint: Finance. - Recent history: "Colonies" and "imperialism" was based on resource extraction. There were whole continents for the Europeans, with their superior weapons and organization, to exploit via resource extraction and taxation. Eventually, the sheep resisted the fleecing and the enterprise of physical subjugation became onerous and was displace by financial inter-dependence. To profit from resources (material, labor, location) one needs a market. So there is inter-dependence between supplier and consumer. Newly "independent" nations often lack the technological resources of more "advanced" nations. To bootstrap their economies, they need to trade resources for technology. To become independent, this bootstrap process needs to lead to equality of knowledge and R&D capability. - Future history: Even when you have robots building robots from a huge supply of materials, everything has a price because "ownership" (capitalist or socialist control makes no difference) creates scarcity via *prioritization*. In a truly "post scarcity" ecology, so much resource is available that "prioritization" becomes personal rather than social. At that point, "dependence" has disappeared. The only remaining priority might be physical safety (the interplanetary equivalent of air traffic control).

[@michaelpettersson4919]

@@richardgreen7225 Governments tend to have a "pay or else" stance o taxes regardless what those resources are used for.

[@fast1nakus]

Now: planes flying into buildings Future: dwarf planets flying into earth

[@josephreagan9545]

Future martian doing a terrorist attack by flying an Oneil cylinder they hijacked into the earth shouting: "Musk Akbar!!!"

[@thomas.02]

@@josephreagan9545 the unsettling thing is in a society of quintillions, if we don’t have a better education system (somehow?), there’s bound to be a cult of people worshipping not just the big names but even random usernames on the internet like you and me, and do extreme things over it allowed by their advanced technology (unless we have better security). The darkly humorous story being our distant descendants receiving death threats from cults because we ourselves had a KZbin comment shouting match.

[@arx3516]

Or entire orbital colonies flyng straight into Sidney...

[@TS-jm7jm]

@@arx3516 you say that like its a bad thing

[@darkleome5409]

*Marco Inaros smiles crazily*

[@TagiukGold]

I suggest that settlers on Psyche be called "Cupids"

[@willyreeves319]

not psychos?

[@IONATVS]

There is already an asteroid named Cupido (763) and another using Cupid’s Greek name, Eros (433) so I think residents of Psyche would probably not choose that name for confusion’s sake-especially with so many obvious puns like “psychos” or “psychics” or “psychonauts” on the table-but I like reference.

[@Bluecho4]

PSYKERS! [Inquisition intensifies]

[@rommdan2716]

We need more science fiction settings based on life in a colonized solar system, from Mercury to Neptune. We already have The Expanse, Cowboy Bebop and Lucky Starr from Asimov, BUT WE NEED MORE!!

[@koala1246]

I'm assuming you've read 2312 by kim Stanley Robinson?

[@damage6316]

Sorry to hear about Prospero. His episode did him justice. Good Job.

[@Paroll123]

Wakes up and makes eggs and coffee *sfia has a new ep* makes bacon and more coffee Issac *doesnt tell me to get snacks* Me "ah an overachiever today"

[@zachanderegg8763]

I always did love the idea of asteroid mining.

[@mpetersen6]

What is the possibility that for a mining operation on an asteroid that the habitat will be tethered perpindicular to one axis of rotation a sufficient distance to keep the tether taut. The habitat then rotates around the centerline of the tether*. I expect almost all operations on the asteroid to be down by remotely controlled or semi autonomous equipment. The human operators are there mainly to solve problems, make crucial decisions etc. Plus the habitat also functions as their transport to and from the asteroid. As to viable elements to mine either highly valuable elements needed for industrial purposes or those needed for space based agricultural uses. *the habitat could be a fairly simple cylinder attached to a truss work boom with its power supply and drive at the other end. The tether also functions as an "elevator" for accessing the surface. The "elevator" being a simple powered drive that clamps on to the tether the person doing the EVA simply attaches themselves to.

[@animistchannel2983]

That would certainly be a viable way to do it in some cases. It seems to me that each asteroid, depending on size, spin, composition, richness, etc, will call for a custom solution.

[@mpetersen6]

@@animistchannel2983 A lot would depend on just how much tumbling the rock is doing

[@animistchannel2983]

@@mpetersen6 Yah, and if you're using an O'Neill Cylinder mother ship as a mobile mining base, you could basically just scoop up and grind down the smaller ones on the fly. If they are solid enough but still too big to fit in the front door, you could tether THEM to the ship and keep going, and chop them up into manageable pieces to feed to the processors on the way to the next one... like Pac-Man in space :)

[@lukasmakarios4998]

Sure. A bit oversimplified, but a wokable outline.

