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Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios,

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Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with

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Speaker 1: How Stuff Works and I Heart Radio and I love

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Speaker 1: all things tech. And at this time for another classic

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Speaker 1: episode of tech Stuff. The episode you are about to

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Speaker 1: hear originally published on June four, two thousand twelve. It

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Speaker 1: is called text Stuff Minds Some Asteroids. And I remember

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Speaker 1: when we recorded this because it was kind of funny.

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Speaker 1: It was right around the same time that Stuff you

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Speaker 1: should Know, was recording an episode about asteroid mining, and

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Speaker 1: we didn't know that they were doing it, and they

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Speaker 1: didn't know we were doing it. So there was a

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Speaker 1: bit of a rush, a gold rush if you will,

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Speaker 1: on asteroid mining podcasts. That all came out of How

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Speaker 1: Stuff Works at around the same time, but it was

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Speaker 1: completely uncoordinated, because that's how we roll here at podcast World.

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Speaker 1: I hope you guys enjoy this classic episode. I'll be

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Speaker 1: back in just a moment to to um. So that

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Speaker 1: was that was a hint. Actually it would be more

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Speaker 1: like running Coward. We're talking today about asteroids. We did

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Speaker 1: an episode about you know, figuring out how to deflect

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Speaker 1: an asteroid if it were coming towards the Earth in

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Speaker 1: a in a threatening manner, like it said, it's a

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Speaker 1: nice play. You got here be a shame with someone

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Speaker 1: I don't know, flattened it. Um, So, apart from dealing

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Speaker 1: with asteroids trying to extort your planet for for various resources,

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Speaker 1: we wanted to talk about extorting asteroids for resources. I'm

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Speaker 1: a little frightened right now. I'm a little goofy right now.

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Speaker 1: Bonus points if you get the reference to the video

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Speaker 1: game in which you do mind asteroids. Yes, so we're

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Speaker 1: talking about asteroid mining and why would we do it, what,

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Speaker 1: how would we do it, and what's going on with

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Speaker 1: that whole idea anyway out? Before we get started, I

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Speaker 1: should mention we do on how stuff works. Dot Com

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Speaker 1: have an article about how asteroid mining will work. The

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Speaker 1: will there is important because as of this moment we

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Speaker 1: are not mining asteroids. We have um ideas about how

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Speaker 1: we would do this, and there is in fact a

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Speaker 1: company that exists right now that plans on mining asteroids,

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Speaker 1: but that even that plan is about a decade out

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Speaker 1: from fruition, assuming everything goes well. Yeah, just just for

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Speaker 1: the record, I want to say that I'm I'm coming

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Speaker 1: up with my own company to pan for asteroids. I'm

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Speaker 1: not certain exactly how we'll do it, but I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: make an effort. I claim that there are a lot

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Speaker 1: of them on the ground of the Georgia Renaissance Festival,

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Speaker 1: which is you know, most people would just call it gravel,

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Speaker 1: but I maintain it's actually asteroids, and that they are

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Speaker 1: they're they're intruding upon my property because I claim them.

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Speaker 1: Because well, we'll get into the complications of the legal

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Speaker 1: system and mining for asteroids and a little bit because well,

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Speaker 1: we're treading new ground in space. Well, that's that's true. Actually,

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Speaker 1: some of the people involved with this company are are

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Speaker 1: very interested in space anyway. I mean, they have been

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Speaker 1: sort of citizens supporters of the space effort, you might say,

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Speaker 1: people like Larry Page and Eric Schmidt yes, Googlers yes, yes.

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Speaker 1: And James Cameron Yes, who has has made a movie

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Speaker 1: or two involving space exploration. Um documentaries, I should say, right,

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Speaker 1: he's done some documentaries about ocean stuff as well space stuff. Yes.

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Speaker 1: Game over man. So so we're gonna talk a bit

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Speaker 1: about let's talk a bit about in general, about mining

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Speaker 1: asteroids and why you would want to. Here's why if

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Speaker 1: we ever want to get to a point where we're

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Speaker 1: getting off this rock to move to some other rock. Uh,

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Speaker 1: one of the big problems that faces us is where

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Speaker 1: do we get our raw materials in order to make

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Speaker 1: the kind of infrastructure we will require in order to say,

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Speaker 1: survive somewhere else. It's not like you can go and

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Speaker 1: take it all with you, not easily anyway, because well

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Speaker 1: and right now there really is no way because the

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Speaker 1: last cargo carrying UH ships that we use, the Space Shuttle,

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Speaker 1: are retired. So now we have to build specific vehicles

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Speaker 1: to launch stuff out there into space because the vehicles

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Speaker 1: we would have used are no longer in service. But um,

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Speaker 1: and there's no at least in the United States, there's

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Speaker 1: no plan to replace them anytime soon, so at least

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Speaker 1: not by the government. Privately could be a different issue.

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Speaker 1: In fact, privately is really where all this is is

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Speaker 1: falling upon. But if we were to try and create

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Speaker 1: a colony, say upon the Moon's surface or on Mars,

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Speaker 1: we would need to be able to get materials to

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Speaker 1: that place in order to create the right environment for

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Speaker 1: to sustain life. Because I don't know if you realize this,

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Speaker 1: but they are both rather hostile environments when it comes

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Speaker 1: to human survivability not survive. Yeah, if you've if you've

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Speaker 1: seen the documentary Total Recall, you know that if you

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Speaker 1: were to take your mask off in Mars, your eyes

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Speaker 1: would pop out of your head and uh, you would

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Speaker 1: turn into Donald Schwarzenegger. Um little and in fact, okay,

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Speaker 1: for in reality, we could not survive in either place

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Speaker 1: without life support systems. Right, So how do we get

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Speaker 1: the stuff we need to the plants, including things like

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Speaker 1: water and oxygen? That's part of it. Actually we would

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Speaker 1: we would likely ship stuff in various kinds of of

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Speaker 1: of vessels. But when you absolutely positively need it there

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Speaker 1: in three months, it would be so much better if

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Speaker 1: we could get that material either from wherever it is

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Speaker 1: we land or nearby asteroids. And as it turns out,

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Speaker 1: a lot of asteroids have materials in them that would

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Speaker 1: be very useful in either life support features or in

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Speaker 1: building out an infrastructure itself. And uh, in fact, in

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Speaker 1: our article we talk about three basic categories of asteroids.

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Speaker 1: All right, there's the C type asteroid, which is the

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Speaker 1: vast majority of the types that we would find in

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Speaker 1: our Solar system. And by the way, we mainly think

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Speaker 1: that asteroids are sort of remnants of the formation of

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Speaker 1: the Solar system. Yeah, so in some cases leftovers. Sometimes

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Speaker 1: it's from uh perhaps a collision, an interstellar collision, but

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Speaker 1: mostly it's just leftovers from the Solar system itself forming.

