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Save the solar system
A group of scientists wants to declare that a large part of the solar system is officially designated "wilderness" in order to protect it from any mining exploitation. As The Guardian According to reports, the proposal calls for more than 85% of the solar system to be protected from human development.
"If we do not think about it now, we will go forward, as usual, and in a few hundred years we will face an extreme crisis, much worse than that that currently reigns on Earth, "said Martin Elvis, principal astrophysicist Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and senior author, said The Guardian. "Once you have operated the solar system, there is no where to go."
Iron horse
The research will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Acta Astronautica.
This suggests that we could use up to one-eighth of the solar system's iron supply – the "wireframe" threshold proposed by researchers, after which we run the risk of running out of space resources indefinitely – in just 400 years.
Asteroid farmer
Many private companies have suggested that the exploitation of space could promote human progress in space while generating huge profits. For example, the American mining company Planetary Resources is already planning to look for "critical water resources needed for human expansion into space," according to its website.
And the next generation of human explorers will certainly be swept away by the great promise of space resources. The Colorado School of Mines has begun to propose a PhD program focused on "Exploration, extraction and use of [space] Resources."
Gold rush
What is less clear is that humanity has learned its lesson here on Earth.
"If all goes well, we could send our first mining missions in space 10 years from now," Elvis said. The Guardian. "Once this starts and someone else makes a huge profit, there will be the equivalent of a gold rush." We must take it seriously. "
READ MORE: Protecting the solar system against mining the Gold Rush[[[[The Guardian]
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