[@animistchannel2983]

@@lukasmakarios4998 Sorry, but every time I give what I consider a "concise but adequate" answer to one of these things, a bunch of people complain and go "Too much text bruh!!!!" I just can't fit an entire freespace mining operations textbook on a post-it note for the braindeads from twitter. If you ever do need such a manual, though, I could do a 10-20 page extract for one. I do contract writing, up to dissertations and journal submissions, at very reasonable rates.

[@nickcarriero8274]

These videos sometimes make my eyes water. From both the awesome beauty of our future, and the meloncholy realization that it's beyond any of our lifetimes. Still, i'm grateful we live comfortably enough to dream about such things

[@mainamaina2578]

No it's not beyond our lifetimes. You'll soon see what am talking about.

[@prometheus9096]

@@mainamaina2578 Yeah and then we can look at the few young people who will be the first pioneers and even that group is maybe 1% or less of earths population. For the average human space will be unreachable even in 50 year (I would be 82 years old by then :/ ). Don't think they can use grandpa me up there.

[@jimpatterson5524]

how do you know it is beyond your lifetime?

[@justarandomname420]

Feeding the algorithm.

[@BearMeOut]

Smile excited educational Emoji 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😜😜😜 Human emotions Relaxing 🙂🙂🙂 Consumer friendly

[@imlaion2133]

Man, I don't know if you're familiar with tabletop role-playing games, but I'm a game master running a sci-fi campaign with some friends for over a year now, and ever since I discovered your chanel I've been using your videos as inspiration for worldbuilding. Last session was the end of a big story arc, and talking with my friends after the game they congratulate me for the world and stories I've created. I feel like an impostor because 99% of my work was directly inspired by you, so I wanted to thank you for your dedication with the chanel and for the passion you put into making every video. I'm exited to see what you'll talk about next!

[@nosamsreliquary3407]

I would love to live on astroid right now

[@michaelpettersson4919]

Untul the interplanetary tax collector arrives and demand 75% of your asteroids production...

[@Junksaint]

@@michaelpettersson4919 there are far bigger things than gaining personal wealth lol money is happiness in the abstract

[@michaelpettersson4919]

@@Junksaint And there are always those that hate happy people and as such will do anything in their power to ruin the fun.

[@epicjonny155]

And not one that will hit earth or another planet

[@alexandernorman5337]

For like a week...

[@OldGamerNoob]

All roads lead to Rome All cyclers lead to.Earth

[@altha-rf1et]

wonder how many O'Neil cylinders can be built if mine all the asteroids

[@sdprz7893]

Probably a couple million.

[@rojaws1183]

There is only one way to be sure so let's start mining.

[@stefanr8232]

If your cylinders weigh 2.39 million tons you have enough mass for a trillion of them. Some parts of asteroid mass like the sulfur and oxygen are not very useful for cylinder construction so you might only get half of that.

[@gary6549]

About six. Trust me I have done the maths.

[@michaelpettersson4919]

@@stefanr8232 We can find uses for that oxygen and sulfur as well.

[@TraditionalAnglican]

Goodbye, Prospero. So sorry to see you go. Isaac, sorry for your loss.

[@Southwest_923WR]

Shower thought; how much mass of the Moon could be safely minded away without affecting its orbital mass

[@dfgndfghdfghdfgh]

You'd start messing with earth's tides too which would likely have some interesting outcomes

[@chglasier]

I was hoping this was going to show how we could mine and process the resources from an asteroid. It hard for me to imagine what a space foundry would look like.

[@Ramiromasters]

If we can have a billion worlds like our Earth (surface) in our own solar system, then even if we are not the first ones in the galaxy, we are the first ones in the solar system... Which is not a small thing to be part off!

[@dasdaleberger5683]

Newly discovered Amish settlement, inside asteroid, is asked how long they've been churning.

[@johnnyspacer9488]

So would settlers on Psyche be called Psychos?

[@DavidChipman]

I was wondering about that myself. Kinda like how people living on the Moon might be called lunatics.

[@TagiukGold]

Maybe call them Cupids instead.

[@jorenellenbroek]

I'd go with psychedelics..

[@DavidChipman]

@@TagiukGold why Cupids? Genuinely don't understand the reference.

[@TagiukGold]

@@DavidChipman Cupid was Psyche's lover. Unless I'm not remembering my high school mythology correctly.

[@Drake_Ebonheart]

I seriously love the ships from the game Homeworld..