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Speaker 1: So it's sort of like you know when you take

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Speaker 1: apart piece of electronic equipment or car's engine and you

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Speaker 1: reassemble it, and then there's the there's pieces. I think

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Speaker 1: of it as any time I buy anything from Ikea,

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Speaker 1: and I think, oh, there's some pieces here that should

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Speaker 1: have been used in the formation of this cabinet, and

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Speaker 1: yet here they are in my hand, and I don't

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Speaker 1: see any place to put them in. Three years later,

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Speaker 1: all my dishes break. The two are the two I

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Speaker 1: maintain are not connected. No one tell my wife anyway.

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Speaker 1: So the Yeah, the the asteroids. You would expect to

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Speaker 1: find many of the same elements within asteroids as you

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Speaker 1: would find within the various planets and other bodies in

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Speaker 1: our Solar System, And as it turns out, that is

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Speaker 1: exactly the case. So in the C type of asteroid,

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Speaker 1: which comprises about of the asteroids in our Solar system.

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Speaker 1: They have uh a lot of the same elements that

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Speaker 1: you would find in our in the Sun, apart from

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Speaker 1: hydrogen and helium and other volatile elements, because they would

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Speaker 1: have boiled off into space, which is really too bad

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Speaker 1: because helium mining for helium would be great because, as

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Speaker 1: it turns out, we're running out on Earth, and you know,

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Speaker 1: the main culprit of why we're running out of helium

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Speaker 1: on Earth, that's right, it's crazy to think about. But

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Speaker 1: those party balloons that we enjoy oh so very much

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Speaker 1: are actually a problem in scientific research because helium is

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Speaker 1: very useful for doing things like using it as a

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Speaker 1: cooling agent. You know, the large Hadron collider uses liquid

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Speaker 1: helium to get the superconductors as cold as possible to

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Speaker 1: reduce electrical resistance. But meanwhile, little Timmy, who's speaking a

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Speaker 1: long the has been brilliant in his balloon all day long,

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Speaker 1: has just to set scientific research back for decades. Thanks Timmy,

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Speaker 1: happy freaking birthday. You can switch to hydrogen. I can't

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Speaker 1: see a problem with that. And looking for balloons get

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Speaker 1: too near the birthday, can right? Yeah, so hydrogen combustible,

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Speaker 1: don't put it near the birthday. Candles um, unless you

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Speaker 1: know you don't like timmy anyway. Moving on, so let's

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Speaker 1: see type of asteroid. Then we've also got the S

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Speaker 1: type of asteroid. This is about sev of the asteroids

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Speaker 1: we would find in our Solar system, and they contain magnesium, nickel,

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Speaker 1: and iron. These are very useful elements. Uh. The M

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Speaker 1: type asteroid not an M type planet, as we learned

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Speaker 1: in Star Trek, which by the way, no scientific basis there.

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Speaker 1: They just decided to call it M type planet to

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Speaker 1: mean any sort of earth like planet that human being

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Speaker 1: could survive upon. You No M is for my planet.

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Speaker 1: So the M type asteroids have uh, nickel and iron.

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Speaker 1: And so once we see these asteroids out there, and

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Speaker 1: we you know, most of them exist between Mars and

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Speaker 1: Jupiter and a belt, an asteroid belt. You may remember

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Speaker 1: famous explorations of asteroid belts, like in the documentary UH

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Speaker 1: Empires Strikes Back, which was had a very expirited exploration

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Speaker 1: of an asteroid belt. What, yes, they have giant animals

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Speaker 1: on them? They do not. That is that's me being

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Speaker 1: silly again. But no, the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter,

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Speaker 1: that's where the majority of the asteroids in our Solar

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Speaker 1: System reside, but sometimes they break free from that belt

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Speaker 1: and they float around in space. Occasionally they come near

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Speaker 1: the Earth. Near being a relative term. We're talking in

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Speaker 1: thousands and thousands and thousands of miles, but that's still

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Speaker 1: relatively close when you think space is enormous. So, uh,

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Speaker 1: we would probably be targeting the asteroids that break free

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Speaker 1: first because maybe the easiest to get to getting to

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Speaker 1: the asteroids beyond Mars would take so much time that

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Speaker 1: perhaps by the time they would get back with whatever

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Speaker 1: resources you are trying to mind, you might not have

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Speaker 1: anything to build anymore. So, uh, the asteroids that break free,

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Speaker 1: we can actually determine what type of asteroid they are

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Speaker 1: based upon the way they reflect light. And that's because

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Speaker 1: different materials reflect light in different ways, and you will

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Speaker 1: get a different spectrum if you were to uh to

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Speaker 1: measure that light and based upon the the composition of

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Speaker 1: the light that you are looking at. Based upon that,

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Speaker 1: you can determine what kind of elements are in that

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Speaker 1: asteroid and you could figure out, oh, well, this is

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Speaker 1: a perfect candidate for us to go in mind, and

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Speaker 1: there are other elements that could also be on on

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Speaker 1: an asteroid, including oxygen. Uh, platinum, gold, both of both

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Speaker 1: gold and platinum are very useful in electronics, and uh,

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Speaker 1: perhaps even water. So you might be able to find

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Speaker 1: frozen water on an asteroid, which could be obviously very

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Speaker 1: important to human survival. So if you find a few

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Speaker 1: asteroids with frozen water on it and you mind them,

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Speaker 1: you get the water off of that, you bring it

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Speaker 1: to whatever space colony you have, then you can have

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Speaker 1: not just water, but also oxygen. And I understand too

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Speaker 1: that it's possible that rarer Earth metals might be on

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Speaker 1: some of these asters and golden platinum kind of fall

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Speaker 1: into that category, but but others as well. There's and

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Speaker 1: and these are very important, like I said, in electronics.

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Speaker 1: You know, platinum, as it turns out, is very useful

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Speaker 1: in electronics, but is also very rare on Earth. So

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Speaker 1: again one of those things where we would be able

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Speaker 1: to to exploit a an asteroid without having to do

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Speaker 1: the same thing on the surface of the planet. You know,

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Speaker 1: clearly mining on Earth can be a very disruptive process.

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Speaker 1: It can be ecologically disastrous depending on how you're mining

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Speaker 1: and what it is you're mining. Um, So if we

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Speaker 1: were able to offload that literally to an asteroid, then

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Speaker 1: that would be beneficial, not just from a resources standpoint,

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Speaker 1: but an ecological standpoint, because I mean, really, who cares

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Speaker 1: if your asteroid is falling apart, right, I mean, there's

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Speaker 1: there's no one there. Um. So using telescopes we look

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Speaker 1: at these asteroids, we determine what is what those asteroids

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Speaker 1: are made of based on the light that's coming back,

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Speaker 1: and then that would allow us to say which ones

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Speaker 1: are good candidates for mining. Now, how would we actually

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Speaker 1: mind the asteroids? Okay, Um, that's a good question, I'll admit. Uh.

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Speaker 1: Turns out, um, no one has the answer right now

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Speaker 1: because because we're just not there yet. Even the company

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Speaker 1: that we were talking about, which is called Planetary Resources.

