10/27/2008 PERMALINK
Asteroids can end humankind or make us fabulously rich
On Earth, Mars and our Moon gravity sinks minerals down toward the core with only a small amount close enough to the surface to be recovered. But out in the asteroid belt there are minerals galore, floating around in nice chunks ready for recovery.
Just one asteroid, scientists say, could destroy our species if it smacked into Earth or provide us with recoverable minerals equal to the entire world's annual income -- and there are millions of them out there for the taking.
A few of us are already playing the ultimate cosmic game with the survival of humankind really at stake.
Stay stuck on Earth and an asteroid or something else will eventually kill off our kind, go to the Moon or Mars, still stuck on level 1. But head out to the asteroids, colonize and grow rich enough, and we bump up to level 2, where an entire galaxy can be won if our team plays well enough.
Epsilon Eridan, only 10.5 light-years from our sun, was recently discovered to sport not one but two asteroid belts. Could that be our second big move? Humods are dedicated to making that happen, read our our Open Source Worldview, then start learning about ... Asteroids ... Asteroids ... More space colonization concepts can be found in this gallery of space settlement art ... photo from JPL-Caltech