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Billionaires In Space

Hook said:
For me, the most interesting part of today’s launch was the press conference afterwards. Bezos has a clear vision of what reusable rockets can enable. He wants to move all highly polluting heavy industry into space so we can stop destroying our atmosphere.
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Maybe I just don't have his vision, but I'm seeing a few practical difficulties in relocating the steel, aluminium smelting, and concrete industries to space. AIUI they are some of the biggiest hitters in terms of global warming impact.
 
I wonder if Mr Bezos is familiar with the ship from the Flesh Gordon film?

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Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
Maybe I just don't have his vision, but I'm seeing a few practical difficulties in relocating the steel, aluminium smelting, and concrete industries to space. AIUI they are some of the biggiest hitters in terms of global warming impact.
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No doubt the challenges are immense, and obviously none of those industries could be moved to space with today's technology. So maybe we start elsewhere. We are getting pretty good at high speed wireless data transmission, so maybe we'll see giant solar-powered data centers in space? Am thinking long-term data archives. Would love to see something like this happen in my lifetime.

IMO, the important thing right now is continuing forward momentum by ensuring future projects are well-funded. If that means sending wealthy people on short, expensive joy rides into space, then so be it.
 
I was impressed I have to say. Just shows how much the US government/taxpayer was fleeced by NASA and their contractors...think of a figure and 5x it would have been the order of the day back then I suspect.
 
If they want, let them fly, let them pay huge amounts of money for the benefit of the development of the aerospace industry. We must spend billions somewhere.
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
Maybe I just don't have his vision, but I'm seeing a few practical difficulties in relocating the steel, aluminium smelting, and concrete industries to space. AIUI they are some of the biggiest hitters in terms of global warming impact.
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Aluminum and steel smelting should be located near geothernal heat source (see Iceland).
Alternatives to portland cement, that produce far less CO2 during production are already being developed: https://ensia.com/articles/how-can-we-reduce-concretes-hefty-carbon-footprint/

Even if we could relocate these industries to the moon how would we get the materials back to earth without enormous atmospheric damage. Bezos seems to have his head in the clouds compared to the much more practical approach of Bill Gates.
 
sean99 said:
Aluminum and steel smelting should be located near geothernal heat source (see Iceland).
Alternatives to portland cement, that produce far less CO2 during production are already being developed: https://ensia.com/articles/how-can-we-reduce-concretes-hefty-carbon-footprint/

Even if we could relocate these industries to the moon how would we get the materials back to earth without enormous atmospheric damage. Bezos seems to have his head in the clouds compared to the much more practical approach of Bill Gates.
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Yes, that's broadly where I am on this. No doubt if technology continues at the current rate, we'll move out and mine the asteroids, etc, in generations to come, and then processing the raw materials in situ will make sense. But getting the raw materials off-planet to process them in orbit, then returning them to Earth, doesn't make a great deal of sense to me. Heavy industry is what it is. Lifting it into orbit isn't an obvious solution.

Far better, as you say, to put solar (or nuclear) powered datacentres in space with high speed downlinks. Did you know, for example, that the current energy budget for processing the Bitcoin blockchain, is about the same as the annual electricity demand of Denmark? That's unsustainable, and a bit scary. If the power to support the blockchain isn't sustainable, in a few short years, it'll eclipse steel, aluminium and concrete for CO2 emissions.
 
Did you know, for example, that the current energy budget for processing the Bitcoin blockchain, is about the same as the annual electricity demand of Denmark?
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Which is why you should never buy a "used" Graphics card these days. (unless it's from a reliable source)
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
Did you know, for example, that the current energy budget for processing the Bitcoin blockchain, is about the same as the annual electricity demand of Denmark? That's unsustainable, and a bit scary. If the power to support the blockchain isn't sustainable, in a few short years, it'll eclipse steel, aluminium and concrete for CO2 emissions.
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You may not be aware, but just recently a lot of mining has been shifted to the US since China clamped down on it (responsible for most of the coal burning) renewables are the go to source in the US, they're even harnessing the methane flares from oil drilling- so not only solar, hydro and wind but stuff that would actually be wasted completely. All in the space of literally weeks.

 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
Far better, as you say, to put solar (or nuclear) powered datacentres in space with high speed downlinks. Did you know, for example, that the current energy budget for processing the Bitcoin blockchain, is about the same as the annual electricity demand of Denmark? That's unsustainable, and a bit scary. If the power to support the blockchain isn't sustainable, in a few short years, it'll eclipse steel, aluminium and concrete for CO2 emissions.
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Cooling in space is hard, you only have radiative cooling
 
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