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Speaker 1: Planetary Resources, they come out and they admit the like, um,

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Speaker 1: we don't know how we're going to mind these asteroids

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Speaker 1: because that's a decade out at best. What we're gonna

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Speaker 1: do is we're gonna build the machines that can identify asteroids,

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Speaker 1: detect asteroids, travel to asteroids, and by the time we

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Speaker 1: get to that point, hopefully we figured out what the

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Speaker 1: best way of mining these asteroids would be. Now, from

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Speaker 1: what I've understood so far in my study of this

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Speaker 1: comprehensive study of asteroid mining. Uh, they're hoping that they

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Speaker 1: can do a lot of work with robots, which makes

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Speaker 1: perfect sense. You want to have an you want to

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Speaker 1: have these robotic devices to mine and asteroid because, uh,

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Speaker 1: mining mining on its own is dangerous, right, and then

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Speaker 1: you add in the the dangers of space travel, which

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Speaker 1: are numerous and certainly deadly. You do not want to

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Speaker 1: put human lives at risk if you don't have to.

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Speaker 1: So a robotic force makes a lot of sense. I

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Speaker 1: mean it. It certainly takes away from great documentaries like Armageddon,

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Speaker 1: where you know, because I doubt that the robots would

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Speaker 1: all get together and sing leaving on a jet plane.

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Speaker 1: But on the other hand, it means that those lives

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Speaker 1: would be relatively safe. Yeah. You think about this and

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Speaker 1: in the way that you might actually tackle the problem yourself,

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Speaker 1: and you realize that there are several significant challenges. Let's

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Speaker 1: say money as no object. Even getting there challenge is

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Speaker 1: a challenge. Landing on the asteroids safely is going to

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Speaker 1: be a challenge. Mining the asteroids resources another challenge, and

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Speaker 1: then getting back right loading them into your vehicle, which

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Speaker 1: would have to be designed so that not only could

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Speaker 1: it travel to the asteroid, but it could bring a

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Speaker 1: payload back from the asteroid to Earth. Now, granted, when

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Speaker 1: you're not dealing with gravity out in space, that it's

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Speaker 1: a little easier to do in the sense that you

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Speaker 1: don't have to worry about escaping gravity in order to uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, the payload is not gonna affect you in

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Speaker 1: that sense. But there are other issues as well, like

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Speaker 1: how will the mining activity change the behavior of the asteroid. So,

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Speaker 1: if the asteroid, for example, is an orbit around Earth,

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Speaker 1: if you start mining the asteroid, is that going to

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Speaker 1: alter the orbit of the asteroid? Is it going to

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Speaker 1: possibly either push it to a point where it's going

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Speaker 1: away from Earth, which means that you're going to have

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Speaker 1: to take down to consideration, when you're flying back, you're

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Speaker 1: gonna have to make sure you have enough fuel to

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Speaker 1: make it back to Earth um or that you know

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Speaker 1: you've got enough whatever you need enough power there to

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Speaker 1: get back, or if it brings it closer to Earth

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Speaker 1: than you have, the consideration of could this potentially create

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Speaker 1: an impact arc where the asteroid could hit Earth And

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Speaker 1: in some cases, you know, maybe the asteroids of a

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Speaker 1: size that it wouldn't necessarily hold together and perhaps it

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Speaker 1: wouldn't be as big an impact. But anytime you're talking

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Speaker 1: about an impact at that speed, I mean forces mass

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Speaker 1: times acceleration, right, So even if your mass isn't very big,

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Speaker 1: if your acceleration is really high, that's that's a lot

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Speaker 1: of force. So even a relatively small asteroid, if it's

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Speaker 1: not going to burn up, could be pretty the disastrous

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Speaker 1: thing that hit the Earth, especially depending on where, I mean,

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Speaker 1: even in the ocean. Then you're talking about tsunamis things

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Speaker 1: like that. So yeah, there there's that element as well.

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Speaker 1: And when you're mining it, how do you collect what

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Speaker 1: you're mining? That's that's an interesting problem too, because if

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Speaker 1: you're if you're talking about an area where there's no gravity,

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Speaker 1: and let's say you're breaking apart the surface of the

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Speaker 1: asteroid in order to get at some resources underneath, then

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Speaker 1: you have to have some way of catching that stuff

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Speaker 1: as it's floating away. So there's talk about perhaps the

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Speaker 1: would be some sort of canopy system so that you

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Speaker 1: would have essentially like a net that would catch stuff

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Speaker 1: as it flew off the asteroids, so that you didn't

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Speaker 1: lose the resources you're trying to mind, Uh, Frank, you

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Speaker 1: have a lot. And then there's also the case of

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Speaker 1: you know, what is the specific method of mining. Are

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Speaker 1: you using lasers to try and weakend and break apart material,

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Speaker 1: are you using other forms of heat? Are you using chemicals? Um?

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Speaker 1: Are you using physical force? You know that there are

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Speaker 1: a lot of considerations to make, and frankly, no one

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Speaker 1: has come up with the right approach yet because we

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Speaker 1: still haven't tried it. You know, it may very well

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Speaker 1: be that the first dozen times we try to mine

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Speaker 1: asteroids we realize there's got to be a better way

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Speaker 1: because this method is not efficient enough. If the process

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Speaker 1: takes more money, time and effort, then you would uh,

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Speaker 1: then you would have if you tried to get those

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Speaker 1: resources some other way. Then clearly that's not the right answer.

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Speaker 1: That's all you're doing is storing money away. So there

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Speaker 1: are a lot of questions to answer at this point.

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Speaker 1: But let's let's talk a little bit about planetary resources. Now.

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Speaker 1: We've mentioned it a couple of times, and we talked

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Speaker 1: about how people like James Cameron and Eric Schmidt and

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Speaker 1: Larry Page are interested in supporting this company, and you

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Speaker 1: might think, well, why why would we worry about why

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Speaker 1: would we want to support a company that has admitted

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Speaker 1: that the earliest they expect to be able to actually

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Speaker 1: mind an asteroid would be ten years from now. And

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Speaker 1: part of it is that actually is what I've seen,

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Speaker 1: all right, Well, uh, I was reading an article from

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Speaker 1: Forbes and and in the article they did an interview

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Speaker 1: with some executives from Planetary Resources, and they talked about

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Speaker 1: why company this company is an interesting company and why

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Speaker 1: it may be able. And it's already making money now

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Speaker 1: right now, it's making money through investment, but it's also

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Speaker 1: going to It's got revenue generation plans for each step

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Speaker 1: in the journey to having a mining asteroid operation or

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Speaker 1: astro remining operation. I'm having some issues with some word

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Speaker 1: order anyway, order word. The first stage is talking about

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Speaker 1: creating a space faring telescope called the ARKID one hundred,

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Speaker 1: and they're expecting to be able to do this within

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Speaker 1: the next two years. And this is UH telescopes with

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Speaker 1: remote sensing technology. And the idea is to launch around

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Speaker 1: six or so of these telescopes into low Earth orbit

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Speaker 1: and each one would be part of a second It

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Speaker 1: would be a secondary payload. So in other words, you

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Speaker 1: would not send a spacecraft up loaded down with these telescopes,

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Speaker 1: and that's it. Um. Instead, what would happen is, let's

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Speaker 1: say some communications company wants to launch a new communication

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Speaker 1: satellite and enters into a contract with a private company

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Speaker 1: that's going to launch the satellite. Then Planetary Resources could say, hey,

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Speaker 1: you've got this much cargo space left over in the vehicle,

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Speaker 1: can we put one of our telescopes in there with

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Speaker 1: your communication satellite and have it deployed in that same mission.

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Speaker 1: And thus it will save money in that it's not

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Speaker 1: having a dedicated flight just for the telescopes. That's the idea. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: Chris and I have to go digging on some more

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Speaker 1: asteroids in just a moment, but first we're gonna take

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Speaker 1: a quick break to thank our sponsor. So these telescopes

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Speaker 1: would be able to look out into space with the

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Speaker 1: idea that they're they're looking for asteroids, so it's asteroid

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Speaker 1: location identification, uh, that sort of thing. This could be

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Speaker 1: useful for lots of other purposes though, and so the

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Speaker 1: thought behind Planetary Resources is that they could even rent

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Speaker 1: out time on these telescopes for other facilities so that

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Speaker 1: they could do research on, you know whatever, some astronomical

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Speaker 1: approach and so these telescopes, which are you know, when

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Speaker 1: you're floating in space, you've got some you can get

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Speaker 1: some really nice pictures of stuff because you don't have

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Speaker 1: to worry about atmospheric interference and um. And so you

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Speaker 1: might be able to make quite a bit of money

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Speaker 1: essentially leasing out these telescopes. Also, I like the idea

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Speaker 1: that one of the other benefits to this approach is

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Speaker 1: the possibility of being able to identify potentially problematic asteroids

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Speaker 1: much earlier than otherwise we might be able to, because

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Speaker 1: I mean that is that's a legitimate concern as well.

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Speaker 1: There are there are plenty of astronomers out there who

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Speaker 1: say we need to be able to identify asteroids that

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Speaker 1: could potentially become a problem um, and then be able

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Speaker 1: to come up with a solution to that problem. And

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Speaker 1: we talked about that in our our podcast about as

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Speaker 1: could an asteroid destroy the art and what could we

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Speaker 1: do to stop that? As it turns out, blowing it

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Speaker 1: up is the wrong answer, by the way, spoiler alert, UM,

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Speaker 1: that's a great episode. You should listen to it. There's

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Speaker 1: lots of other points we make in it besides don't

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Speaker 1: blow it up. Um. One of the interesting things too

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Speaker 1: about these telescopes is we're not talking about something the

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Speaker 1: size of say that the Hubble telescope. These are actually

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Speaker 1: very small and could be held in your hand, um,

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Speaker 1: and the company expects to that it could cost less

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Speaker 1: than uh ten million dollars, which you know, that's a

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Speaker 1: pretty small amount really when you start talking about space exploration.

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Speaker 1: So it is an easy way for them to, if

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Speaker 1: you'll pardon the pun, get off the ground with the

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Speaker 1: effort and then their next phase, so that our Kid one,

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Speaker 1: phase one, phase two is our KID two hundred series.

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Speaker 1: Now this is of course something you know, even though

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Speaker 1: our Kid one is in the prototype stage or or

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Speaker 1: the research and planning stage, our Kid two hundred would

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Speaker 1: be the next the next generation, and uh these would

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Speaker 1: be equipped with additional stuff on it to help the

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Speaker 1: telescope maintain a higher orbit. So the one series would

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Speaker 1: be in a low Earth orbit, so essentially falling towards

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Speaker 1: the Earth all the time. The two hundred would be

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Speaker 1: in a higher orbit and would be equipped to track

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Speaker 1: asteroids and also have proportional propulsion systems built into the

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Speaker 1: telescope itself so that uh you could change their orientation

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Speaker 1: and orbit path from the ground. So you might think, um,

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Speaker 1: I we spotted this one asteroid, but we're not in

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Speaker 1: an ideal position in order to really hone in on it.

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Speaker 1: So we're going to move the telescope so that we

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Speaker 1: can get a better look. That kind of thing. And

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Speaker 1: then again they would be leasing this out as well.

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Speaker 1: Then you have the three hundred series. That's that's the

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Speaker 1: that's the final phase of the plan, and the three

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Speaker 1: D series is this super cool series. In my opinion,

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Speaker 1: this wills not an official designation then, not officially, I

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Speaker 1: mean maybe internally. They have not communicated that to the press.

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Speaker 1: But the super cool phase involves the ARCID three hundreds,

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Speaker 1: which would be robotic, so they are no longer being

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Speaker 1: controlled from the ground necessarily. They would. It would be

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Speaker 1: a swarm of robotic devices that could work together in

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Speaker 1: a network and communicate with each other. So let's say

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Speaker 1: one spots and asteroid. Suddenly other ones can all hone

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Speaker 1: in on that same asteroid, and all three could be

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Speaker 1: gathering data simultaneously. One might be using spectography to figure

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Speaker 1: out what is that asteroid made of. Others might be

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Speaker 1: taking pictures or plotting the course of the asteroid. So

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Speaker 1: you've got this sort of distributed computing model in space

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Speaker 1: with robotic space probes slowly moving towards the singularity. And

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Speaker 1: then these would be essentially the same sort of robots

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Speaker 1: that would ultimately mine asteroids. They would work together to

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Speaker 1: mind an asteroid. And how they would do that, well,

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Speaker 1: we don't know, because, like I said, we haven't really

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Speaker 1: determined what the best approaches, and even Planetary Resources says

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Speaker 1: we have no idea how we're going to mind the

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Speaker 1: asteroids yet. We know that we're gonna work on that problem,

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Speaker 1: but we've got these other benchmarks we have to meet

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Speaker 1: first before that can even become a consideration. So we're

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Speaker 1: going to focus on achieving these goals, with the ongoing

430
00:25:39,359 --> 00:25:42,439
Speaker 1: goal being let's figure out what the best approaches to

431
00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:47,240
Speaker 1: mind these things. Once we have tracked it UH launched

432
00:25:47,440 --> 00:25:52,080
Speaker 1: a a an intercept path with these these robotic entities,

433
00:25:52,640 --> 00:25:55,520
Speaker 1: and then then we'll fix it out. You know, we'll

434
00:25:55,560 --> 00:25:57,880
Speaker 1: burn that bridge when we come to it. Well, one

435
00:25:57,920 --> 00:26:00,480
Speaker 1: of the UH, one of the goal as though that

436
00:26:00,520 --> 00:26:03,280
Speaker 1: they're working on, is is actually eliminating one of the

437
00:26:03,359 --> 00:26:05,640
Speaker 1: problems that Jonathan and I were talking about a few

438
00:26:05,680 --> 00:26:11,080
Speaker 1: moments ago, because rather than bringing things back to Earth, necessarily.

