What's Weather Prediction Worth?
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One aspect of the space economy tends to get overlooked: weather. Without space, we'd be in trouble.
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Orbital Rush Hour
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It really wasn’t that long ago when the two greatest superpowers were vying to put satellites into space. Now, 50 nations have their own satellites in low Earth orbit. If you’re a Thailand, say, you can call Space Systems/Loral, a Canadian-owned company based in Palo Alto, California, and tell them you want to put a satellite into geostationary orbit for television broadcasting or military communications. You can have the thing in orbit 25,000 miles above Earth within two years.
Read MoreMissing: Audacity
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The good news: current leadership is working on renewing NASA.
The bad news: they’re working without the audacious national mission we need. It’s as if NASA is a boxer training without any fight scheduled.
Read MoreAn Asteroid Made of Platinum
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Someday, perhaps 30 years from now, companies will be grabbing asteroids and exploiting them for mineral extraction. Asteroids contain the same valuable minerals, from gold to platinum, from cobalt to indium, that space showered upon Earth billions of years ago. One sizeable asteroid can hold $20 trillion worth of minerals. On a smaller, more practical scale, Peter Diamandis estimates that a single 100-foot asteroid can contain as much as $50 billion of platinum.
Read MoreThe Best Books on Space
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Here are the ones I recommend (besides The Gravity Well, of course!).
Read MoreWhy Probe the Sun? For One Reason, to Help Predict a Disaster
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Next year, NASA will send up a probe offering further proof that space is anything but empty. The Gravity Well is full of weather, and some of it can be devastating here on Earth.
Read MoreSpace Fact #20: This Movie Could Fund NASA in One Weekend
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The Martian took in more box office receipts on its opening weekend than NASA’s daily budget.
Read MoreWhy Futurists Get Space Wrong
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Space is humbling for everyone, and it offers harsh lessons to everyone attempting to enter the field. Newly formed space companies tend to offer wildly optimistic predictions.
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