Skeptic Check: Asteroid Mining

Big Picture Science

Science, Technology

4.6 • 986 Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2024

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Asteroids are rich in precious metals and other valuable resources. But mining them presents considerable challenges. We discuss these, and consider how these spinning, rocky resources might be the key to a space-faring future. But an economist points out the consequences of bringing material back to Earth, and a scientist raises an ethical question; do we have an obligation to keep the asteroids intact for science? Guests: Jim Bell - Planetary scientist in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University. Martin Elvis - Astronomer and author of “Asteroids: How Love, Fear, and Greed Will Determine Our Future in Space.” Ian Lange - Economist and associate professor at the Colorado School of Mines and author of a paper on the feasibility of asteroid mining. Featuring music by Dewey Dellay and Jun Miyake You can get early access to ad-free versions of every episode by joining us on Patreon. Thanks for your support! Big Picture Science is part of the Airwave Media podcast network. Please contact [email protected] to inquire about advertising on Big Picture Science. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to an airwave media podcast.
0:05.0	Get ready to geek out.
0:07.0	The Wired Science Podcast explores all the latest and greatest in science,
0:12.0	everything from strange diseases and biological breakthroughs
0:15.6	to interesting tech and mysteries in outer space.
0:18.7	Listen to Wired Science today
0:20.5	wherever you get your podcasts.
0:22.2	That's Wired Science, wherever you get your podcasts. That's Wired Science wherever you get your
0:24.5	podcasts. The world is filled with many questions such as did giants exist?
0:29.7	What is junk DNA? Does it mean that you're trash?
0:33.0	Do you ever wonder if aliens have underwater bases in our oceans and that's why there are so many
0:38.3	UFO sightings off the coast of islands all over the world? How serious even is climate change and when should we start building our rafts?
0:47.0	Hello everyone, you may recognize me as Gabby from the History of Everything podcast.
0:51.0	And my name is Brenna, and you don't recognize me from anything yet.
0:55.0	Together we're two scientists who explore the answers to these questions and many
0:59.0	many more in our new podcast Mystery of Everything Available everywhere you get your podcasts. Astronomers like me value asteroids for the clues they hold to the formation of our
1:19.9	solar system. In popular culture, however, space rocks are often bad guys.
1:27.0	Now, we get hit all the time by rocks and meteors, some of them the size of cars, some no bigger than your hand.
1:34.7	But this comet is larger than Mount Everest.
1:37.0	It weighs 500 billion tons.
1:42.2	But asteroids may be getting a bum-wrapped because they are, in fact, extremely
1:46.3	valuable to everyone, not just astronomers.
	...

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