439
00:26:11,080 --> 00:26:14,520
Speaker 1: They're talking about the idea of creating, well, basically an

440
00:26:14,520 --> 00:26:20,000
Speaker 1: interplanetary gas station. They want to to create a station where, uh,

441
00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:24,240
Speaker 1: once you launch from Earth, you could stop to refuel

442
00:26:24,280 --> 00:26:27,600
Speaker 1: and get more supplies, and the supplies would be replenished

443
00:26:27,640 --> 00:26:34,160
Speaker 1: from asteroid mining. So you know, you could stop platinum,

444
00:26:34,440 --> 00:26:38,760
Speaker 1: some water, some platinum, pick up a a big drink,

445
00:26:39,560 --> 00:26:46,400
Speaker 1: maybe maybe a peak, and log stuckies in space. That's

446
00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:48,560
Speaker 1: gonna make no sense to anyone who doesn't live in

447
00:26:48,560 --> 00:26:50,840
Speaker 1: the Southeast. Yeah, you know, but that's all right, I'm

448
00:26:50,840 --> 00:26:53,440
Speaker 1: okay with that. So United States, I should add, yeah,

449
00:26:53,560 --> 00:26:56,480
Speaker 1: good point. Um. So yeah, I mean that's that's sort

450
00:26:56,520 --> 00:27:01,760
Speaker 1: of the the uh the next step after that the yeah,

451
00:27:02,040 --> 00:27:04,720
Speaker 1: I think uh. I think every glamorous. Every time the

452
00:27:04,800 --> 00:27:09,959
Speaker 1: robots deliver more material to this interstellar gas station, I

453
00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:12,240
Speaker 1: think there should be an alert on Earth, like whatever

454
00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:15,639
Speaker 1: computer is designed to indicate that there's been a new delivery.

455
00:27:15,840 --> 00:27:18,960
Speaker 1: I think that the the verbal alert should be good

456
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:23,200
Speaker 1: news everyone, because I can't believe we've gone this far

457
00:27:23,440 --> 00:27:26,679
Speaker 1: talking about planetary resources and asteroid mining and we haven't

458
00:27:26,800 --> 00:27:32,640
Speaker 1: referenced Futurama yet, so, which is an awesome show, but

459
00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:36,320
Speaker 1: let's also talk about the legality of mining asteroids, because

460
00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:38,119
Speaker 1: this is this is the funny part. This is kind

461
00:27:38,119 --> 00:27:41,080
Speaker 1: of complicate because we're talking about stuff that no one's

462
00:27:41,119 --> 00:27:42,920
Speaker 1: managed to do yet. So really we don't have a

463
00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:46,800
Speaker 1: whole lot of laws about it because well, it really

464
00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:48,840
Speaker 1: wasn't pertinent. You know, there's no reason to make a

465
00:27:48,920 --> 00:27:51,440
Speaker 1: law because who was gonna do it? Yeah, I mean

466
00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:53,960
Speaker 1: it's it's we talk about these kinds of things all

467
00:27:53,960 --> 00:27:59,920
Speaker 1: the time, about uh going undersea and salvaging a wreck. Um, yeah,

468
00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:02,760
Speaker 1: a ship that that sunk, you know, six years ago,

469
00:28:04,119 --> 00:28:06,439
Speaker 1: and depending on whether or not it's in international waters,

470
00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:10,800
Speaker 1: it may fall into that wonderful category of finders keepers

471
00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:13,640
Speaker 1: or or or you know. Do you have the right

472
00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:18,040
Speaker 1: to build a base in Antarctica? Yes, um, you do,

473
00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:21,120
Speaker 1: Yes I do. I've got got a certificate on my wall. Hey,

474
00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:22,840
Speaker 1: because I have the right to do that. I haven't

475
00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:24,919
Speaker 1: done it yet. I tried one in the Arctic, but

476
00:28:24,960 --> 00:28:28,480
Speaker 1: then this thing crashed, and uh, I haven't heard from

477
00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:30,320
Speaker 1: them in a while, So maybe I should check on that.

478
00:28:31,080 --> 00:28:33,600
Speaker 1: There's a great carpenter up there too. I'm gonna check

479
00:28:33,600 --> 00:28:37,879
Speaker 1: and see how how John the carpenter over there is doing. Um. Well,

480
00:28:37,960 --> 00:28:42,000
Speaker 1: that's a lot of references. So so the question is

481
00:28:42,800 --> 00:28:46,520
Speaker 1: if there is an asteroid in space, um, and three

482
00:28:46,600 --> 00:28:49,040
Speaker 1: or four countries want to go mind it, who'se asteroid

483
00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:52,160
Speaker 1: is it to mine? So here's here's where we stand.

484
00:28:52,520 --> 00:28:55,720
Speaker 1: Back in nineteen sixty seven, believe it or not, there

485
00:28:55,920 --> 00:28:59,320
Speaker 1: was a document that was put into law called the

486
00:28:59,360 --> 00:29:03,479
Speaker 1: Outer a Treaty. Now, I'm sure any aliens that exist

487
00:29:03,560 --> 00:29:06,280
Speaker 1: out there would object to not being included in the

488
00:29:06,360 --> 00:29:12,840
Speaker 1: utter Space Treaty. Yeah, and Kodos don't blame me anyway,

489
00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:16,200
Speaker 1: joking aside, there was this, there's really is an Outer

490
00:29:16,240 --> 00:29:20,920
Speaker 1: Space Treaty that was signed in nine and Article too

491
00:29:21,120 --> 00:29:25,320
Speaker 1: specifically states outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies,

492
00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:29,160
Speaker 1: is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty,

493
00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:32,040
Speaker 1: by means or of use or occupation, or by any

494
00:29:32,040 --> 00:29:36,240
Speaker 1: other means. Essentially saying you cannot fly up into space

495
00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:39,440
Speaker 1: and say I claim this asteroid for Spain. You can't do.

496
00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:42,360
Speaker 1: Why you could, but it wouldn't have any legality to it.

497
00:29:43,200 --> 00:29:46,160
Speaker 1: I remember, even if you have a flag at the

498
00:29:46,240 --> 00:29:48,760
Speaker 1: izard vans, even if you have a flag, it does

499
00:29:48,840 --> 00:29:51,239
Speaker 1: not help. Yea, it doesn't work the way it did

500
00:29:51,320 --> 00:29:53,840
Speaker 1: in Duck Dodgers in the twenty four and a half century.

501
00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:55,600
Speaker 1: Like I said, this plan is not big enough for

502
00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:59,920
Speaker 1: the two of us, So off you go. Um, yeah,

503
00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:04,320
Speaker 1: I've seen that cartoon probably I don't know, a hundred

504
00:30:04,320 --> 00:30:07,800
Speaker 1: times at least. Well, I've been mining this here asteroid

505
00:30:07,920 --> 00:30:10,160
Speaker 1: for the last twenty of seven minutes and I just

506
00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:13,880
Speaker 1: discovered there's ads and them the our hills. Let's listen

507
00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:26,200
Speaker 1: to one. According to this, no government agency could claim

508
00:30:26,360 --> 00:30:29,840
Speaker 1: ownership of a celestial body. Uh. It does not cover

509
00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:34,440
Speaker 1: private industry, because that just really wasn't in anyone's mind

510
00:30:34,480 --> 00:30:36,840
Speaker 1: back in nineteen sixty seven. This was during the space

511
00:30:36,960 --> 00:30:40,600
Speaker 1: race between the United States and the USSR the Soviet Union,

512
00:30:40,800 --> 00:30:42,800
Speaker 1: and both were trying to get to the Moon. And

513
00:30:42,840 --> 00:30:45,080
Speaker 1: the thing was they didn't want anybody to say, you know,

514
00:30:45,160 --> 00:30:48,000
Speaker 1: the Moon is our. We got there first, so it's ours.

515
00:30:48,200 --> 00:30:50,280
Speaker 1: You know, we're gonna build military bases all over the

516
00:30:50,280 --> 00:30:52,000
Speaker 1: Moon and you can't do anything about it. Ha han

517
00:30:52,080 --> 00:30:55,959
Speaker 1: nanni booboo. So that was an issue. It was a concern.

518
00:30:56,080 --> 00:30:58,719
Speaker 1: It was a legitimate concern. I mean, who knew where

519
00:30:58,720 --> 00:31:01,200
Speaker 1: the limits could go. I mean, back in nineteen sixty seven.

520
00:31:01,240 --> 00:31:03,560
Speaker 1: We didn't know if we were going to just do

521
00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:06,160
Speaker 1: a quick visit to the Moon or if we were

522
00:31:06,200 --> 00:31:08,960
Speaker 1: going to have a lunar colony. I mean, you know,

523
00:31:09,200 --> 00:31:10,880
Speaker 1: at the time, we had no way of knowing we

524
00:31:10,920 --> 00:31:13,480
Speaker 1: would only send a handful of missions to the Moon

525
00:31:13,520 --> 00:31:15,480
Speaker 1: and that would be it. Well, we were in there.

526
00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:19,560
Speaker 1: We were in a time of of scientific excitement, I

527
00:31:19,560 --> 00:31:21,400
Speaker 1: would say, I mean, they're they're right. People all over

528
00:31:21,440 --> 00:31:23,840
Speaker 1: the world were excited about the idea of going out

529
00:31:23,880 --> 00:31:26,720
Speaker 1: in a space and going and landing on the Moon.

530
00:31:26,920 --> 00:31:28,480
Speaker 1: And we were also in the middle of a the

531
00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:31,720
Speaker 1: Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union,

532
00:31:32,440 --> 00:31:35,959
Speaker 1: where people were concerned about the ideas of weaponizing space.

533
00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:40,400
Speaker 1: Um still are and exactly and so uh, you know

534
00:31:40,520 --> 00:31:42,680
Speaker 1: that this was a very real thing that the Outer

535
00:31:42,720 --> 00:31:46,080
Speaker 1: Space Tree was was signed. Um. But now it's pertinent

536
00:31:46,160 --> 00:31:50,880
Speaker 1: to asteroid mining as well. Yeah. So in general, lawyers,

537
00:31:51,400 --> 00:31:54,040
Speaker 1: who are really the only people we can consult on

538
00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:57,800
Speaker 1: matters of this nature, have said that they think in general,

539
00:31:57,840 --> 00:32:02,120
Speaker 1: most lawyers anyway, so they think that really appropriation means

540
00:32:02,160 --> 00:32:04,920
Speaker 1: that you cannot lay claim to an entire celestial body

541
00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:07,520
Speaker 1: asteroids included, like in other words, you could not land

542
00:32:07,560 --> 00:32:10,120
Speaker 1: on an asteroid and say it was yours. However, you

543
00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:13,040
Speaker 1: there is nothing in that treaty that would prevent you

544
00:32:13,360 --> 00:32:16,600
Speaker 1: from landing on the celestial body and mining the heck

545
00:32:16,640 --> 00:32:19,880
Speaker 1: out of it. So if you landed on an asteroid

546
00:32:19,920 --> 00:32:22,160
Speaker 1: and just started a mining operation, there's nothing in that

547
00:32:22,200 --> 00:32:26,120
Speaker 1: treaty to say that that is illegal. However, you also

548
00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:30,440
Speaker 1: could not, um you couldn't interfere with someone else's mining operation.

549
00:32:30,680 --> 00:32:32,560
Speaker 1: That would be a problem. So if someone has already

550
00:32:32,600 --> 00:32:34,960
Speaker 1: set up a mining operation on an asteroid, you could

551
00:32:34,960 --> 00:32:37,120
Speaker 1: not try and land your mining asteroid right next to

552
00:32:37,160 --> 00:32:40,720
Speaker 1: it and take over. That would be a problem. What

553
00:32:40,800 --> 00:32:42,880
Speaker 1: you could do is land on the other side of

554
00:32:42,880 --> 00:32:45,920
Speaker 1: the asteroid and start mining it from there. There's nothing

555
00:32:45,960 --> 00:32:49,120
Speaker 1: stopping you from doing that, at least nothing in law

556
00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:53,440
Speaker 1: right now. So you could have multiple companies mining the

557
00:32:53,480 --> 00:32:57,240
Speaker 1: same asteroid from different points and it become kind of like,

558
00:32:58,240 --> 00:33:00,520
Speaker 1: well like the Old West, when think of the gold

559
00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:01,920
Speaker 1: rush in the Old West, and you have to think

560
00:33:01,920 --> 00:33:05,400
Speaker 1: of all these different competing groups that we're trying to

561
00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:11,680
Speaker 1: get pretty scarce resources, at least seemingly scarce resources. Uh,

562
00:33:11,720 --> 00:33:14,600
Speaker 1: And you know there were a lot of um, there

563
00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:16,640
Speaker 1: were a lot of a lot of little disagreements that

564
00:33:16,680 --> 00:33:19,880
Speaker 1: popped up as a as a result of that. You

565
00:33:19,960 --> 00:33:22,240
Speaker 1: might have heard of some of them, because the Wild

566
00:33:22,280 --> 00:33:25,880
Speaker 1: West was kind of built on that among other things. Besides,

567
00:33:25,960 --> 00:33:27,480
Speaker 1: you know, it wasn't just the gold rush, but that

568
00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:29,600
Speaker 1: played a really large part. Well, we could see an

569
00:33:29,600 --> 00:33:36,200
Speaker 1: equivalent asteroid rush. If someone, let's say, Planetary Resources, identifies

570
00:33:36,240 --> 00:33:39,680
Speaker 1: an asteroid that is particularly rich with something like platinum,

571
00:33:39,760 --> 00:33:42,800
Speaker 1: something that is really scarce on Earth, there could be

572
00:33:42,840 --> 00:33:45,440
Speaker 1: a real rush to try and mind that as much

573
00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:48,920
Speaker 1: as possible because it could be extremely profitable. Uh So,

574
00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:51,920
Speaker 1: you might have multiple companies all hitting that asteroid at

575
00:33:51,960 --> 00:33:54,560
Speaker 1: the same time. As long as you're not interfering with

576
00:33:54,760 --> 00:33:58,720
Speaker 1: the other people, it's all fair game according to the treaty.

