Marrying asteroid defense and asteroid mining

Part of Sagan's (and others) concern is that the consequences of any
asteroid mishap could be catastrophic. You don't get an opportunity
to perfect your technique. You have to be perfect the first time. A
mistake could kill millions or billions, dwarfing Chernobyl or Three
Mile Island. And we make tons of mistakes. We could, I suppose
practice placing asteroids around Jupiter or Mars or something first,
but committees here on Earth would probably vote that down as a waste
of money that could be spent building pork-barrel projects here on
Earth in committee members' Congressional districts.

The debates on this list alone make it clear that there will be
vastly different religious and moral views in space, as on Earth, and
therefore there is the risk of some space settlement arising that
hates the Earth for it's moral decadence. If such a society could
gain control of Asteroid moving technology, they could theoretically
wipe us out. Personally, I'm skeptical that a fanatical society will
be able to operate a colony successfully for at least the next couple
of hundred years. I can't imagine well financed governments here on
Earth allowing anyone else that kind of control. Security against
asteroids and nukes and such will be a prime reason, but also the
rich governments and the big corporations they control will want any
profits that come from zero G manufacturing and asteroid mining.

On a different note: Just read that the Hubble telescope has gone
offline. The decision's already been made to abandon it next year, so
if they can't reboot it, it's probably dead for good.

doug

On Jun 24, 2006, at 12:22 PM, Don Davis wrote: