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Message: <blockquote data-quote="UngainlyTitan" data-source="post: 7401753" data-attributes="member: 28487"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiterhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiterhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_pointhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point</a>I find some of the basic premises implausible. The big issue with space is radiation from cosmic rays and from the solar wind. You need 12 to 16 meters of stuff (water will do) between the inner skin of your spaceship/habitat to be safe and otherwise you time limit your exposure. Space is also frikkin huge. I have never sat down and checked the maths of the Expanse but I do wonder if they are on the optimistic side.For these reasons i do not believe there will ever be flesh and blood asteroid miners. It is a very expensive way to play Russian Roulette. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_tractor" target="_blank">Robotic gravity tugs</a> will drag the asteroids slowly to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point" target="_blank">earth sun Lagrange points</a> Where gigantic concentrator mirrors will melt whole asteroids and they cool out in the various mineral layers. Which are then strip mined by automated machine. Humans in space are going to on the Moon, Mars under meters of radiation shielding, possibly in the clouds of Venus assuming the atmosphere above them give adequate radiation shielding. Also assuming that other issues with living in space are solved. Earth orbit is a bad place to try and block solar radiation, because some of the time the satellites are on the night side. The Earth Sun L1 Lagrange point is much better.   Exponentially increasing computation for block chain mining is a design feature of Bitcoin and a problematic one, IMHO. Not likely to be a long term thing. So deploying a solar sail at L1 looks like a good idea so how did go wrong. Well it was put is place by a consortium of rich Americans with out government sanction and there was a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter" target="_blank">metric to imperial conversion error</a>. The sail was too big and blocked too much of the SunIt triggered a global ice age. The US tech elite fled to space and mostly live in Low Earth orbital habitats built by Bigelow Space, some in a Lunar base on the Lunar south pole mining water and Elon Musk had begun his Mars colony before the solar umbrella was unfolded. So most of north America, Europe, Russia and anything in the northern shadow of the Himalayas is uninhabitable. China was badly disrupted by the change, the LEO colonies make they money by hosting server farms for GPS,VR and ecommerce as well as the transit for some needed but valuable rare elements obtained from the automated asteroid mining. India was less badly affected and is now the leading global power and looks like regaining  the space capabilities once held by the USA a century ago. Nigeria and Brazil its nearest rival, with China once again gathering strength.I may, if you are interested post more tomorrow when I have had some sleep. it is well past my bedtime.</blockquote>

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