577
00:33:58,760 --> 00:34:01,240
Speaker 1: And then once you start interfere in there and there's problems. Now,

578
00:34:01,320 --> 00:34:03,880
Speaker 1: I would suspect that once we get closer to the

579
00:34:03,960 --> 00:34:08,120
Speaker 1: reality of mining and asteroid we will see more laws

580
00:34:08,239 --> 00:34:12,200
Speaker 1: put into place that clarify this because and again, it's

581
00:34:12,200 --> 00:34:14,120
Speaker 1: really hard to make a law about something that we

582
00:34:14,280 --> 00:34:17,080
Speaker 1: just can't do yet, and we we can start thinking

583
00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:19,160
Speaker 1: about it, however, and I think that's the important thing

584
00:34:19,200 --> 00:34:22,640
Speaker 1: is to start considering the various scenarios that could come

585
00:34:22,640 --> 00:34:27,879
Speaker 1: out if asteroid mining becomes a reality, and anticipating that

586
00:34:28,719 --> 00:34:30,719
Speaker 1: so that we can make laws that makes sense and

587
00:34:30,760 --> 00:34:35,399
Speaker 1: protect the parties involved without giving preferential treatment to anyone. Um.

588
00:34:35,440 --> 00:34:39,560
Speaker 1: It will also be interesting to see what happens if

589
00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:42,680
Speaker 1: let's say that you find an asteroid that is positively

590
00:34:42,800 --> 00:34:46,120
Speaker 1: latent with an element that is incredibly rare on Earth,

591
00:34:46,160 --> 00:34:49,320
Speaker 1: like platinum? Uh, what does that do to the price

592
00:34:49,400 --> 00:34:52,360
Speaker 1: of platinum? Would that actually impact the price? Would it

593
00:34:52,400 --> 00:34:57,120
Speaker 1: affect profitability? Yeah, deep impact on the price of platinum.

594
00:34:57,360 --> 00:35:01,960
Speaker 1: But would it would it possibly affect the price? Would it?

595
00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:04,640
Speaker 1: Would that affect the profitability of the venture? In other words,

596
00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:08,360
Speaker 1: could you actually be making less money mining because you

597
00:35:08,400 --> 00:35:11,759
Speaker 1: have just made a scarce resource less scarce? Now, the

598
00:35:11,800 --> 00:35:16,800
Speaker 1: planetary resources people said, look, we're going to be uh,

599
00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:20,279
Speaker 1: we're going to be affected by the whole uh uh

600
00:35:20,840 --> 00:35:24,319
Speaker 1: scarcity issue and the whole supply versus demand issue, just

601
00:35:24,360 --> 00:35:27,759
Speaker 1: like anyone would be. However, we're seeing this less as

602
00:35:27,800 --> 00:35:33,080
Speaker 1: a scarcity solution as it is an access solution because

603
00:35:33,080 --> 00:35:36,120
Speaker 1: we need access to these materials. So, in other words,

604
00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:40,680
Speaker 1: are our business should be profitable because we're giving companies

605
00:35:40,760 --> 00:35:44,759
Speaker 1: access to materials they otherwise would not have. It's not that,

606
00:35:45,120 --> 00:35:48,520
Speaker 1: you know, we're talking about scarcity versus versus uh, whether

607
00:35:48,560 --> 00:35:52,000
Speaker 1: it's it's plentiful, it's just really you need this, We've

608
00:35:52,040 --> 00:35:55,920
Speaker 1: got it, we'll get it to you. So it's kind

609
00:35:55,920 --> 00:35:57,839
Speaker 1: of which is kind of just really just looking at

610
00:35:57,880 --> 00:36:00,960
Speaker 1: the same issue from a slightly different perspect now, whether

611
00:36:01,080 --> 00:36:03,800
Speaker 1: or not that will hold true, or whether we'll see

612
00:36:04,040 --> 00:36:09,560
Speaker 1: mining companies, you know, be initially incredibly successful and then

613
00:36:09,680 --> 00:36:12,120
Speaker 1: end up falling into pieces because the stuff that they

614
00:36:12,160 --> 00:36:17,080
Speaker 1: supply is so relatively plentiful that there's no longer demand

615
00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:19,560
Speaker 1: for it that remains to be seen. I honestly don't

616
00:36:19,600 --> 00:36:21,400
Speaker 1: think that that's something they're gonna have to worry about

617
00:36:21,480 --> 00:36:25,160
Speaker 1: for probably two decades, you know, that first decade, just

618
00:36:25,160 --> 00:36:26,920
Speaker 1: getting to the point where they can mind an asteroid

619
00:36:26,920 --> 00:36:29,479
Speaker 1: in the second decade, worrying about how that's gonna fall

620
00:36:29,520 --> 00:36:31,719
Speaker 1: out as far as supply versus demand, because it's just

621
00:36:31,800 --> 00:36:35,279
Speaker 1: fall out. Huh, it's just not going to be uh.

622
00:36:35,480 --> 00:36:37,359
Speaker 1: I don't think it's gonna be an issue, at least

623
00:36:37,400 --> 00:36:39,759
Speaker 1: not in the short term. But it's fascinating to think

624
00:36:39,760 --> 00:36:43,280
Speaker 1: about nonetheless, and my favorite thing is just thinking about

625
00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:46,480
Speaker 1: mining asteroids for water. I mean, that could be a

626
00:36:46,719 --> 00:36:50,560
Speaker 1: huge benefit and and something that's truly necessary if we

627
00:36:50,600 --> 00:36:53,080
Speaker 1: want to do a lot of interplanetary travel and and

628
00:36:53,160 --> 00:36:57,480
Speaker 1: set up a colony somewhere else, because otherwise, the idea

629
00:36:57,520 --> 00:37:02,520
Speaker 1: of having to send regular, uh regular missions filled with

630
00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:06,840
Speaker 1: water so that whoever is living wherever can continue to survive,

631
00:37:07,280 --> 00:37:12,640
Speaker 1: that's that's hard. Yeah, well, it's it's expensive to uh,

632
00:37:12,840 --> 00:37:16,799
Speaker 1: you know, basically launched water into space. It's heavy. And

633
00:37:16,880 --> 00:37:20,600
Speaker 1: also I can imagine that there's an ethical problem too,

634
00:37:21,040 --> 00:37:23,719
Speaker 1: because you have so many people on the planet right

635
00:37:23,719 --> 00:37:26,080
Speaker 1: now who do not have access to clean drinking water.

