” … Well, I dreamed I saw the knights
In armor coming,
Saying something about a queen.
There were peasants singing and
Drummers drumming
And the archer split the tree.
There was a fanfare blowing
To the sun
That was floating on the breeze.
Look at Mother Nature on the run
In the nineteen seventies.
Look at Mother Nature on the run
In the nineteen seventies.
I was lying in a burned out basement
With the full moon in my eyes.
I was hoping for replacement
When the sun burst thru the sky.
There was a band playing in my head
And I felt like getting high.
I was thinking about what a
Friend had said
I was hoping it was a lie.
Thinking about what a
Friend had said
I was hoping it was a lie.
Well, I dreamed I saw the silver
Space ships flying
In the yellow haze of the sun,
There were children crying
And colors flying
All around the chosen ones.
All in a dream, all in a dream
The loading had begun.
They were flying Mother Nature’s
Silver seed to a new home in the sun.
Flying Mother Nature’s
Silver seed to a new home…
with regards to neil young ….
SPACE mining priceless asteroids …. (link)
Diamonds found in meteorite from 4.5 BILLION year old planet … A galactic gold rush has been predicted for some time, with experts saying teams will race against each other to collect precious metals from space rocks.
Earlier this year, one physicist described asteroids as “flying gold mines in outer space” that could replenish any metal shortage on Earth. Examples of valuable asteroids include one rock measuring 3,000ft across that contains $5.4 trillion worth of platinum. And now it is predicted the first trillionaire will make their fortune in outer space.
The Asteroid Belt is worth a staggering $700 QUINTILLION … “The first trillionaire there will ever be is the person who exploits the natural resources on asteroids” … says Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist) … “The first trillionaire there will ever be is the person who exploits the natural resources on asteroids.
“There’s this vast universe of limitless energy and limitless resources. “I look at wars fought over access to resources. That could be a thing of the past, once space becomes our backyard.” A fortune of a trillion would make them wealthier than the world’s richest men….
One finance company has also been closely monitoring the space mining market. The investment bank said in a recent statement: “While the psychological barrier to mining asteroids is high, the actual financial and technological barriers are far lower.
“Prospecting probes can likely be built for tens of millions of dollars each and Caltech has suggested an asteroid-linkup spacecraft could cost $2.6 billion.”
At the moment, the idea to bring back these flying metals is by private companies. However, this looks set to change after Luxembourg established the Space Resources Initiative. The country’s government is planning to dole out millions in funding to companies looking to exploit space’s natural resources.
Our goal is to put into place an overall framework for the exploration and commercial use of resources from ‘celestial bodies’ such as asteroids, or from the moon,” commented Etienne Schneider, Luxembourg’s deputy prime minister and minister of the economy.
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from the (“mostly real, not fake”) Sputnik news agency:
As space exploring goes to phase 2, the first contracts for the manufacture of key components for humanity’s Gateway orbital lunar base will be awarded in 2019 ( according to the US public agency NASA).
“Moon Colonization: Why Do We Want It and What Technologies Do We Have?” … Expected to begin next year, a big push to reignite space exploration will see landmark awards for contractors to begin building humanity’s first orbital moon base, according to NASA.
Intended to be used as a staging area for deep-space exploration and study, the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-G) will orbit the moon, and operate as a jumping-off point for manned Mars exhibitions, as well as to the asteroid belt and other planets.
Contracts for power and propulsion systems will be announced, as well as those for habitation and life-support, according to a Thursday statement from NASA associate administrator William Gerstenmaier during the 2018 Space Symposium conference in Colorado.
Infrastructure elements of the Gateway lunar base will be launched and nudged into orbit around Earth’s only natural satellite beginning in 2022, according to NASA.
In November 2017, NASA announced the selection of five aerospace companies to develop new technologies for a radically-improved solar-electric propulsion system for deep-space missions, including LOP-G. Upcoming space missions must use propulsion systems that — at a minimum — triple the solar-electric power output of current technologies.
The orbital platform should be operational by 2025, hosting a rotating four-cosmonaut crew on 30-day missions, cited by Bloomberg. Seeking to better understand “orbital mechanics around the moon,” Gerstenmaier noted the wealth of data to be gleaned from “doing things in this region, where gravity isn’t such a big driver,” also observing that human space exploration away from the gravitational well of the earth would be a “different way of operating.”
Noting that huge cash outlays — often the bane of federally-funded space exploration — are not currently necessary, Gernstenmaier remarked that LOP-G has “fiscal realism, and it’s also adaptable,” cited by Bloomberg.
“It can adapt to commercial partners. It’s not a rigid program of one mission following another,” he added, in reference to the expensive US Apollo space program. Gernstenmaier appeared to openly refute comments made by US President Donald Trump, after the latter declared that funding for the international consortium that manages the ISS should be discontinued.
“We think [the ISS is] a great place to do development,” the NASA official asserted. “To do major development in the vicinity of the moon is really costly.”
The LOP-G cislunar space station is a collaboration of global partners who developed and currently maintain the International Space Station, including the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA, Russia’s Roscosmos, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
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