asteroid mining

[doodle]

It seems to me that there is a very real possibility that mining asteroids will happen within many of our lifetimes. The fact that 433 Eros, the asteroid NASA investigated contains more gold than ever extracted on Earth poses a threat to 1/4 of our portfolio. I think inflation future inflation hedges will need to be diversified away from hard assets being that their abundance could suddenly skyrocket.

I used to think that asteroid mining was a ridiculous notion and an impossible feat. I no longer feel that way. Any thoughts and ideas?

[dualstow]

Just about anything's possible, eventually.

I'm still excited about the whole idea and would love to see it happen. If I lose money because of it, so be it. Hopefully, I'll make money on the stock side of it.

Your previous thread on the subject: http://gyroscopicinvesting.com/forum/go ... id-mining/

[Pointedstick]

I don't think so. Asteroids may have a ton of gold, but even if we start mining it, the cost of mining and getting that gold back to Earth will be (ahem) astronomically high. For it to be worth mining, I suspect that the cost would actually have to rise to cover the extremely high expense involved, unless of course we develop an incredibly inexpensive way to move mass to and from space, which would be revolutionary in countless ways.

[Tortoise]

I don't think so. Asteroids may have a ton of gold, but even if we start mining it, the cost of mining and getting that gold back to Earth will be (ahem) astronomically high. For it to be worth mining, I suspect that the cost would actually have to rise to cover the extremely high expense involved, unless of course we develop an incredibly inexpensive way to move mass to and from space, which would be revolutionary in countless ways.

My guess is that if we get to that point technologically, we'd see prices drop dramatically for all sorts of natural resources and products--not just gold. Because if we could send probes out into deep space to mine gold and bring it back to Earth, think of all the other resources we could be having those probes mine or collect as well. Not to mention the increased productivity here on Earth due to the massive technological improvements required to build probes like that.

[Kriegsspiel]

Whatever happens, that sounds like a pretty sweet time to be alive.