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2010-12-24 Science & Technology
Discovery of New Molecule Could Lead to More Efficient Rocket Fuel
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Posted by  Anonymoose 2010-12-24 00:00|| || Front Page|| [1 views ]  Top

#1 Just make sure to tell the world about its existance and how to make it so they can use it against us, OK?
Posted by gorb 2010-12-24 00:23||   2010-12-24 00:23|| Front Page Top

#2 Gorb: In this case, this could be "Bigger than Buckyballs" (I think I'm going to trademark that phrase), so trying to keep it proprietary isn't going to happen.

Turned into a practical rocket fuel, this could create an industrial revolution for the private space industry, and open up the inner solar system.

Asteroid 433 Eros is only 105 million miles from Earth at perihelion, and its orbit is just a little less than two years. We've already landed a probe on it. And it has far more precious metals (like platinum group) in it than the entire crust of the Earth. Not bad for only being 21 miles x 7 x 7 in size.

We would be more than happy to land a robot ship on it to mine and concentrate ore into a big ball of mixed metal, then use the spin of 433 Eros to "throw" it vaguely in the direction of Earth. Moved into orbit, we could then carve off pieces of it to carry down to the surface.

Rhodium is $2500/oz. Platinum is $1730/oz. Ruthenium about $1500/oz. And the other platinum groups are all about $750/oz. On Earth, a high grade platinum mine has 3 ppm concentration, and that is rare.
Posted by  Anonymoose 2010-12-24 08:34||   2010-12-24 08:34|| Front Page Top

#3 I'm with you there, 'moose, but don't forget to have a carload of ear protection ready when all of the usual suspects start to howl their "common heritage of all mankind" (aka "give us free stuff") bullcrap...
Posted by PBMcL 2010-12-24 10:59||   2010-12-24 10:59|| Front Page Top

#4 Watch out for all the nut bags screaming DESTROYING OUR PLANET'S DELICATE BALANCE It's amazing just how little the Nut bags really know (Not to be confused by what they THINK they know)
As a matter of fact the earth vacuums up several tons a day in Micro-meteoroids, and nobody notices but Astronomers.
Posted by Redneck Jim 2010-12-24 12:03||   2010-12-24 12:03|| Front Page Top

#5 On the 'very good' side, existing Rocket fuel contains some nasty stuff, e.g., ammonium perchlorate. The EPA has been threatening to restrict (or essentially shut down) rocket launches because of that.
Posted by Lord Garth 2010-12-24 13:38||   2010-12-24 13:38|| Front Page Top

#6 Getting it out of orbit ought to be interesting.
Posted by gorb 2010-12-24 16:29||   2010-12-24 16:29|| Front Page Top

23:02 Barbara Skolaut
22:59 Barbara Skolaut
22:40 Thing From Snowy Mountain
22:20 Nimble Spemble
21:37 Nimble Spemble
21:32 gorb
21:30 gorb
21:27 Barbara Skolaut
21:22 Barbara Skolaut
19:52 rjschwarz
17:58 john frum
16:57 Thing From Snowy Mountain
16:42 Thing From Snowy Mountain
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16:24 Rambler in Virginia
16:23 Mullah Richard
15:37 Steve White
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15:33 Dede
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14:49  Anonymoose
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