Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I don't have 60 minutes.  Do you have a synopsis?

I don't have 60 minutes, there was college basketball to watch tonight
and I don't want to watch on X

The first time we're able to extract all the precious minerals from one asteroid will dwarf the lifetime cost of space exploration like 100-fold. 

Well, I've seen those same articles about one asteroid containing 20 quintillion dollars of some material, but what you have to consider is that if you did inflate the supply beyond what demand is there the cost would go down.  There is only going to be so much demand for "X" mineral, even something like gold.  Part of the price is that it's so rare.  Make it less rare, the prices goes down.  

It would be a pretty good thing to park a small asteroid at an L5 point IF we could actually extract and process the metals within it, and then ship them down to Earth (or Mars).  This is something visionary, but decades off, at best.

It would also be pretty good if we had the tech and ability to redirect a small asteroid that actually was going to impact Earth.  That could become more critical in a few.

It probably has more value being left in space, and the minerals we extracted used for things we build in space.  

It probably has more value being left in space, and the minerals we extracted used for things we build in space. 

Well, the concept is to leave it in space, probably at an L5 point, and process materials there and ship them wherever needed.  Maybe precious metals would merit shipping to Earth, but things like iron and cobalt would make more sense being used in space.

The gravity well of earth will always be a challenge to bring anything heavy home. 

All that would be required is some shielding and a bit of retro burn.  It's possible, depending on the bulk of the item.  Getting anything heavy from here up to there is a problem for sure.

Yep. The swamp hires votes.

Drain it.

not sure that is it alone. as ELA stated less than QTR of federal employees actually live in DC. most are overwhelmingly voting Democrat and it's very likely if not probable that their significant others and any children they have vote overwhelmingly Democrat as well. But not sure that would account for 92% of the vote alone. And while DC is roughly 40% black and blacks overwhelming vote Democrat- typically in the 90% range- and that's probably the biggest single part of how you get to 92%- still doesn't explain it all.

DC is honestly just a cesspool. 7 of the 10 richest counties in the US are in the DC area. And no one seems to want to ask themselves how or why that is. There are no major finance, tech, industrial, or manufacturing powerhouses for DC to become a hub of great wealth like say NYC or Bay Area. The only industries it has are lobbyists pushing legislation on politicians, hundreds if not thousands of absolute bullshit NGO's & think tanks which are just public influence peddling schemes or money laundering scams that have been in large part funded with tax payer money, and of course defense contractors- which are wholly reliant on funding from the US government and constantly lobby Congress for endless war and unlimited defense spending. DC actually creates or produces nothing of value to the economy- yet 7 of the 10 wealthiest counties in this country are located in DC area. Weird.

another reason I don't enjoy flying