The Bell Nucleus 2017-2018 BN Jan 2018 Issue | Page 12

term, with the influx of metals driving
carry “100% of their consumables” with
down prices and making them more acces- them anymore because they could create
sible for all.
In addition to holding great poten-
tial for Earth-side benefits, asteroid min-
them as they go.
One of the great barrier impeding
space travel would dissolve into oblivion,
ing could also greatly benefit those few pi- and humanity would be that much closer
oneers out in space itself via a process to no longer having to endure the longing-
known as in situ resource utilization, or ly looking at the stars and reflecting about
ISRU for short, which is the process of ob- what could be, for humanity’s wildest star-
taining, processing, and using materials faring dreams would suddenly be well-
for applications within a mission. This within grasp.
would be incredibly beneficial to space
travel because the harvestable elements
present in these asteroids would provide
the foundation upon which space travel
could sustain itself. For instance, the met-
al obtained from asteroids would serve as
the means of building new/maintaining
ships, and harvested water could sustain
life by providing oxygen and fuel rockets
by using hydrogen as rocket fuel. Thus,
the dilemma articulated by Planetary Re-
sources earlier would finally cease to exist;
space missions would no longer have to
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