[@copypastemyname]

Oh no not Prospero :(

[@hondatuner5156]

Isaac's channel always has the best comments

[@isaacarthurSFIA]

We are pretty fortunate in the overall level of quality and courtesy in the comments :) I've seen a lot of my peer's comments sections

[@palfers1]

@@isaacarthurSFIA Peers'

[@dionemoolman]

Earth better remember to keep the people there happy as they may stop sending asteroids back to Earth for materials and start chucking them at Earth.

[@animistchannel2983]

Thank you! Thank you for this episode! This is the preferred path to expansion that some of us have been pushing for years, the self-sustaining and self-funding path. This is the true diaspora that puts the reins of the future in the collective judgement of the most able and adventurous, instead of centralized control by the most corrupt. Out there are a million cantons of freedom and growth!

[@Exquisitec0rpsy]

uh... what?

[@animistchannel2983]

@@Exquisitec0rpsy That's called "English, by someone who knows how to write it." Stay in school.

[@Exquisitec0rpsy]

@@animistchannel2983 okay...

[@durianjaykin3576]

Lets hope megacorps dont exist...

[@11011san]

The asteroid colony reminds me of the book series "Troy Rising" by John Ringo

[@jamesbarisitz4794]

There's no machine designed "mine" solid iron or stone asteroids. As a matter of fact, most probes and space equipment is designed with lightness and precicion in mind. A seriously tough, capable mining machine for asteroids is still sci-fi.

[@Hugh345678]

true, but with spaceX's starship projected to get price into orbit down to $20/kg in just a few years, its very very near scifi

[@dsnodgrass4843]

Well, luckily there are those "gravel glob" asteroids to work on first.

[@charlesjmouse]

It's interesting: I'm one of those people who is only really happy if I can wake to a new view every day - there's nothing more miserable than being stuck in the same place too long... and yet the more I think about it the more I realise I would absolutely hate "living" anywhere but a planetary surface. Work in space, spend decades traveling, go live on other (Earth-like) planets..? All just fine to me. But the concept of spending a life in any kind of "artificial" habitat no-matter how home-like that may be would be for me an utterly miserable existence. I wonder; if a person like me thinks that way what would the vast majority of people who are attached to the concept of "home" think? It would be interesting to see an episode some time on the psychological implications of going to the stars - Indeed, I wonder if an inbuilt inability to psychologically cope with permanently living off one's home planet might be a possible Fermi paradox solution?

[@RCAvhstape]

I dunno, I spent lots of time aboard a ship and I got used to it after a while. I have a friend who served on a nuclear submarine and he kind of liked it, and that's a claustrophobic environment where you don't get fresh air or daylight for weeks or months on end. So I am guess spacefarers will be a breed of people who are "made" for it.

[@jorenellenbroek]

Living in a cylinder is essentially safer than on a planetary surface. By the time we get there, the concept of a good life will likely be ridden of most troubles we are dealing with today.

[@reasonforlife214]

Maybe the best episode i've ever seen !!!

[@barry3612]

No more rocks for earthas and innerlowda, have more than enough rocks on earth and mars , belt only for beltalowda.

[@fakechemicals]

And now my charms are o'er thrown... Condolences sir, condolences.

[@Justsomeoneyoucouldhaveknown]

9:35 I think the astronomical society needs to go back and redefine the naming system for stellar objects and other universal objects. We've been using an outdated system that has had multiple problems (looking at you Ceries and Pluto). If video game developers can do it I'm sure that scientists with a greater mind can too. Now I understand the universe is a vast place Beyond any imaginable scale, but it's about high time we sit down and classify what exactly it means to be a planet, dwarf planet, moons, dwarf moons, or whatever. Not just recycling and reusing what we've been doing for the past couple thousand years because some guy who, is not only long dead but probably didn't have the understanding of the universe that we do

[@brenton2561]

The thing is, when space gold becomes viable in large volumes what will happen to the value of gold on earth?

[@dsnodgrass4843]

If they do come up with huge volumes of gold, they'll more likely be spinning wires of it to carry power out there rather than bring any down here, I'd imagine. The chase for "untold riches" seems pointless; what you'd want, rather, is plenty of iron and other metals to make good alloys with for habitat construction. Gold and platinum are only good for electrical conductors, in practical terms. Our artificial capitalist "precious metals" model pales fast, when you're faced with the bare hostility of life in space.