636
00:37:26,560 --> 00:37:31,040
Speaker 1: That to suggest shooting clean drinking water into space for

637
00:37:31,200 --> 00:37:35,080
Speaker 1: someone else, there's an ethical question that you there's not

638
00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:37,839
Speaker 1: easy to answer. I agree. Now, if there's a way

639
00:37:37,880 --> 00:37:41,040
Speaker 1: of bringing that water from asteroids back to Earth so

640
00:37:41,080 --> 00:37:45,160
Speaker 1: that there's more clean water, then that's that's not so bad. However,

641
00:37:45,560 --> 00:37:48,560
Speaker 1: really clean water again, just like just like the other issues,

642
00:37:48,560 --> 00:37:51,920
Speaker 1: it's not really a scarcity problem. It's an access problem. Right.

643
00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:54,400
Speaker 1: So we've got enough clean water right now to to

644
00:37:54,600 --> 00:37:57,400
Speaker 1: help out everybody, but not everyone has access to it,

645
00:37:57,920 --> 00:38:00,680
Speaker 1: So that's a perfect example of I was talking about

646
00:38:00,719 --> 00:38:04,000
Speaker 1: before about scarcity versus access. But there there's more to

647
00:38:04,120 --> 00:38:08,359
Speaker 1: it than just drinking water for astronauts because they they're

648
00:38:08,360 --> 00:38:11,560
Speaker 1: talking about the possibility of breaking water down into its

649
00:38:11,640 --> 00:38:15,440
Speaker 1: exygen and hydrogen. Oxygen and hydrogen for fuel. You can

650
00:38:15,520 --> 00:38:18,440
Speaker 1: use that in fuel cells. Also oxygen you can use

651
00:38:18,440 --> 00:38:19,600
Speaker 1: I don't know if you know this, but you can

652
00:38:19,680 --> 00:38:23,080
Speaker 1: use it for breathing. But yeah, it's not just helium.

653
00:38:23,120 --> 00:38:26,800
Speaker 1: Are you serious? Yeah, that's I've been doing it for years.

654
00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:30,040
Speaker 1: I highly recommend it. I have to try. I tried

655
00:38:30,080 --> 00:38:32,319
Speaker 1: cutting it off after a while, but that did not

656
00:38:32,440 --> 00:38:34,840
Speaker 1: go well. Yeah, I heard it. You were kind of

657
00:38:34,840 --> 00:38:37,520
Speaker 1: blue after that? Yeah, no, I was. I was, you know,

658
00:38:37,560 --> 00:38:40,239
Speaker 1: I was. There's there's just a time in my life

659
00:38:40,280 --> 00:38:42,239
Speaker 1: where I was just feeling a little suffocated, you know.

660
00:38:42,520 --> 00:38:47,719
Speaker 1: So anyway, enough of that. Weird, we're being silly. Well,

661
00:38:47,760 --> 00:38:52,840
Speaker 1: it's it's a fun topic to talk about and definitely

662
00:38:53,280 --> 00:38:55,160
Speaker 1: but it has spawned a lot of jokes and references.

663
00:38:55,239 --> 00:38:59,200
Speaker 1: But I'm interested to see how how far they can

664
00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:02,080
Speaker 1: take it to see them actually succeed in it. Just

665
00:39:02,760 --> 00:39:06,080
Speaker 1: yea to watch, and it's going to be expensive though,

666
00:39:06,120 --> 00:39:08,560
Speaker 1: and honestly, we do have to come up with something

667
00:39:08,719 --> 00:39:11,200
Speaker 1: along the lines of asteroid mining if we want to

668
00:39:11,239 --> 00:39:15,400
Speaker 1: really make interplanetary travel a reality, because uh, it's just

669
00:39:15,520 --> 00:39:20,160
Speaker 1: not feasible to to do everything from Earth and and

670
00:39:20,200 --> 00:39:23,480
Speaker 1: rely upon that. Now, granted, we may also get to

671
00:39:23,520 --> 00:39:27,080
Speaker 1: a point where we land on another celestial body that

672
00:39:27,160 --> 00:39:32,200
Speaker 1: has its own natural resources that we can exploit. So planet, yes,

673
00:39:32,560 --> 00:39:35,279
Speaker 1: so Mars may not be that planet. There might not

674
00:39:35,360 --> 00:39:36,759
Speaker 1: be a whole lot on Mars that we could use,

675
00:39:36,800 --> 00:39:39,640
Speaker 1: but there might be a moon, a moon somewhere that

676
00:39:39,680 --> 00:39:42,160
Speaker 1: would be you know, that might have some resources that

677
00:39:42,200 --> 00:39:47,840
Speaker 1: we could exploit. Um, so there's always that possibility as well.

678
00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:50,680
Speaker 1: But that's definitely something that we have to develop in

679
00:39:50,800 --> 00:39:54,680
Speaker 1: order for interplanetary travel to become a reality. So it

680
00:39:54,840 --> 00:39:56,720
Speaker 1: is in the future if we want this to happen.

681
00:39:57,520 --> 00:40:00,000
Speaker 1: And uh, I am really curious to see I would

682
00:40:00,120 --> 00:40:02,640
Speaker 1: love to be able to revisit this in ten years

683
00:40:03,320 --> 00:40:06,880
Speaker 1: and see how planetary resources went. That wraps up another

684
00:40:06,960 --> 00:40:12,480
Speaker 1: classic episode of tech stuff those scamps. I hope you

685
00:40:12,480 --> 00:40:15,880
Speaker 1: guys enjoyed that episode, and if you have any questions

686
00:40:15,960 --> 00:40:19,000
Speaker 1: or suggestions for future episodes, send me an email. The

687
00:40:19,040 --> 00:40:22,360
Speaker 1: addresses tech stuff at how stuff works dot com or

688
00:40:22,480 --> 00:40:25,440
Speaker 1: pop on over to our website that's tech stuff podcast

689
00:40:25,520 --> 00:40:27,719
Speaker 1: dot com. There you're gonna find links to all of

690
00:40:27,719 --> 00:40:32,360
Speaker 1: our old episodes as well as to our social media presence,

691
00:40:33,000 --> 00:40:35,759
Speaker 1: and also a link to our merchandise store. So go

692
00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:38,280
Speaker 1: check those out see if there's anything there that really

693
00:40:38,640 --> 00:40:42,640
Speaker 1: tickles your fancy. But leave that out of your any

694
00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:44,400
Speaker 1: emails you send me. I don't I don't need to

695
00:40:44,440 --> 00:40:47,640
Speaker 1: hear that your fancy got tickled. I'll talk to you

696
00:40:47,719 --> 00:40:54,960
Speaker 1: again really soon. Text Stuff is a production of I

697
00:40:55,040 --> 00:40:58,000
Speaker 1: Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more podcasts from my

698
00:40:58,120 --> 00:41:01,759
Speaker 1: heart Radio, visit the I heart rate, vio app, Apple Podcasts,

699
00:41:01,880 --> 00:41:08,440
Speaker 1: orherever you listen to your favorite shows. H