[@TS-jm7jm]

@@dsnodgrass4843 literally capitalism is just basic trading of resources people have, and if you're american you arent capitalist but a mixed economy, but you are closer to plain capitalism/free market than most others, exluding wall street and bankers, and the americans have a huge economic and industrial capacity as a result of not being too restrictive of their economy, and as someone from africa with plenty of silliness in government imposed rules on markets(including stupid levels of taxes) also general theft and corruption, i reckon the americans are doing alright with "capitalism", in anycase ive seen worse so stop complaining from your essentially gold plated mansions

[@dsnodgrass4843]

@@TS-jm7jm As usual, your picture of America is distorted by what you're shown. Even in a 'purely capitalist market' there's plenty of theft, corruption, and silliness, from whoever is big enough to impose it. Fact is, capitalism cannot build a planetary society such as is necessary to make leaps out into the future as Isaac describes it. It's horrifically, actively dysfunctional even on a nation-state level in this century, and it purposely sabotages any other potential system that might arise to compete with it. Also, you don't get to tell me what i can complain about; nothing about you grants you that standing. Have a lovely day.

[@TS-jm7jm]

@@dsnodgrass4843 you are the one with a distorted picture, because you have no idea of the levels of corruption i have seen under communism, you first world people have a laughably small amount of corruption compared to africa or india, come to africa live in a place like harare, bulawayo, Johannesburg or cape town for a year, then proceed to tell me about the evils of capitalism. edit, every other system merely fails in a competitive market, which is why they always have to be propped up by force, the free market only needs that you breakup monopolies and go after thieves with the law.

[@dsnodgrass4843]

@@TS-jm7jm There is no "free market" that is possible without force becoming another product in that market. And those that have the most resources will possess and use all the force they wish. And then instantly your precious market is no longer "free". A 2-year stint in Eyl, Puntland, Somalia taught me that. And i guarantee you that there's an equal amount of corruption in Galveston, Texas, USA to Eyl; bc that's where i went next. I'll talk about the evils of capitalism all I want, bc I've seen most of them. Your "appeal to authority" here has failed. Deal with it.

[@twenty-fifth420]

Got my starbucks, got my Nanowrimo project open and Isaac in the background Lets do this yall. God I wish I was a Beltalowda right now.

[@twenty-fifth420]

@Adymn Sani “You know the average lifespan on Earth? 123 years. It is even better on Mars. You know the average lifespan on Ceres? 68!!!!!”

[@thepropaganda1066]

Oh yeah built a lada listen up this is your captain and this is your ship

[@ProjectExMachina]

Nah. I'm good

[@Biomechanoid29ah]

Mi pensa ke beltalowda are mogut!

[@lukasmakarios4998]

It's time for the next gold rush. "There's gold in them far asteroids!' Kinda also goes with a land rush, to set up pioneer homesteads on your mining claim. Imagine folks building homemade "survivalist pods" (conestoga wagons) and launching themselves off into the belt to seek their fortunes. "Psyche or Bust" painted on the bulkhead. Bring your friends and you've got "Wagon Train," but you're more worried about Murphy's Law than any Indians along the way. Of course, there could be wars between the settlers and the claim jumpers. Ahhh, life on the frontier... where the Law hasn't arrived yet. (Dare I mention the robot slaves? Do AI's have rights?)

[@LordEngelbert]

"You dont just accidentally hit a planet" Us: Holdeth my beereth

[@georgebecker4360]

When i hear his voice it makes me think of my nephew,Julian,he died at 27 years old 3 years ago and he had exactly the same speech "problem" and when i showed this to my older sister(his mother)she burst into tears

[@lukasmakarios4998]

This is the future I've been waiting for. This is when we get true democracy and eutopia, as defined by the locals who actually live them in each place.

[@Trashiok]

Quick get the popcorn! this is gunna be a good one

[@qwertyferix]

🍿

[@yggdrasil9039]

The focus should be 100% on colonisation of our own solar system, step by step, from the earliest rotating orbital Earth habitats to Moon and Mars bases and on from there.

[@cascadiagreen6517]

Hey you, yes you. If you actually want space colonization then YOU must do something. Whether it be engineer, facility janitor, or a single vote, we need YOUR hands

[@RaimoKangasniemi]

There is a very Utopian belief, never directly said but underpinning the whole concept in this video, that communities of free individuals would somehow be the driving and main force of human colonization, and this would leave each community either on asteroids or O'Neill cylinders or cyclers to develop to its own direction. There is little reason to believe that this would be the case. Financial reasons in setting up such communities is one reason, another the fact those who - as a result of getting there first - control access to near Earth space and resources farther will act as gatekeepers, deciding who will get a place among the wandering stars and who doesn't. More realistic would be to expect that the colonization will be driven by big corporations owned by trillionaires, and closely connected to Earth governments, resulting in a limited number of architectural, social and political settings, repeated with small variations. Instead of the Utopiam vision, think of a million dictatorships, almost clones of each other, repeated through space and time in the solar system. Expect monotonous realms of tyranny, with little Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos at the top of each heap or cluster of heaps, instead of a million individual flowers blowing in the vacuum.